NO END IN SIGHT CHARLES FERGUSON 2007
Never since I saw the first Scary Movie in the blackest theater in my neck of Connecticut have I had such a raucous theater-going time of it! Turtlenecks were stretched out, lattes were spilled, epithets were offered unapologetically, and many a single man ran home after to get his Daily Kos fix. Fuck. A guy next to me even drank an "outside" beer during the film. Someone called Condy a bitch. It was wild.
But not so wild, I'd imagine as the QUAGMIRE IN IRAQ. While Ferguson's doq nimbly dodges the apparently irrelevant question of the rightness of the decision to go to preemptive war in the first place, he does a fine job of showing how fucked was the logistical planning. It's a bit hard to sympathize with beauracrats and military officers who just wanted a cleaner war, but for a more coherent, level-headed denunciation of the Debacle in Iracle, I can't imagine the concerned cineaste could look much further.
Only, come to the film with all lobes firing, as one tee tee break and you're liable to miss a few op-eds' worth of information. The facts and figures come flying fast and free, and like any documentary I've seen of this scope, I always leave having wanted just a bit more context or even a dissenting voice here and there--no matter how objectionable it might be. But a dedication to more or less common sense explication, a surprisingly lean and economic narrative, and a rhythmic sense of connection-drawing make for a pretty convincing experience. Even if one is left wanting to do a bit of research on one's own following the flick.
Essentially, No End is just good filmmaking. The story weaves subtly and un-contrivedly between the universal and the personal, intertwining points of view in a way that Mike "Sicko" Moore would never even attempt even if he could. The editing is fluid and miraculous and every still interview shot feels just as urgent as the unusually well-chosen shards of shaky on-the-ground news footage.
While many other Iraq pics take a harder stance on the conceptual reasons for going to war, I imagine No End in Sight will be the film that's most fondly remembered.
Incidentally, today's my berfday and I'll be celebrating with a trip back to the Forum with the GF to see Preminger's Laura on the silver screen. Drinking to follow!
3 comments:
will the next post be ... ingmar and michelangelo? did you have a big reaction?
I don't cruz much nuz on the web, so I didn't hear about it till late in the day and I haven't had much time to blog since then. Maybe I'll whip up a short eulogy 'fore the next moon. Currently (sorta) working on a round-up post of a few films I've seen recently and haven't gotten the chance to write about individually.
Wait and see!
p.s. does the pic of Rumsfeld and Bush at the beginning of this review show up for you? This computer's all funny!
non sir it does not. search for "img sr" in your crappy html and change it to"img src" (see that last letter?)
-b
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