laszlo-05700

Seeing El Topo at height of the sexual revolution must have been an incredible experience. I can see why this is a cult movie for a generation and I can't fault them for it. It has everything that was popular at that time and everything at square. It doesn't shy away from critizing society for their Biblical sins and that part still stands half a century later.

On the other hand, while calling something an art movie might be a good excuse for a lot of plot holes and rawness, it is not an excuse for making a movie where you are the director, writer, producer and you cast yourself for the character of the Western Jesus. Jodorkowsky is a phenomenal thinker, but his crazy ideas badly lacked a counterweight - someone who could've advised him about what works in cinema and what does not.

So unfortunately it's another example that drugs actually do not make art any better.

Guy Ritchie is a director known for badass gangster movies, so picking a war hero story - and even labeling it as his own - was kind of a risky move. It didn't go completely bad like when he produced a CGI-filled weird King Arthur remake, but it still misses the mark in storytelling.

Ritchie mastered gun-filled action scenes and the crew seems to have done the homework in military strategy as well - in these terms the cinematographic execution sets a high score. It's not trying to be extremely realistic, but rather the cuts set an enjoyable fast-tempo when necessary and pause in just the right pace when drama ensues.

However, The Covenant fails by idolizing the main characters and military service - it's the complete opposite of Jake Gylenhall's first war movie, Jarhead. A good war movie doesn't necessarily needs to be critical of war, but should drop more hints that the characters work in an obedience-based system which has limits compared to the viewer's civilian world. The Covenant instead paints a fairy tale picture where soldiers are best buddies and cool guys don't look at explosions. This works in other Guy Ritchie movies, but is somewhat ridicolous in an Afghanistan conflict setting.

Overall, I think The Covenant is a must-watch movie for Guy Ritchie-fans, but depending on your attitude or affiliation towards the military, you may find it either entertaining or far too dishonest to be a legit war movie.

If you are looking for a good documentary on the psychological, medical roots of the burnout syndrome...well, this is not it.

Rather it's one of those capitalism-crticiques that are produced by the dozen and in which philosophers and economists end up discussing things like basic income. Which is fine, Zeitgeist.and it's predecessors inspired a whole generation of creatives, but if a crew sets out to produce yet another Zeitgeist it shoiuld at least try to introduce something new to the concept.

Truth to be told (pun intended) the.docu occasionally gravitaves back to the topic and possible causes of burnout for a few seconds, but pretty much accepts it's own preconceptions without any room for debate that the system is flawed and only interviews people with the exact same opinion.