April
6
Scorsese's Stones Love; Stop-Loss and Iraq Movies
Martin Scorsese has always used Rolling Stones songs in his films, so it made sense he would jump with both feet into the Stones concert documentary Shine A Light. This story goes back through Scorsese's oeuvre, Stones chapter and verse. UPDATE: Time's Richard Corliss explores Scorsese's love affair with docs and rock docs.
I particularly like this David Edelstein Shine a Light review. Edelstein also reviews Kimberly Peirce's Stop-Loss, a movie I liked with reservations. She's a gifted, sensitive and compelling director; the movie is impeccably cast with some of the most riveting young actors working today. I cried at the tragedy of the trap these characters are in. UPDATE: Norman Lear reviews Stop-Loss.
Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, who jumps for joy that the movie tanked, must not have seen it. Stop-Loss is 100 % on the side of the soldiers, even if it is critical of the government's "Stop-Loss" policies. (Mark Cuban and O'Reilly are having an ongoing battle over Iraq movies.)
But on one level O'Reilly has a point. As producer Jim Jacks (The Mummy) keeps saying, many of these Iraq movies are about victims, when audiences want active heroes, a competent military they can root for and believe in, even if our Iraq policy is a disaster. Peter Berg's The Kingdom was heading in that direction, but it was a complex FBI mystery thriller set in an unfocused past and it failed to resonate with people.
One of these Middle East movies will eventually hit the zeitgeist right. Most of them are victims of bad timing, really. While an ugly movie like Redacted was never going to find a following, most of these filmmakers were telling stories audiences just weren't ready to hear. It will be interesting to see what happens to Berg's upcoming Marcus Luttrell Navy Seal Afghanistan survivor story (if it ever gets made). For the moment Berg is going with a remake of the sc-fi fantasy Dune.
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I'm taking a guess that Paul Greengrass' The Green Zone with Matt Damon, which is now shooting, could be that film that will resonate with public. From what I've read it about it sounds exactly like that sort of active heroes, pro-military film that audiences are waiting for
The Kingdom could have been that film, but was it just me or was the film just plain boring except for the opening credit title sequence and the last kick-ass 40 minutes which was the best action sequence I had seen in a year all year. If the entire film had that kind of edge it really would have been something. (I'm also very interested in Ridley Scott's Body of Lies coming out in October. Though techically it's not set in Iraq but in Jordan, it sounds promising)
To be honest I have no interest at all in seeing Stop-Loss. The idea of a soldier who goes AWOL as the hero bothers me. I don't care how sympathetic the film makes him, it still sounds like cowardice to me. Besides, anybody who volunteers for the active service in the military knows that once you're in, they own you body and soul and can do whatever they want with you for as long as they want. If you don't like those rules then don't sign up. Also no soldier is informed that his leave from the active service is revoked when his original tour of duty is finished as it is in the film. They're always informed of their extended stay in service months in advance before their original tour is finished. The scene is the movie where Ryan Phillippe is told that his tour has been extended without his knowledge when he's turning in his final paprs and uniforms is a crude, unrealistic cheap ploy to get the audience to root for the main character. I have friends who have relatives who have been stop-lossed and they tell me that the film is completely phony in the regard.
Posted by: Sergio | April 06, 2008 at 10:04 PM
Holy crap I wanna watch that Stones film.
Posted by: Coquito Von Tito | April 07, 2008 at 11:25 PM
Sergio, you nailed it. Amen.
Also, The Kingdom had it made until the final statements were uttered. Moral equivalency is a lie, one that the anti-war crowd tries to pawn off like the serpent in the garden. This nauseating sentiment fused with the rest of the misinformation peddled on the news and from the liberal left is at the crux of why the so-called Iraq films lose money.
Posted by: Nicole | April 08, 2008 at 03:16 PM