What did you watch today? v 22.0

Tell everyone what you watched, what you thought, and what's up next.

The first post in this thread is # 6460

And as ever, link your films please.

Replies are closed for this discussion.

Permalink Reply by The Real Uncle Bob on July 4, 2009 at 9:09pm: I love to see a shamed director make a triumphant comeback! "Last Exit to Brooklyn" director Ulli Edel was all but ruined by the Madonna vehicle "Body of Evidence" WAY back in 1993 [see it instantly, if you dare -- not that bad, just horribly miscast with occasionally horrendous dialog]. Despite some laudable television work that followed (Homicide: Life on the Street, Oz), this saga of Germany's Red Army Faction is his long-delayed, strong comeback to feature films. This party & riot sequence from the film's open introduces the central theme of how groups derive smug certainty from the reinforcement of their peers.
Maybe interest in Der Baader-Meinhoff Komplex will finally inspire a Region-1 release of Last Exit? We can hope.

Permalink Reply by Guy on July 4, 2009 at 9:28pm: I've read about this movie and look forward to seeing it. Other segments I've seen from it have a similar crackle as the clip above.
Peripherally, the Netflix synopsis is pretty inflammatory: "Staging a series of bombings, kidnappings and assassinations, the RAF waged a war against fascism with a direct assault against the powers of American imperialism and the fledgling German democracy." Talk about smug certainty.

Permalink Reply by The Real Uncle Bob on July 4, 2009 at 10:23pm: That is indeed a hoot. Time for Netflix to administer the loyalty oaths!

Wikipedia indicates that the film was greeted by some contention in Germany:

Protesting against the historically "distorted" and "almost completely false" depiction of the RAF's assassination of Jürgen Ponto, Ponto's widow and witness Ignes Ponto returned her Federal Cross of Merit, since she saw the German government, which co-produced the film through various film financing funds, as jointly responsible for the "public humiliations" suffered by her and her family. Representing the family, her daughter Corinna Ponto called the film's violation of their privacy "wrong" and "particularly perfidious".

Jörg Schleyer, the son of the assassinated manager and then president of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations, Hanns Martin Schleyer, states, however, that the movie was a great film which finally portrayed the RAF as what it actually was, "a merciless, ruthless gang of murderers". Commenting on the blatant depiction of violence he said, "Only a movie like this can show young people how brutal and bloodthirsty the RAF's actions were at that time."

Permalink Reply by beeswax on July 5, 2009 at 12:05am: Peripherally, the Netflix synopsis is pretty inflammatory: "Staging a series of bombings, kidnappings and assassinations, the RAF waged a war against fascism with a direct assault against the powers of American imperialism and the fledgling German democracy." Talk about smug certainty.

That is indeed a hoot. Time for Netflix to administer the loyalty oaths!

Apparently I need you guys to explain your disdain of this ad copy. It seems pretty neutral to me.

Fighting against "fascism" and "imperialism" usually reads as "good" -- I can see someone on the right taking just as much offense at this characterization of deliberate terrorists as you seem to be.

So I don't guess I see the same "smugness" -- at least not coming from the same direction. What am I missing?

Permalink Reply by Guy on July 5, 2009 at 5:16am: From what I know about the RAF, they were the Euro equivalent of the SLA.

Permalink Reply by beeswax on July 5, 2009 at 3:54pm: Right. They may have coined the term "urban guerrilla" and were definitely not shy about declaring themselves an armed vanguard of the "by any means necessary" type revolution.

So, again, I don't see what's so inflammatory to you and Uncle Bob about the Netflix description of the film about them.

Permalink Reply by Guy on July 5, 2009 at 4:31pm: Because it takes the RAF rhetoric at face value instead of letting the reader in on the possibility that they might also be described as murderous sociopathic nutters, who, had they succeeded in their aims, would have been responsible for the deaths of countless people.

Permalink Reply by beeswax on July 5, 2009 at 5:44pm: they might also be described as murderous sociopathic nutters

I thought NF got that part across with "...Staging a series of bombings, kidnappings and assassinations..." not to mention calling them a "terrorist group" but I guess that's just me.

Permalink Reply by Sevorin on July 5, 2009 at 5:03am: Last Exit to Brooklyn is indeed an honorable, if not entirely faithful, rendering of the Selby book. I was lucky to snag a widescreen copy of it on laserdisc.

Permalink Reply by e manderthal on July 5, 2009 at 10:47am: um,

Will that work in a region-free player?

I loved that film, though it's not really a date movie, is it? It is one of the few times that I have been unwillingly forced to depart the theater before the ending, and I've yet to forgive her for it. I did catch it some years later on video, but it just ain't the same.

Permalink Reply by Sevorin on July 5, 2009 at 12:21pm: I copied the LD onto a DVD. So long as it works in my region, my village, Mexico, the rest of the world can go fuck itself.