A movie Alec Bings would love
Saturday, March 1st, 2008 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serai.
By the way, I went to see Vantage Point earlier this week. Excellent film! Really well scripted, the editing was MARVELOUS. Tight and tense as hell - I was literally reduced to biting down on my jacket sleeve, I was so wound up, thinking oh shitshitshitshit oh shitSHIT. SO much fun.
The story is presented in a Rashomon style, from the viewpoint of several different characters. After we see the central event - the shooting of an American president while visiting Salamanca, Spain for a political summit - the film rewinds back to the beginning and we see the thing again, from another viewpoint. Then again, from another, and again, from another, and with each rewind, we learn more about the event, the people involved and exactly what is happening. Which, of course, turns out not to be what we think is happening at all. It's very deftly handled, culminating in a great chase sequence.
Now, here's the funny thing about this movie. It's being called a "political thriller", but it actually isn't. After it was over, I was thinking about it on the way home, and I started wondering just what was the point to the thing. Because really, there isn't one, at least not the kind that the advertising and reporting is claiming. Yes, it's about a political figure, but the film doesn't actually have a thing to do with politics. That's just the frame that it's hung in. It's really an old-fashioned chase movie, a shoot-'em-up thriller. No message, really. It's just a rip-roaring good time, with damned fine actors having an awful lot of fun. (William Hurt, Dennis Quaid, Forrest Whitaker, Sigourney Weaver, Matthew Fox, James LeGros - it's an awesome cast.)
For example, one of the reasons I wanted to see it was the setting; there are almost no mainstream films made set in Spain. But I realized eventually that the film could have been set anywhere; the fact that it's Spain is irrelevant. It could just as easily have been London, or Paris, or Moscow, or Reykjavik, or any one of a hundred other places around the world. It could also have been about any world leader, not necessarily an American. It doesn't matter, because the politics is not finally the point. The setting and characters are just an excuse to play with the idea of points of view, hidden motivations, untangling threads, and GREAT fucking acting. (And the casting is divine - ahahahaHAHA, Matthew Fox! That was inspired.)
Keeping that firmly in mind, I definitely recommend this film. Not every movie has to be about something, after all. Sometimes movies can just be tense, intense fun. Not everyone's cup of tea maybe, but as another president who took a bullet once said,
For those that like that sort of thing, I think it is just the sort of thing that they would like.
By the way, I went to see Vantage Point earlier this week. Excellent film! Really well scripted, the editing was MARVELOUS. Tight and tense as hell - I was literally reduced to biting down on my jacket sleeve, I was so wound up, thinking oh shitshitshitshit oh shitSHIT. SO much fun.
The story is presented in a Rashomon style, from the viewpoint of several different characters. After we see the central event - the shooting of an American president while visiting Salamanca, Spain for a political summit - the film rewinds back to the beginning and we see the thing again, from another viewpoint. Then again, from another, and again, from another, and with each rewind, we learn more about the event, the people involved and exactly what is happening. Which, of course, turns out not to be what we think is happening at all. It's very deftly handled, culminating in a great chase sequence.
Now, here's the funny thing about this movie. It's being called a "political thriller", but it actually isn't. After it was over, I was thinking about it on the way home, and I started wondering just what was the point to the thing. Because really, there isn't one, at least not the kind that the advertising and reporting is claiming. Yes, it's about a political figure, but the film doesn't actually have a thing to do with politics. That's just the frame that it's hung in. It's really an old-fashioned chase movie, a shoot-'em-up thriller. No message, really. It's just a rip-roaring good time, with damned fine actors having an awful lot of fun. (William Hurt, Dennis Quaid, Forrest Whitaker, Sigourney Weaver, Matthew Fox, James LeGros - it's an awesome cast.)
For example, one of the reasons I wanted to see it was the setting; there are almost no mainstream films made set in Spain. But I realized eventually that the film could have been set anywhere; the fact that it's Spain is irrelevant. It could just as easily have been London, or Paris, or Moscow, or Reykjavik, or any one of a hundred other places around the world. It could also have been about any world leader, not necessarily an American. It doesn't matter, because the politics is not finally the point. The setting and characters are just an excuse to play with the idea of points of view, hidden motivations, untangling threads, and GREAT fucking acting. (And the casting is divine - ahahahaHAHA, Matthew Fox! That was inspired.)
Keeping that firmly in mind, I definitely recommend this film. Not every movie has to be about something, after all. Sometimes movies can just be tense, intense fun. Not everyone's cup of tea maybe, but as another president who took a bullet once said,
For those that like that sort of thing, I think it is just the sort of thing that they would like.
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Date: Saturday, March 1st, 2008 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, March 1st, 2008 11:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 02:48 am (UTC)thank you ^^
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Date: Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 04:52 am (UTC)