I just got back from seeing this movie last night, and I was really impressed with it. I think it touched on a lot of incidents that would potentially incite a lot of anger (there’s a brief timeline of US/Saudi relations and at the very end there is a shadowed computer rendering of the twin towers being struck by an airplane), but I don’t think it was distasteful.
Anybody else seen it?
I saw it yesterday. I enjoyed it (more than I thought I would based on the previews).
The opening scenes were extremely powerful and intense. I was prepared to enjoy it on its own terms, possibly, except it became unclear even in the middle what those terms were supposed to be. Eventually it did become easy enough to enjoy that I would have called it ‘okay’. At times during the movie I felt the editing was a little off.
The big question, of course, is whether everything really was intended to be interpreted in light of
the final lines.
I suspect yes, but it’s still kind of muddy. Sort of like a Verhoeven movie, though I’ll have to watch this one again to see if the comparison is fair. I will say that the people I saw it with didn’t seem to notice it at all (I didn’t bring it up with them, though).
It at least raises the question, but whether that was always meant to be there or just something to make people say, “wow, that’s like …so true, man” is what I don’t know.
In a certain way, it reminded me of Caché from a few years back. I think it may have barely succeeded where that one failed (in my opinion).
It was a very powerful film for me. Not something I want to talk about much. Just go see it.
If you haven’t got any close, personal friends who have been deployed to the middle east, as you watch this movie just imagine that you do have. Then imagine that they deal with this kind of shit every day. Then imagine that they never, *ever *complain.
It was a thinking man’s movie, too. Not too much dialogue. It’s the rare movie where you can see what people are thinking just by looking at their faces. Editing and camera work are innovative, tasteful, and far surpass the standards set by other films.
There were many other great things about this movie, but I won’t bother telling you. Just go see it.
Really? What did you find innovative about it? It used just about the same techniques as any other action film these days - jerky, documentary-style stuff. I would say it actually used it to good effect in the opening scene, but it’s not anything new. In later action scenes it wasn’t as noticeable, possibly because I was used to it by then, but it wasn’t needed at all there.
Then you also had the lingering (almost fondly) shots on the heroes, the lengthy middle section which is poorly paced, and the awkwardly expositional conversations. I still enjoyed it, but largely in spite of the editing and camera work.
I heard an interview with the director today in which he described as trying to “serve spinach with the steak” which kind of shoots down my theory about the ending, unfortunately. It sort of lessens the film in that case.
He also revealed the original ending:
The FBI team is blown up just before they get on the plane home.
I was impressed as well. Not perfect, but well paced and politically astute in its own self-awareness (making it more than just CSI-MidEast). Essentially, I took the pairings of final lines as an admission that we may have honorable intentions and may think of ourselves on the “right” side, but we’re still subject to base emotions and motivations that compromise our role in the region. In the movie, they talk about how they want “justice served”, but although we may be more skilled and competent in our training and orientation, it still doesn’t stop things from devolving into a bloodbath with us seriously in over our heads. Thatnone of the American team die is more luck than anything else, but even though they kill the Osama-wanna-be, they haven’t solved anything. Nothing has changed, and if anything, the same tensions and resentments and anger and stereotypes are reinforced, with the rank-&-file people who have to live there paying a much higher price in the long run. Between this and Friday Night Lights, Berg (who had a brief cameo in the FBI room) is a director worth keeping an eye out for.