4 - Munich Review

During one sequence of Stephen Spielberg’s Munich, an Israeli assassination squad storms a building where three Palestinian terrorists live. The first is killed with no problem. The second man’s wife must be pulled out of the way before being shot. By the time they get to the third, they must riddle both the terrorist and his wife with machine gun fire.

The unavoidable death of civilians during a war fought over political and religious ideologies becomes one of Munich’s more poignant themes. The Israeli assassins who we follow throughout the film are ordered to avoid civilian causalities, an all but impossible task. Before long they don’t even try very hard to do so.

With Munich Spielberg has produced arguably his greatest work, filled with sadness and bitter frustration towards not just the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, but towards all wars of ideology, where defeat for all is inevitable. What to do when attacked? Is killing wrong if it is in retaliation? When does it all end? Spielberg pointedly refuses to take sides, asking all of the hard questions but harshly reflecting the lack of any answers.

It follows Israeli assassins who are sent to avenge the deaths of eleven athletes at the hands of Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Munich Olympics. The leader of the group is Avner, an intelligence agent and excellent chef who serves as the film’s moral compass. The rest of his team includes four other men, with skills at documents, bomb making, and other talents useful for assassination. They relentlessly seek out his eleven assigned targets, killing them without mercy but questioning the long-term effectiveness of all the bloodshed. Spielberg, arguably the greatest action director living today, makes each attack both exciting and terrifying at once, with bullets and bombs going off in all directions, with their gruesome effects on the human body front and center.

The men debate the morality of what they are doing; every time they kill a man, someone else eagerly takes his place. Yet, does that mean they shouldn’t strike back at the people who attacked them? One of the film’s best scenes occurs when the group accidentally winds up having to share a safe house with a group of Palestinian terrorists. The leaders of each group stay up late, debating their points of view. The Palestinian leader, passionately argues that Israel has killed thousands of his people, and that no matter what happens, they will fight to the end. He believes this as much, if not more, than what Avner believes. At this point Avner seems to grasp the futile, endless nature of the conflict, where both sides will tear each other apart until there is no humanity left.

Munich’s insistence on seeing all involved as human has not surprisingly infuriated both groups. They miss Spielberg’s point; by humanizing both sides of the conflict, the truly horrific nature of the war becomes clear. No side is entirely at fault or without it, but in the name of striking back for previous actions, the bloodshed continues, and it is always the innocent people who will suffer the most.

The film’s final shot is breath taking in its suggestion that what has just been shown to us is not a local problem, but a world wide one. After 9/11, the entire planet has become a battleground in this conflict, with no likely end during our lifetimes. Munich masterfully walks the line between pulse-pounding spy-thriller and serious issue drama, proving that Spielberg can still be one of the best auteurs out there while earning a well-deserved place as one of the most important films ever made. Long after 2005’s Best Picture winner is forgotten, Munich will still be fresh in our consciousness’.

5 out of 5

3 - Brokeback Mountain

I had sworn that I wouldn't see Brokeback Mountain, but after the Golden Globes, Cawelti asking everyone if they had seen it and no one raising their hands, debates about it in the media, etc, I broke down (har har) and went to see it. By myself. What a thrill that was, seeing the much hyped gay-themed movie alone. Anyways, here is my review:

During the first twenty minutes or so of Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, we are introduced to Ennis and Jack, two cowboys who are watching over sheep in Wyoming. Ennis is a sulky, quiet redneck type who is right at home being a cowboy. Jack is bright eyed and chatty, and seems like he would have been better off growing up in the city. The two men watch over the sheep, hunt, and get to know each other. The film plays these scenes in a straightforward, simple manner, and if not for the massive hype surrounding the film’s content, it would be a total shock when they begin to have sex.

Quiet subtly is Brokeback Mountain’s great asset. If a hundred directors were assigned to make a film about gay cowboys, it is doubtful that many would be more subtle than Ang Lee. The film does not take great pains to show us they are in love, nor does it twelve scenes where the characters spell out their every thought with tears streaming down their faces, nor does it stick around for soft pornography. The majority of what is going in is expressed in the characters faces, actions, and simple but effective dialogue. Heath Leder is phenomenal as Ennis, who even when in a moment of peace, seems to be in agony. Jake Gyllenhaal is nearly as good as Jack, who impatiently wades through his life, waiting for the happiness he knows must be around the corner.

Ennis and Jack part when the summer is over, Ennis staying in Wyoming, Jack moving to Texas. Each man gets married and has children. Neither one is overly enthused about their lives, but they carry on. One day, Ennis receives a postcard from Jack, and before you know it the two are going on "fishing trips" where no fishing takes place. Jack declares that the two should leave their families and get a farm together, but Ennis quietly scoffs. It is still the 1960’s, and as a boy, his father showed him firsthand the potentially violent death that can await a homosexual.

Brokeback Mountain is not so much about homosexuality or love as it is unfulfilled desire. Jack can not have what he badly wants, and Ennis’ is not willing to take the steps towards his own possible happiness. The film is not nearly as pro-homosexuality as some would have you believe; indeed, throughout the film, Ennis and Jack’s relationship destroys their own lives and badly damages that of others. Instead of giving into their desires or suppressing them entirely, they try halfway, which does not work. In one scene, Ennis ignores his own children in his desperation to run off to a motel with Jack. In another, Jack slinks through a Mexican border town, searching for a male prostitute. These are not happy men, certainly not the characters GLAAD would push.

Brokeback Mountain is a very well done story of men doomed by impulses they would each rather not possess. One’s own opinions of the politics and morality of homosexuality need not matter much, as everyone can connect to the pain of not having what it is you want most. Is there any feeling much worse than that?

4 out of 5

2 - Wedding Crashers review

A few days ago, Susan and I watched Wedding Crashers.


Wedding Crashers is a film about one good supporting actor and one terrible supporting actor. They both sign up for an R-rated summer comedy that has a vulgar, witless, terrible script. Before they know it, Satan is proved to be real as audiences flock to their film, and before long it makes over $200 million during a year where audiences are supposedly staying home.

Wait, sorry. My mistake. What I just wrote was the real-life story behind Wedding Crashers, not the story of the film itself. To say the film is witless probably doesn't do it justice; it is as if they made the funniest film in history, examined the funny scenes, and decided to reshoot them all, only doing the exact opposite of the original content. The jokes are sophomoric, stupid, tasteless, witless, and stupid, all at once.

Not a single good performance is turned in. Owen Wilson is terrible, devoid of any charm and reading his lines from a cue card and pretending to be stoned without actually being stoned. Vince Vaughn has proven his worth before, but trades in his usual sarcastic calm for a slightly panicked jerkiness. Christopher Walken is in many scenes, but obviously the producers thought that simply having Walken around is funny, because he is not assigned one single joke. Will Ferrel turns in a cameo as the most over-exposed idiot in show business. Wait, there I go again, confusing the plot of the film with real life. In the film, he plays a funeral crasher.

Every character is achingly unsympathetic. Wilson and Vaughn play two dickheads who come to weddings uninvited to score with lovelorn chicks. Both are total liars and frauds, even to each other. The script demands that Wilson fall in love with Rachel McAdams after four minutes of movie flirting, and her character is a grade A bitch for cheating on her fiancee. Wait, this infidelity is supposed to be okay, because the fiancee is a sadistic sociopath who maliciously injures every man and joyfully fucks every women he sees. Rounding out the list of wonderfully pleasant characters are a cursing granny, a psychotic redhead who molests Vaughn, and a gay 'artist' who only wants to molest Vaughn. Ho ho.

Wedding Crashers is bad beyond belief. Startlingly unfunny with the moral compass of a horny 16 year old football player, all involved should be ashamed, including the audience that made it a financial success. At a time where those on the right and the left claim our culture is spiraling into Hell, Wedding Crashers is a painful reminder of the divide between smart people and stupid people of all nationalities, races, or creeds.

0 out of 5

1

I guess I'm gonna try a blog. While I'm sure like many things I will start strong and then lose interest, that doesn't mean I won't have some fun with it while it lasts.

A little about myself. I am a 21 year old English major, minoring in Film Studies, at the University of Northern Iowa. I love film, and even though most people say that, I've only met one person who takes them as seriously as I do. I know there are people out there who have a love of film that dwarfs mine, but as far as I can tell, those people typically don't have a glowing social life.

I was a Poli Sci major, and I follow politics very closely. I would describe myself as a Libertarian Conservative. The placement of 'Libertarian' in front of 'Conservative' is important, because the second word is key, while the first is just a helpful adjective. My main issues are gun rights, taxes, health care, and defense. FYI, somedays I'd give Bush a B-, other days a C-, so please spare goofy political stereotyping for someone that deserves it.

I have a great girlfriend, but I don't talk about her too much outside of my core friends, because that would be sharing our relationship with others, which I don't like to do. I don't care much about music, and I care far less about sports.

Guns and video games are two hobbies of mine, though with a serious girlfriend, 15 hours of school, my screenplay, my dad, my friends, legal alcohol, and hundreds of great movies I still haven't seen, they have been moved to the back of the list. I regret that, but hey, thats life.


What exactly will I be posting?

- Movie reviews. I am becoming more and more fascinated at the idea that I could be involved with film in a scholarly capacity, so I am eager to practice whenever I can.

- Political thoughts. I won't go wild with this, but there's a good chance that I will want to comment on something before too long.


- Items of interest. A new video game, an interesting news piece, thoughts in general.

What I won't post:

- Things about my girlfriend. Any praise I have for her would read so sappy that I'd feel like a complete idiot posting it. Not only do I have little, if anything to complain about, but she knows how to read. Rest assured, she is great.

- Long winded descriptions of what a drunk person did/said. Stories about drunk people are excruciatingly boring and asinine 95% of the time.

- Sports stuff. Honestly, I can barely follow a football game, and other than the San Antonio Spurs I could care less if all sports teams were annihilated by a series of freak plane crashes.

So let the blogging begin.