This film is ugly, in the brutality it shows but also in the ugliness of modern cinema that it is. Gratuitous, shallow, willfully stupid. It is in parallel with its topic.
Thanks for sitting us through non stop (well apart from the boring slow bits) human ugliness, no really, thanks, that's really helpful.
The stupid - a 13 year old runs around in a war zone like it's a holiday camp with her manual wind film camera loaded with 36 shot film at best. Snapping away single shot frames of brutality like it's the most important thing in the world. Like video doesn't exist. Never once do you see her have to sit down and load in a new film while the bullets fly, no head protection in the worst of the battle scene, and the soldiers who are taking it left right and center put themselves at risk to usher 3!!!! War tourists through the mayhem. And of course she does something stupid which gets someone else killed cos modern film makers think that's a plot point we enjoy. Watching stupid people doing stupid things, cos they think we're stupid.
Ultimately this film is stupid because it feeds us worn out tropes. It's a vacuous video game with shallow predictable characters we've seen in a hundred other films. They weren't interesting in 99 of those films either.
The Ugly - The America this portrays. One of uncaring violence and brutality. Where war is normal and acceptable behaviour. It's part of the culture, part of the ecosystem, it's business and good for business.
The Ugly - This film, which feeds us this ugly narrative like it's normal. Like we should accept it. Brutality is entertainment. Having nothing to say, nothing to offer is fine so long as you frame it well, get the thrilling sfx and action in there. It doesn't matter that you've got nothing positive to say, just fill the screen.
The missed opportunity. To say something about the America of today that is massively divided. Not one note of insight into that, into real people.
What we got is a film about cold and heartless war photographers, who let's face it, don't even exist any more. No one cares about still images. There's no print media left. No one cares about what drives these people, not that we were given any insights into why real humans do what the central characters do. They were cartoons. Cutouts, place holders. They said the cliche line of "I've never felt more alive", which was a wtf moment in itself. Sorry what? You've never felt more alive than when getting in the way of soldiers killing each other and watching humans die in front of you from gory hideous wounds? You need to get another hobby quickly. Better still go and see a doctor. I don't know what to do with this message. What did the film maker want us to think? That these idiots were cool? That their efforts were noble? I'm not dissing real war photographers who document war, but turning it into the art of framing and lighting is just revolting, and that's not what real journalists should be doing.
Stop making these stupid, voyeuristic films. You're not helping your country heal itself or become rational valid human beings.
America, stop being war and violence crazy psychopaths. Stop consuming this lie of normality.
Killing isn't normal.
Brutality isn't normal.
It's not entertainment.
Wake up from the hallucination, this well framed, lit, directed and shot beautiful lie, and realise you're being conned by the entertainment industry, and it's doing you harm.
On top of that this film was decidedly average when you take away all the lovingly crafted war games. It didn't have anything to say.
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