At the Movies












Andy Garcia's The Lost City, an homage to his native Cuba during the revolutionary late-1950s is Dr. Zhivago -- a (very, very) long historical epic in which families and friendships are torn by a revolution -- meets Casablanca -- a non-political/anti-hero figure who also happens to own a night-club (played by Garacia), who falls in love with the wife of a political hero and is forced to take a stand and fight -- meets The Year of living Dangerously -- -- political drama taking place in a third world country engulfed by intrigues, coups, assassinations, etc. -- meets The Godfather II -- a movie about gangsters in Havana in the 1950's with a Meir Lansky character (played here by Dustin Hoffman) -- meets Cabaret -- yes, there is a cabaret and great musical numbers and all that decadence about to be swept away by violence and the rise of evil. Evil like in Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.And it's refreshing to watch a movie that doesn't romansticize these two despicable characters, although I thought that Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls was a more powerful indictment of the tyranny of the Cuban communist state. I'll give Andy Garcia a Big A for trying and for the great Cuban music and dance (I'll probably get the soundtrack) and I certainly admire his politics as far as Cuba is concerned. But I didn't like the movie with its cardboard characters -- each one is supposed to "represent" something and to give long speeches. It's all very tedious and very superficial. Now.. if you want to see a smart and entertaining movie that takes place against the backdrop of historical change, I recommend Wah-Wahabout coming of age in colonial Swaziland. A real gem! And if you can stomach long scenes in which ugly and smelly (I swear I could smell) men with dirty beards and bad teeth butchering each other, you should see The Proposition:.
This well-crafted, original take on the Western genre set in the sweaty, dusty Outback of Queensland, Australia in the 1880’s, pits British colonial lawmen against white outlaws and renegade Aborigines.(read this review that gets it)
John Hurt is marvelous as a bounty-hunter who quotes Darwin. The major theme: We need to break the cycles of violence. The Aborigines in this film are not idealized like in many other Australian movies. They just look as disgusting as everyone else.

Comments

Anonymous said…
The admiration for 'Che' that you sometimes hear and see among so-called liberal is really pretty funny - The admiration is based almost totally on ignorance of facts and veneration of image. So it's funny because many liberals like to think of themselves as educated and informed and often they scorn those who embrace religious imagery - Then, in a complete lack of self-awareness, they think there is nothing odd about embracing the image of 'Che,' a man who would have nothing but violent hatred for them and their ilk. But what are you gonna do - You jusy have to laugh - especially if your work day places you in an area where that kind of smug foolishness is standard.
5:22 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pundits who screw-up: No big deal...

Image
Matt Barganier desconstructs Andrew Sullivan's mea sorta culpa on Iraq in Time magazine (Sullivan seen above in a thoughtful pose on Bill Maher's "Real Time"). There have been many of those in recent weeks (including by WFB and Fukuyama ). In an commentary published last year, Oops! I helped start a War which was about one of the earlier apologizing-war-aplogists, I pointed out to the contrast between the way the losers who operate in the market (including financial analysts) are punished and the reality in which the losers in the political game (including foreign policy analysts) rarely get punished: Imagine: for a few years you were investing the money you had saved for your daughter's college education in one of those moderately conservative plans that provided some increase in the value of the investment without exposing it to major risks. But then your financial planner – let's call him Ken P. – got in touch with you and came up with a really great ide...
Read more

When will Israel attack Iran?

Image
I'm not an "Intelligence analyst" and I don't play one on television. But I urge you to study the following items: 1. Seymour Hersh new piece in The New Yorker, "The Next Act: Is a damaged Administration less likely to attack Iran, or more?" 2. Tony Karon's "Israel's Domestic Political Games Raises the Danger of a U.S.-Iran War." 3. Aluf Benn's "Olmert's Drums of War" in Haaretz . 4. Bush:I would understand if Israel chose to attack Iran. 5. Michael Oren's op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal on November 16 which is only accessible to subscribers. So here are a few interesting quotes: Much like 1967, Israel faces a Middle Eastern leader who has repeatedly sworn to wipe it off the map, and to that end is assiduously trying to acquire nuclear weapons. Like Nasser, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can cripple Israel economically by keeping it in a state of alert, driving away foreign investment and tourism. In the absence of interna...
Read more