Thursday, November 29, 2007
documenting
i watched 'control room' last night--the documentary about al jazeera.
i thought it was totally great. i learned a lot, and i gained some new perspective on the war. i'd say this is the best piece of filmmaking i've seen yet about the situation in iraq, in terms of what it brought to light and what it focused on (more myth dispellation, more philosophy, less bush-bashing).
more importantly: i feel like this is the first documentary i've seen in a while that's held my interest, kept me engaged, and had enough substance to ACTUALLY FILL the whole running time of the movie.
i'm quite tired of documentaries that consist of two hours of point reiteration and visual fluff. i'm equally tired of progressive tirades that preach to the choir. (and omg i am REALLY tired of conspiracy theory. bleah.) i'm glad they're being made, i guess, but i sure hope they're being shown to some people out there who actually need long lectures on how things are all f'd up in corporate america.
examples rolling around in my head--none of which i actually think are *bad* films or anything--include:
'the corporation',
'who killed the electric car',
'fahrenheit 9/11',
'maxed out',
'outfoxed',
'an inconvenient truth',
and even 'what would jesus buy'.
all of these were useful to me, but i generally could've stopped watching any of them after 20-30 minutes and gotten the same results as if i'd watched the whole length. (ahem, confession: i couldn't even get through 45 minutes of fahrenheit 9/11. michael moore's pompous, flamboyant ass was pissing me off. i promise i'll try again soon.)
so. hooray for 'control room'! it was really well done. and look--it was so tight and cohesive, it didn't even need a narrator! *gasp!* nor did it have gratuituous pans across cultural wastelands of any sort! amazing!
in conclusion: tighten that shit up, filmmakers. i want to support these efforts, but i want to be NOT BORED and i want to feel like i'm being educated the whole time, not just for the first 10 minutes.
i thought it was totally great. i learned a lot, and i gained some new perspective on the war. i'd say this is the best piece of filmmaking i've seen yet about the situation in iraq, in terms of what it brought to light and what it focused on (more myth dispellation, more philosophy, less bush-bashing).
more importantly: i feel like this is the first documentary i've seen in a while that's held my interest, kept me engaged, and had enough substance to ACTUALLY FILL the whole running time of the movie.
i'm quite tired of documentaries that consist of two hours of point reiteration and visual fluff. i'm equally tired of progressive tirades that preach to the choir. (and omg i am REALLY tired of conspiracy theory. bleah.) i'm glad they're being made, i guess, but i sure hope they're being shown to some people out there who actually need long lectures on how things are all f'd up in corporate america.
examples rolling around in my head--none of which i actually think are *bad* films or anything--include:
'the corporation',
'who killed the electric car',
'fahrenheit 9/11',
'maxed out',
'outfoxed',
'an inconvenient truth',
and even 'what would jesus buy'.
all of these were useful to me, but i generally could've stopped watching any of them after 20-30 minutes and gotten the same results as if i'd watched the whole length. (ahem, confession: i couldn't even get through 45 minutes of fahrenheit 9/11. michael moore's pompous, flamboyant ass was pissing me off. i promise i'll try again soon.)
so. hooray for 'control room'! it was really well done. and look--it was so tight and cohesive, it didn't even need a narrator! *gasp!* nor did it have gratuituous pans across cultural wastelands of any sort! amazing!
in conclusion: tighten that shit up, filmmakers. i want to support these efforts, but i want to be NOT BORED and i want to feel like i'm being educated the whole time, not just for the first 10 minutes.
# posted by orange @ 10:59 AM 
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good to know. i've avoided renting this one because i didn't want to be bored to death like i was watching one of those horrid war films on the history channel and/or be preached to again michael moore-style. i'll put it in the queue now.
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