There have probably been started threads about this film, at least that's what I'm hoping for.

I saw this movie on Friday and it made a big impression on me. This director Fernando Mereilles sure has some talent. First 'Cidade de Deus', and then this one. Very very cool.

I agree that the director has talent. He managed to breathe a lot of life and realism into the story. And Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz are always very good. But I must say that although I sympathize with its message, my overall impression was that it did felt like a one-sided propaganda movie, and that's never a good thing.

retina said:

Propaganda for what?

I would agree it's one-sided criticism, but propaganda??

As for the one-sided criticism, I think that's not a bad thing at all. Whether you like it or not, it makes you think about things you maybe rather try to forget.

MarieLouise said:

Propaganda, criticism, whatever...we're talking about the same thing. And I must disagree about it being a good thing. No matter if I'm already convinced about a certain issue or if I'm against it, I always appreciate a multi-facetted depiction. That way it becomes way more credible, open-minded and difficult to dismiss as biased perception. It simply makes it more interesting too, IMO. And along those same lines of reasoning, I find it interesting that you're disagreeing with me here.

I did however like Fahrenheit 9/11, so I guess I'm not entirely against one-sided criticism. Maybe it just has to be handled with care, whatever that means. For some reason I think they failed with that part in Gardener.

retina said:

Ok, let's make this more concrete: how could you make a film about this topic more multi-facetted? By making one of the pharmaceutical bosses a good guy? By giving him the chance to explicitly defend the positive sides of the whole issue?

I rather tend to place these various dimensions, or the capability of viewing them, within the human mind. You can see 'Black hawk down' for example, and then watch a film made by Somalians. It's your responsibility to extract a certain way of viewing life (and wanting to live it).

MarieLouise said:

Sure, why not? All pharmaceutical companies aren't evil. Why not show the whole picture in all its complex glory instead of painting with broad strokes across the canvas. Take "Dead Man Walking" for example. I'm totally against the death penalty, but I still appreciated that the filmmakers had made a real effort to show the issue from both sides. It gave me a deeper understanding of how the opposing side thinks and feels. That is both interesting and important, in my opinion.



I haven't seen that movie, but I can definitely imagine that it's one-sided. War movies usually are. That's why I liked Platoon; it showed the hardships both of the American soldiers and the Vietnamese people.

But like I said, I can on occasion appreciate a one-sided movie too, but then it's usually because it creates its own little universe (which I respect as an artist) and not because of its one-sided message per se.

Edit: grammar
[Edited 1/22/06 7:26am]

I hear what you're saying.

As for me: I do make a distinction between one sided-criticism and one sided-proganda.

The only one sided-propaganda movies that are right are movies about love, or the belief in love.

As for the one sided-criticism... that's fine with me. As I said, it's our responsibility to put different criticisms against each other and make up your mind without closing it.

'La vita é bella', 'Children's List', 'The pianist', 'Bowling for Columbine' or hell yeah, even 'Black Hawk down' or 'Saving Private Ryan'.

Those are all films I 'enjoyed' watching. Not all of those are artistic masterpieces, but I still like them, although they weren't that 'multi-dimensional'.

MarieLouise said:

Is that the one where Dakota Fanning and Joel Haley Osment are trying to save the jews?

retina said:

That makes me look really stupid. I guess it's not a good idea to keep a film-discussion while correcting tests of my students.

Schindler Schindler Schindler.

Schnitzel Schintzel Schnitzel

Shit Shit Shit

Discussion is closed.

MarieLouise said:

No, it just makes me look really annoying. As usual.