Movies: The Downfall, Sahara, Wisconsin Death Trip
Mykle and i were in Denver with little to do, so we saw The Downfall and Sahara.
The Downfall is a portrayal of the last two weeks or so inside Hitler's bunker.
The Cinematography, Acting, Sets, and general Production are top-notch, excellent.
It's quite depressing.
I have some reservation about the humanizing of high-level Nazis, however. With the exception of a very few apparently bad eggs like Hitler & Goebbels, the Nazi elite are pretty much presented as reasonable, human characters, and in some cases downright compassionate.
I hear the Jewish community finds this offensive, but i feel that all communities should find this offensive. Even without the holocaust, the German motivation in World War Two was the same as in all wars of agression, and the leaders of a war are pretty much by definition horrible people.
So - that's the Downfall. An excellent movie with some questionable humanizing portrayals.
Sahara is a really, really good bad movie. It's all about ex-navy surfers with a wry Harrison Ford Grintm.
Wisconsin Death Trip - gag. This is one horrible movie. It's really more like a slideshow. It's really more like a slideshow of questionable original worth thrown up in the air, shuffled, and put into the projector with a crappy piano soundtrack and half an hour's worth of "Behind The Scenes" directorial masturbation. I won't even say what it's about. Okay. It's allegedly a documentary about a series of murders & suicides in wisconsin in the 1800s. Write bad reviews of this movie where ever you can.
The Downfall is a portrayal of the last two weeks or so inside Hitler's bunker.
The Cinematography, Acting, Sets, and general Production are top-notch, excellent.
It's quite depressing.
I have some reservation about the humanizing of high-level Nazis, however. With the exception of a very few apparently bad eggs like Hitler & Goebbels, the Nazi elite are pretty much presented as reasonable, human characters, and in some cases downright compassionate.
I hear the Jewish community finds this offensive, but i feel that all communities should find this offensive. Even without the holocaust, the German motivation in World War Two was the same as in all wars of agression, and the leaders of a war are pretty much by definition horrible people.
So - that's the Downfall. An excellent movie with some questionable humanizing portrayals.
Sahara is a really, really good bad movie. It's all about ex-navy surfers with a wry Harrison Ford Grintm.
Wisconsin Death Trip - gag. This is one horrible movie. It's really more like a slideshow. It's really more like a slideshow of questionable original worth thrown up in the air, shuffled, and put into the projector with a crappy piano soundtrack and half an hour's worth of "Behind The Scenes" directorial masturbation. I won't even say what it's about. Okay. It's allegedly a documentary about a series of murders & suicides in wisconsin in the 1800s. Write bad reviews of this movie where ever you can.
posted by good old o at
3:52 PM
3 Comments:
Dude, there is a book of "Wisconsin Death Trip" which is totally cultish and collectable. It seemed like it really "blew minds open' in the 60's. Get with it Orion!
Haha. Actually, don't. There is almost nothing more pleasurable for me than to hear you give your honest negative opinion of something that is held sacred by counter-culture types simply cause they don't have the guts to risk being called uncool by saying they didn't get it or like it.
You've got GUTS kid! Stick with it. Hey everybody- Orion hated Hedwig! He has NO FEAR of the cool kids!
By
Anonymous, at 1:15 PM
the thing about Nazis is that they were human, Homo sapiens sapiens, as it were. often when we say things are "inhuman" we're actually describing behavior that as quintessentially human--although i'm still doing research into whether ants practice genocide.
this is not to be confused with "humane" or "inhumane", which is different.
the thing about Nazi movies is that they have to be careful about making sympathetic characters out of them--& it's tough to make a good movie where the audience only has sympathy for the dying.
By
Anonymous, at 8:09 AM
You're right of course, i shouldn't use 'human' so clumsily. I think i meant something like 'regular, decent guys'. It's funny because i recently read something, what was it, oh yeah, 'The Mysterious Stranger' by Mark Twain which makes exactly the same point you do about that word.
Interesting tho, online definitions of 'humanize' frequently include 'to make more humane', so i think there's some legit. grounds for confusion.
Ant genocide - i feel i heard something like this. They do attack neighboring colonies, right ? The San Francisco Academy of Science has a great ant installation with real live army ants and leaf cutter ants and others, it's fabulous!
But back to movies about nazis.
You're right again. A movie which portrays the german top brass only as monsters isn't very interesting because we already have that. I felt they may have gone too far in the other direction. But i'm really just nit-picking. It's a great movie.
By
Anonymous, at 8:41 AM
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