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Remember – Sunday 10/11/13

Tweet    Remember We owe a debt to those who risk and sometimes give their lives to protect us and we must discharge it But to celebrate with equal circumstance those who simply kill in our name corrupts true gallantry And when we know as sadly know we do that corrupting souls assassins makes we […]

War – the ‘Lethal Custom’ E.O.D, I.E.D.s

Tweet The Hurt Locker – Kathryn Bigelow Maybe my last war film: willingly seen. As a reviewer I guess I may need to go to future war movies: but I am weary of them. It has all been said. War is a hell that offers the ultimate challenge to a certain concept of courage – […]

Gomorra – death as the price of a life you choose

Tweet Gommora – Matteo Garrone Thomas Hobbes, 16th Century English philosopher once described human life without government, state authority, as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” Garrone’s award-winning film occupies a Hobbesian world: neither his Direction nor Maurizio Braucchi’s screenplay, based upon Roberto Saviano’s whistle-blowing book Gomorra (2006), make any attempt at a coherent narrative […]

The Kingdom – Desert Foxx: but Jamie ain’t no Rommel

Tweet The Kingdom – Peter Berg It’s the sub-text that sucks. On a superficial level this is just an averagely competent action movie with performances better than it deserves. The only difference is the Saudi Arabian setting of the title. The film opens with a well choreographed, strongly edited, only-too-real atrocity committed in one of […]

Syriana – straw men burn too easily, lets the bad guys go free

Tweet Syriana – Stephen Gaghan Pascal’s wager: we can’t know whether God exists so we should weigh the benefits of belief. If we assume He does exist and act virtuously, then even if He doesn’t we have lost nothing. However if we assume He doesn’t and act badly then eternal punishment is the penalty. For […]

If There Is No Eden – Afghanistan, Iraq and other madness

Tweet For those without religious belief who gave their lives and those who mourn them. If There Is No Eden If there is no Eden no paradise to be where shall rest the solace that sets our grieving free No hymns of praise console us still less serried bands the pomp and circumstance of mourning […]

Jarhead – do anti-war films just glorify it more?

Tweet Jarhead – Sam Mendes (BBC Prize-winning Review) Paradox: we regard $80 million dollars (say) to recreate the horrors of war in a fictional setting as morally acceptable but would be outraged if the same scenes were shown from actual footage shot in reality. Worse in a way, we accept millions of dollars as a […]

Hearts and Minds – you can’t bomb an idea

TweetHearts and Minds Hearts and minds, hearts and minds if we can break their grieving hearts and make them lose their anguished minds and set dismembered bodies free in pious hope we think they will salute our victory. Hearts and minds, hearts and minds a nation born in genocide with self-regarding destiny in breach of […]

Fahrenheit 9/11 – Not in our name

Tweet Farenheit 9/11 – Michael Moore Fahrenheit is a devastating, important film. It is passionate, partisan and manipulative; at times queasily so. But Moore knows his business: his treatment of the events of 9/11 is masterly; restricting himself to black screen for the impacts, then concentrating on human reactions. This way he evokes images indelibly […]