American History X (1998) March 9, 2007
Posted by gproject in : Recently Viewed , 3 commentsDirected by: Tony Kaye
One of the most powerful movies of the 90’s, this violent drama tells the story of white supremacists in Venice Beach. On release from prison, Derek Vinyard has put his neo-nazi skinhead days behind him. But while he has been away his younger brother Danny has only fallen deeper into the gang, idolizing Derek’s ringleader days and hoping to impress him. Derek must make Danny understand the respect he has learned, before his brother becomes consumed by the hatred that ruined his life.
I had heard a lot about this film before I watched it for the first time about five years ago. It didn’t seem like my kind of thing, so naturally I was expecting a disappointment, as is so often the case when a movie gets built up in advance of the first viewing. I don’t think I’ve ever been so wrong - it blew me away, and continues to do so on repeated occasions.
It’s a deeply sad movie in many ways and, despite the lessons it tries to teach, the film doesn’t shy away from the reality that hatred continues even as a person’s circumstances change. Edward Norton gives a stunning performance as the reformed ‘leader of the pack’, playing both sides of his character with great skill. Edward Furlong is also fantastic as the brother who tries to follow in Derek’s footsteps. Even the supporting cast including Beverly D’Angelo, Avery Brooks, Ethan Suplee and Elliott Gould, simply serve to continue the high standard of acting on display.
The film is shot in an interesting style with the simple but effective use of black and white to separate events in the past from those in the present. It’s also undeniably brutal at times, but that’s part of the power of the film – to mix unashamed violence and racism with a story about family and tolerance. Even though it deserves its 18 certificate (a US ‘R’ rating), there are messages throughout that are applicable to all ages.
For what is a very simple story, the filmmakers have opted to utilise a slightly strange narrative structure, moving from the use of elongated flashbacks, to setting a large section of the film in the past. Written with equal flair and compassion, the dialogue is as strong as the rest of the picture, and the script is well structured to avoid confusion during the numerous flashbacks. The real greatness however, comes from the fact that the story never stops throwing curve balls, right up until the finale.
There aren’t many other ways to say it; American History X is a wonderful film. Expertly written, beautifully shot, and with perfect performances that bring the whole thing to life. I don’t throw the word masterpiece around lightly, but this film just can’t avoid that kind of reaction. It’s strange because the final product is much less life affirming or uplifting than the ‘error of your ways’ storyline would first suggest - but that’s not to say that there aren’t important lessons to be learned here. And while it can be a hard movie to watch, it’s even harder to forget.
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (2005) March 4, 2007
Posted by gproject in : Recently Viewed , 1 comment so farDirected by: Robert Greenwald
With only a limited theatrical release, this documentary was never going to hit the popular heights of Michael Moore’s documentaries for example. Maybe that’s a good thing as his films are often heavily biased; a blatant truth whether you agree with him or not. Unfortunately, this particular piece shares that vice, going all out for the 95-minute running time to prove its central point:
Wal-Mart is evil.
So much so in fact, that cumulatively it’s less of a documentary and more of a checklist of all the bad things Wal-Mart does to its employees and the communities it enters. Ruining small businesses? Check. Underpaying workers? Check. Exploiting third world factories, providing terrible benefits, forcing unpaid overtime? Triple check. It even covers how the company flouts environmental regulations, grabs at government subsidies, provides terrible shopper security, and gives nothing back to charitable causes.
So, a veritable corporate demon it would seem and particularly interesting to learn some of the ways the company goes about protecting itself, especially the almost military-like procedure they have for crushing any potential union formation. The documentary also gets to make use of numerous actual Wal-Mart commercials to contrast how the company projects itself, as opposed to what actually goes on. The interview subjects are extremely well selected, talking to a vast range of people from ex-managers to current and past employees, activists, politicians and local store owners.
The ‘hope’, if you will, comes during the last ten minutes when we learn how local people in many US locations have managed to stand up against the company and stop the building of a store in their area. Of course, it’s slightly bittersweet since the company already owns so many locations and continues to grow every year. There’s also a strange contradiction here in the way the movie spends almost an hour and a half telling us why Wal-Mart is in such a strong position, before turning round and encouraging the viewer to try and force a change. If the information in the film holds true, we haven’t got a chance.
As already mentioned, this is a very one-sided piece of work and clearly a film made with a motive. I usually prefer documentaries to have at least one continuous thread running through them that links everything together. This film however, opts to just introduce new topics one after the other without much connection, giving it a slightly disjointed feel at times. The heavy-handed nature and editing that ranges from acceptable, to quite distracting (suddenly flipping the shot in the middle of an interview - why?), only diminishes the points made further.
Not the most professional documentary then, but this probably has something to do with the message being more important than the presentation. And I’m not trying to say that the points made aren’t important, or worth fighting for – I’m sure that they are. Just that as a film, I was constantly noticing the biased shortcomings in what would’ve otherwise been a convincing and thought-provoking dissection of a corporate giant.
