qwerty-12

I really don't know what to think of this movie. I would say that, after the first 30 minutes I was ready to dismiss it. I don't think it's inability to pick a genre is a virtue (though I think it could have been). I also think the film comes off way too much like a propaganda film for the People's Republic. It seems to suggest that the "Rape of Nanking" was some kind of secret. Well, for whatever reason, I knew about it already, and so I thought that attitude was rather odd. Another random thing: that introduction is bizarre. There must have been 30-40 cuts in 90 seconds. That's just insane. It didn't work in my mind. But anyway, the director has more balls than any American or even just any mainstream filmmaker would in depicting the atrocities. Though an atrocity doesn't automatically make a good film, I still find this attempt at truly conveying the horror commendable. And further, there is no imposed happy ending, unlike western films that try to deal with these things. For that, I think I can forgive the stylistic difficulties.

I guess it's a testament to our need, as human beings, to feel or believe that we are in the right, that so many people think this movie somehow proves something about the events of September 11th, or that this movie is blowing holes in the official explanation. Certainly, any government investigation (especially one that concerns 'national security') is going to have holes. This may be something we just have to deal with. But at least it's grounded in reality. This movie is...well, preposterous. The vast majority of claims in the film are untrue. I know the reaction to that kind of statement, people immediately say, "how do you know that?" Well, one can set about finding these things. And people have. People have basically completely debunked this film. Just regular people. People without agendas related to a cover-up. They looked at the information that was available to the public and the filmmakers themselves and they saw what the filmmakers didn't see or chose not to see, or deliberately left out of their film. Perhaps (off the top of my head), there is one thing the film gets right: the Bush administration exploited these events. There is no denying that. But everything else is just a series of provocative comments, pictures, and tidbits, edited together to a imply some kind of interconnectedness, with a voice-over that attempts to appeal to us as reasonable people, posing as some kind of actual investigation. If you think that this movie has it right, you should do your own research. You will find that the claims in this film are false.

My god, I'm not sure there will ever be another Ron Lewis. What a fantastic character! When I first saw this movie I thought it was one of the worst I had ever seen. Now I realize that there are lots like this but this one is actually special. Does Ron Lewis ever even move while he's having sex!?! Incredible!