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neilpollock
Reviews
Harlan County U.S.A. (1976)
My favorite film
After voting for almost 1000 films in the Internet Movie Database I rate Harlan County USA as the best film I've ever seen. I think that means that it moved me more than any other. I've seen it four times but not for many years.
Last night I watched the made for TV Harlan County War, but switched the video off half way through. It didn't add anything to the original documentary which also covered this long strike at the Brookside mine in 1973. In fact the dramatisation made the unfolding events of the strike look somewhat predictable and cliched - playing out with similarities to Norma Rae.
In Barbara Kopple's film I was horrified that the strike was over something we here take for granted in Australia - the simple right for the workforce at a place of employment to be represented by a labor union. The hypocrisy of the US government's persistent claim that the nation is a leader in democratic rights was never been made so apparent (except perhaps in Salt of the Earth)
What's so great about Harlan County USA?
* The clarity of the portrayal of the grotesque power of monopoly capital
* The way Koppel and crew are right in there, every day, every night - totally committed to the struggle, not just observers They're not your back to the city at 5pm chroniclers - they're in there for the long haul.
* The way that representatives of Duke Power so eloquently state their sheer nastiness and lack of basic humanity
* The evocative portrayal of the tensions amongst the strikers and the ebbs and flows of enthusiasm, optimism, despair, pessimism, solidarity, and opportunism.
* The way it captures the dimension of violence in US labor relations - in the land of the gun.
* The emergence of stong women and the pivotal role they played.
* The haunting music of Hazel Dickens.
* The moving songs of black-lung affected Nimrod Workman.
* The dramatic juxtaposition of the beauty of the woods and hollows and the grinding poverty and deplorable living conditions.
* The broader chronicling of the conditions in the "Other America".
* The trip to New York to put their case and a great conversation between a Kentucky miner and a police officer.
Above all this is a film that can inspire the powerless to take on the mighty - because working people do have tremendous bargaining power, if they stay resilient and united.
American History X (1998)
Just another buddy film
I was expecting an intelligent analysis of the sociology of racism amongst urban whites in the USA. I thought that I would gain new insight into the mind set of extremists.
But I got a whole load of standard liberal Hollywood hocum, wrapped in the familiar buddy scenario. With the exception of our brilliant and dangerous hero (played by Edward Norton) and his little brother, the neo-nazis are just a bunch of ugly simpletons. Their shadowy leader, Cam, played by Stacey Keach is .. ho hum.. another one dimensional figure of total nastiness. Dr Evil without a sense of humour.
In total contrast there is the black Mr Novak on the 90's - Dr Sweeney from the local high school. The nicest, wisest, most one dimensional guy you could every meet - and perhaps the most boring. Avery Brooks acts so badly in this roll I hope I never see him on screen again.
And Elliot Gould is resurrected for some reason as a Jewish love interest that the film just didn't need. Yikes!
Of course, the protagonist's white extremist friends betray him in jail and he is beguiled, and later protected, by a charming young black guy who makes him laugh.
Funny that a film about racism succeeds in making everything black and white. We all know that truth is dominated by shades of grey. But unfortunately it's difficult to make a good story out of the greys.
The message is - hating is a waste of time because it doesn't make your life any better. Yes, it's that deep.
It think this flick would have sunk at the box office if it wasn't for the tremendous screen presence of Edward Norton.
If you liked this you probably will like Colors, Higher Learning and Falling Down. All dismal attempts to provide context and understanding of American racism.
I don't think that Hollywood has added understanding since The Ox-Bow Incident (in the 40s), Bad Day At Black Rock (in the 50s) and In The Heat of The Night (in the 60's).
Das Boot (1981)
Claustrophobic
There have been many good films examining the useless and barbaric reality of war. For Cannon Fodder 101 I recommend Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory and Full Metal Jacket, as well as The Thin Red Line, Gallipoli, the first 30 minutes of Saving Private Ryan, as well as the epic television series by Ken Burns on the American Civil War and the BBC series on The Great War. Add Dr Strangelove for some light relief.
Having just seen Das Boot in 2001 on DVD, I'm very pleased to add it to the list. What makes this a very good film is: * The depiction of warfare as composing of long periods of boredom and anxiety followed by short bursts of terrifying action. The Thin Red Line presented similar imagery. * Its reluctance to show people as heroes. The U-boat crew were well disciplined professionals rather than the individualist risk takers who are so boringly strutted out by Hollywood studios (refer Saving Private Ryan). * Evocation of the claustrophobic world of the submarine which those "up periscope" movies of my youth never captured. [I once started to tour a sub. in Sydney Harbour and just couldn't handle the claustrophobic conditions]. * Attention to the fact that war is a time of rapid technological change. The U-boat war was being lost because the British has developed technologies to better track and destroy them.
The film worked well with senses. I felt I could almost smell the stench of men living in such close proximity; could appreciate the slow asphyxiation of men stalled on the bottom of the sea; the cold wetness of the North Atlantic; the amplification of sound under water; and the limitation of vision from a submarine; the pressure of water on metal at untested depths.
It was also good to see Germans as Germans, rather than Nazis.
That said I found the ending disappointing (I saw the Director's cut). The final two events stretched credulity. However I understand the book is based on true events. Perhaps this is a case of truth being stranger than fiction.
I read somewhere that 75% of the U-boat men never returned. This movie shows why.
Cast Away (2000)
Wasted
I was hoping that this would be less than Hollywood as it's usual sentimental. However the title is Cast Away rather than Castaway - thus indicating a sentimental ending before the movie begins.
There were efforts made to explore the psychology of aloneness and hopelessness of the desert island outcast. But it pulled back to the superficial - fire, hunting, physical sickness, imaginary friend.
Thankfully it all felt real enough and it showed plenty of determination and despair - but it failed to really get into the traumatised mind of someone is that position.
I was hoping that: 1. Reality prevails and our protagonist dies (he could have just dived off one of those cliffs - once his hanging test had failed),....and in the event that the does get rescued.. 2. That he goes through that sort of transformation so aptly portrayed by Jeff Bridges in Fearless.
No such luck.
A reasonable film - but one easily forgotten.
Dancer in the Dark (2000)
Is this acting or being?
What an incredible experience.
The plot oozed incredulity.
Bjork's accent could best be called Scando-Cockney - they must find it amusing in Prague. Catherine Deneuve as a immigrant factory worker seems like a monumentally foolish casting decision. The small roomed, wood panelled interiors seemed European rather than American. The script was more melodramatic than a Bollywood epic.
Not withstanding this, I was moved by this film more than just about any other - perhaps an impact comparable to The Piano, Schindler's List, and One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest. I became totally entranced by Bjork's Selma. I've rarely seen a protagonist's torment transmitted so effectively on screen. The final scenes are harrowing and totally unforgettable.
Bjork is an original. There's no-one (that I'm aware of) who could be said to be similar to her - in musical style, personality, or looks.
At first I was distracted by persona of the Bjork we know from the music world. And there were times, especially early in the film, when she seemed to be just mouthing the words - like a musician who didn't know much about acting would. But as it rolled on and the intensity of the character builds, Bjork seems to utterly revel in the portrayal. I got the impression that Bjork the person has become totally the Selma character - fusing to generate an on screen force even greater than the on stage impact of Bjork the musician.
If you haven't been taught to act - maybe you just be that person.
The musical fantasy interludes seemed stylistically reminiscent of Indian "masala" movies (although the music was strictly Bjork). These interludes allowed us to escape with Selma from her current predicament. I definitely welcomed them as a brief respite from the intensity of the situation I was watching. Each three minutes of musical allowed me to catch breath, reflect and prepare for the further challenges our heroine will face.
What I also liked about Dancer in the Dark was its politics. While set in the late 1950s (that's my guess), the issues raised should resonate even more clearly today in the US - the failure of the society to support adequate medical or legal services for the poor and the utter barbarity of the American solution to serious crime.
The point is that the Dream that immigrants place their hopes in can so easily become the American Nightmare.