Saw this film yesterday. It is apparently a true story about the killing of a terrorist leader who knocked down some buildings in America a decade ago. This makes it sound modern and topical, but I thought it most intriguing for its use of tropes from the old epics. The protagonist, a young CIA agent, gets so personal and obsessive about her mission that when presented with Osama bin Laden’s mutilated corpse, she does a Draupadi and washes her lustrous amber tresses in his blood (and yes, the film is generally very fond of her hair). Then she does an Achilles and drags him around the military camp behind her Lamborghini until his dad shows up and says please can I have his body back. Then she quietly weeps as classical heroes do when, having vanquished their arch-enemies and fulfilled their life’s great purpose, they realise it's all downhill from here and that even the in-flight sandwiches on the trip home will be stale. 
I can’t guarantee that these are all accurate representations of what occurred in the film, but they were the interpretations my good friend Shougat and I preferred as we sat giggling through the final 15 minutes. Which can only mean one thing: expect Oscars to be bestowed.
(Okay, seriously? Didn’t think the film was too bad – some good moments in the midsection along with some almost-too-conscientious non-Hollywoodising – but it got a little trite in the end. Plus, watching a film with Shougat is a good way of ensuring that you spend much of your time laughing at it regardless of its overall quality. This is the same boy who savaged my Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King experience a decade ago by repeatedly imploring Frodo and Samwise to get down to actual making out instead of just looking chastely into each other’s eyes.)
I can’t guarantee that these are all accurate representations of what occurred in the film, but they were the interpretations my good friend Shougat and I preferred as we sat giggling through the final 15 minutes. Which can only mean one thing: expect Oscars to be bestowed.(Okay, seriously? Didn’t think the film was too bad – some good moments in the midsection along with some almost-too-conscientious non-Hollywoodising – but it got a little trite in the end. Plus, watching a film with Shougat is a good way of ensuring that you spend much of your time laughing at it regardless of its overall quality. This is the same boy who savaged my Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King experience a decade ago by repeatedly imploring Frodo and Samwise to get down to actual making out instead of just looking chastely into each other’s eyes.)
I absolutely hate movie companions like that. There's actually a genuine chance I would've gotten violent in your place!
ReplyDeleteAbhimanyu: not if the person in question happens to be one of your best friends, and if the commentary is only as intrusive as you encourage it to be. (I'm usually an equal participant in these little digs!)
ReplyDeleteHave you seen the film yet? What did you think? (I remember your old piece on Bigelow.)
Rare occasion that I have to disagree with a review of yours. If you have followed the decade plus manhunt for OBL then you would realise that it's tough to imagine a movie being more comprehensive and still engaging about this subject. Infact, it's length (which I felt was a problem) could not have been reduced without taking away what IMO are essential parts of the story. It wasn't as emphatic a statement about human emotions and conflict like The Hurt Locker but in its own way it did tell us about the toll that obsessions take on us - both the protagonist and OBL being examples (in very distinct and non comparable contexts of course).
ReplyDeleteit's tough to imagine a movie being more comprehensive and still engaging about this subject
ReplyDeleteAnon: no issue with this at all - agree that it's a very difficult subject to make an engaging film about, and a very brave choice to take it on. But the things that didn't work for me - even if they were restricted to just a few scattered scenes - were problematic enough to become deal-breakers (again, for me).
Also, let's not treat this post as a completely solemn-faced "review"?
Didn't mean to be overtly critical. Did realise it wasn't a full fledged review. Reason why I think movies like this and Black Friday are important is that they tread the fine line between being "cinema" and docudramas. Argo for example is a great movie but not really a great example of being a teller of fact.
Deletelol, Bigelow's last film was shot nicely. However, she should be criticised for her ideology. The whole world knows yanks are definitely not saviours of this planet, but she is oblivious. she is true successor of Spielberg, who has made a big name for himself glorifying US
ReplyDeletePessimist Fool: I didn't have a big ideological problem with this film, to be honest. Just thought some of the cinematic shortcuts (writing numbers in red on the glass door etc) were tedious.
ReplyDeleteAnd where has Spielberg made a "big name for himself glorifying the US"? (Given that it's fair enough to expect a certain basic bias from an American filmmaker.) The big name initially happened because he made a couple of superb films that had very little to do with extolling the US.
Eh, I thought that about Sam and Frodo too. I mean, poor Sam. Frodo was acting so hard to get.
ReplyDeleteThe whole world knows yanks are definitely not saviours of this planet
ReplyDeleteThe Yanks don't claim to be the saviors. But it is the rest of the world that has accorded them that status as evidenced by the universal popularity of American values and American culture across the world over the past 100 years, just as British values and British culture was universally attractive in the 18th/19th centuries.
If at all there's any country worthy of the apellation "saviors of the planet", it is the United States. I see the United States as the last outpost of Western civilization. And for Western civilization to survive, it is absolutely essential that the United States remains the world's preeminent country in the 21st century.
Spielberg, who has made a big name for himself glorifying US
ReplyDeleteI don't recall a single Spielberg film which glorifies the US. Maybe I am not sufficiently knowledgable about his work.
In fact I don't recall too many American directors who glorify the US. Not even right-wingers like Frank Capra. Hollywood has always been critical of the US. Critical of the great American westward expansion, critical of the treatment of Indians, critical of the Senate/Presidents, critical of traditional American values...
The reason is ofcourse that Western civilization is that rare civilization that can laugh at itself. It is not triumphant in its tone unlike other cultures around the world and it always wishes to find fault with itself (often finding imaginary faults in the process).
That Kathakali recital whose picture you've posted here happens to be the only Kathakali recital I've ever watched. Just saying.
ReplyDelete"The Yanks don't claim to be the saviors"...not true shrikanth. The whole Iraqi propaganda was all about them pretending to save Iraq from a tyrant.
ReplyDeleteOn Spielberg. If you Saving Private Ryan, he has epic background score in the most ordinary scenes underlining patriotism. Remember that scene when Americans n German soldiers are accidentally face to face. Thats such a cliched depiction of German soldiers, which also re-inforces America's heroism.
In fact, it is open to debate if Hollywood crticises US administration. They are very much a mouth-piece. I heard they booed that Apache girl who went to receive Oscar for Brando.
The whole Iraqi propaganda was all about them pretending to save Iraq from a tyrant.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing about preemptive foreign policy actions is that prevented disasters are never seen and hence their prevention is not sufficiently appreciated!
Anyway, this forum is perhaps not appropriate for us to debate the Iraq war.
In fact, it is open to debate if Hollywood crticises US administration. They are very much a mouth-piece.
Not sure about critiques of administration. But American cinema has always been very vocal in questioning conventional social mores, condemning outworn prejudices and even challenging American interpretations of history!
Way back in 1948, John Ford teamed up with John Wayne - the most conservative of all American actors - and made a "revisionist" Western named Ford Apache long before words like "revisionist western" were coined by critics, long before revisionists like Eastwood became old enough to make movies!
Proof that adding visuals to text creates new meaning. Kathakali Bigelow WIN.
ReplyDelete