Film & BooksIssue: Virgo 06
The War Tapes
Even though “The War Tapes” is not easy to watch, I think every American should be required to see it. The film does not put forth an opinion about the war in Iraq; however, it does something much more innovative and powerful. It actually takes you there through the video cameras of three New Hampshire National Guardsmen.
Director Deborah Scranton was asked to become an embedded journalist with the New Hampshire National Guard Unit in Iraq. She chose not to go, but instead gave video cameras to several soldiers who were deployed in 2004. The footage, edited along with interviews of family members, was developed into a feature length documentary. The result is a startling dose of reality, showing the complex and heartbreaking situation on the ground in Iraq and the profound divide between returning soldiers and their civilian family and friends.
The soldiers are: Sergeant Stephen Pink, who received his BA in English from Plymouth State College and joined the military to help pay for college; Specialist Mike Moriarty who is a Harley Davidson mechanic married with two children; and, Sergeant Zack Bazzi who is a University of New Hampshire student and a Lebanese-born American who escaped from the Lebanon Civil War with his family at age 8. The personal stories of these three men and their families are deftly woven throughout the action scenes in Iraq.
For me, one of the most striking and startling revelations put forth in the film is the very simple fact that Zack, being Lebanese, is the only soldier in his unit that speaks Arabic. There appears to be very little ability for the American soldiers to communicate with the Iraqis; even the hand symbol for stop is a miscommunication between the two cultures that can cause death to a civilian. Although the unit seems prepared with equipment and military know-how, their sensitivity to the vast cultural differences seems completely inadequate to maneuver effectively. The other not-so-startling revelation for me is that the chaos in Iraq appears to only be escalating, not improving.
Although the subject matter might be jarring for some, there are only a few graphic scenes.
“The War Tapes” was chosen as the best documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival in June. I believe many more awards will follow. To find out when it opens in your town, go to http://thewartapes.com/screenings/
Film & Books Archives (total entries: 29)
Capricorn 08 - The Career Issue
Sagittarius 08 & Honest Self Expression
Like real life-families who have a member struggling with drug or alcohol addiction, the focus of “Rachel Getting Married” isn’t on Rachel, even though it should be. It is on her narcissistic sister, Kym, who is out of rehab for the weekend to attend Rachel’s wedding.
Scorpio 08 - The Money Issue
At a time when our nation’s security is in question and our economy is in shambles “The Good Society: The Humane Agenda” by John Kenneth Galbraith has much to teach the abiding liberal as well as the dutiful conservative.
Honestly, I have never been one for self-help books, but what I liked most about "How We Choose to Be Happy" is that it celebrates the wisdom of a variety of literary greats balanced by the stories of ordinary people.
This book won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction for good reason. I started the “The Great Man” on Saturday morning and had to finish it by lunch the next day. When it started to rain I traded my lawn chair for the couch and kept on reading. This novel is fabulously funny, mischievous, and easy to read.
A quirky look at boyhood and film-making in the 1980s, “Son of Rambow” is a welcome diversion from the current deluge of blockbuster remakes and super hero epics in theaters this summer. Written and directed by Garth Jennings and produced by Nick Goldsmith, I like the way this film spins a standard, winning movie formula at a slightly awkward angle.
Although “The Maytrees” by Annie Dillard is marketed as a novel, it reads from beginning to end as a poem. Like body surfing, the poetry will move emotions in directions that the mind may not understand. When this wave brought me to shore, I needed air and I wasn’t quite certain where I had been or where I had landed, but I was, in the truest sense of the word, in awe of the experience I just had.
April and May are notoriously bad months to go to the movies. The Academy Award hopefuls of 2008 won't be released until the fall, and the summer blockbusters won't be out for a few months. So what is a film reviewer to do when all the movies in the theaters are lame? This reviewer is going to suggest that you catch up on the best movies of 2007!
After an unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, Greg Mortenson stumbled into the village of Korphe in Pakistan’s Karakoram Himalaya region. The generosity and hospitality of the Korphe villagers inspired Mortenson to establish the Central Asia Institute (CAI). Since the establishment of CAI ten years ago, the organization has built 55 schools serving Pakistan and Afghanistan’s poorest children, especially girls.
Based on Marjane Satrapi's books, the film “Persepolis” tells the poignant story of a young girl coming of age in Iran in the midst of revolution and war.
