Before Sunset

Richard Linklater, 2004 (8.2*)
This film was a small, pleasant surprise for me. This one follows Linklater’s Before Sunrise, made nine years earlier with the same actors. In that film, an American traveler, Ethan Hawke, meets a young Frenchwoman from Paris, Julie Delpy, and for at least one night, sparks fly. Yet somehow the film failed to involve me, it just didn’t seem to cut much beneath the surface to let me feel much for the characters, and it was just a two character film.

In this sequel, set nine years later, Hawke is now a published novelist at a book signing at a small Parisian bookstore. After answering a few questions about writing, he spots Delpy off to the side waving at him. You can tell by his face he's both excited and surprised; he wanders over, they very much want to catch up, but Hawke has a flight at the airport and must leave by 7:15 that evening, hence the title. They have to say what they will, and reveal their emotions or hide them, all before sunset. What follows is loose and free examination of what’s been going on in each of their lives and minds since that previous chance meeting. This time, the characters have more passion, more depth, and more chemistry onscreen.

I thought this film was engaging and credible, these are the kinds of relationships in our lives that eventually disturb many of us. The quick ones with lots of chemistry between a couple are who otherwise destined for different geographical locations, at least temporarily. Often they may intend to reuinite but more often do not, and this film makes an honest and easy-going attempt to give us all the same idea – what if we could reunite with a former lover from our past, when our passion was only extinguished by distance and time.

The script, with believable dialogue, was co-written by Linklater and his two stars, which makes me wonder if much of it was improvised; it has that feel. Delpy herself also sings one of her own songs onscreen while playing acoustic guitar, and a couple more on the soundtrack, and they’re not bad – kind of simple and folky like another Marianne Faithful. It seems apparent from the lyrics that she either wrote the song for this film, or as a postscript for the first film. She also gives the better performance here, her character was the more involving with more emotions to show. In fact, this is my favorite performance by Delpy to date.

Linklater often employs a moving camera backing up while the two actors walk forward, following them through the city streets, or even into a river boat. Paris is a beautiful set for a film, and here almost serves as a supporting cast member. This keeps the film from being as static as two people just sitting and talking in a café, which they do briefly, more like My Dinner With Andre, which was boring compared to this film. This story makes us wonder exactly what happened to these characters in the nine year interim, and what will happen in the next two, after this reunion. One of the better screen romances on film, certainly one of the most credible.

This is Linklater’s highest ranked film, currently at #418 on our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls. His others ranked are Dazed and Confused #530, Waking Life #687, then Before Sunrise #752.

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Troy

Wolfgang Petersen, 2004 (7.7*)
Memorial Day War-a-thon film #16
Based on Homer's Iliad, this updating of the story of the Trojan war with Greece over the queen Helen has added CGI effects to finally look as if there are the reputed half a million Greek soldiers on the shores of Troy. (Well they say Helen "launched a thousand ships", so the total men involved may have been as small as 50,000).

Led by King Agamemnon (Brian Cox) the Greeks have united as one large army in order to invade Troy, and the most fierce and undefeatable of their warriors is of course Achilles, played by Brad Pitt. What sparked this war is that Paris (Orlando Bloom), has talked the Queen of Sparta and wife of Menelaus, Helen (Diane Kruger), into going back to Troy with him to be his wife, in spite of protests from future king Hector (Eric Bana). Bana gives the films most complex and interesting performance and a voice of reason from within Troy, that one woman is not worth war for the thousands, while to Paris it's now a question of Trojan honor.

There's a lot of primitive war, much of it mano-a-mano, as the Greeks laid seige to Troy for a couple of years, having brought shiploads of food with them. The war/siege appears to have stalemated, so the Greeks eventually resorted to the infamous Trojan horse scheme.

This was a major blockbuster, like 50's era Hollywood, with an estimated 175 million budget, and grossing around 500 million worldwide. Winner of only 3 awards, with its only Oscar® nomination for costume design

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Innocence

Lucile Hadzihalilovic, France, 2004 (9.5*)
This is an amazing, mesmerizing, hypnotic film, with some of the most beautiful images in cinema. Newcomer Lucile Hadzilalilovic has adapted a novella by Frank Wedekind (I believe it's translation from the French is "The Physical Education of Young Girls"), and has created a coming-of-age story in a myserious world all it's own.

Zoé Auclair plays a new arrival, Iris, at a secluded school for orphan girls hidden in a deep forest park, isolated from the outside world. The other girls welcome her, and reassure her with their calm, protective aura of self-reliance. She is most comforted by the oldest girl in her house, Bianca, played by the beautiful Bérangère Haubruge, who becomes like a big sister. In fact, all the girls are beautiful in their own way; you get the idea that maybe they've been selected for that reason.

It appears that the girls' schooling consists primarily of dance, and Oscar®-winning best actress Marion Cotillard plays the ballet instructor in one of her early supporting roles. Hélène de Fougerolles plays the only other instructor that both the girls and Cotillard seem to have interaction with, as the children are usually left on their own with the eldest (young teens) taking charge; they seem to respect the rules and maintain a self-disciplined civility.

However, there are mysteries - Bianca goes off to a mysterious location nightly, and says it's a secret she can't mention. A certainly elderly woman simply called the headmistress shows up once a year and selects one girl to take away. The entire park is surrounded by a giant stone wall, in effect making the school a type of prison. Rumors abound; one is that if you try to escape, you'll never be let outside again, and that's why Cotillard and Fougerolles teach there.

There are numerous literate metaphors used here. The film starts with water bubbling, and it is constantly in use throughout the film - the girls swim in a pond, there's a major rainstorm, a rowboat, also a bath. In literature, water can be for cleansing, baptism, or represent the troubles of the material world, such as floods, rough waters, raging rivers. The girls are often shown caterpillers, butterflies, and even dance a ballet as butterflies - the tranformation from girl to woman is an obvious metaphor, but it's done with artistic grace if not subtlety.

This is a very sensual film, the images are accompanied by touch, sound, even smell, and the audience is thereby immersed in the film more than just cerebrally. This is an amazingly poetic and beautiful piece of filmmaking, captivating the viewer by its own private world like few in cinema history .

Winner of 8 film awards, most for film or director at film festivals, but one for it's beautiful cinematography. If the Oscars® really represented the best films, this would have had 6-8 nominations, it's easily a better, more artistic dance film and woman's film than Black Swan. It's amazing that Hadzihalilovic hasn't directed any films since this one in 2004.

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Evergreen

Enid Zentelis, 2004 (8.3*)
This is one of those small indie films that looks like one, with perhaps a budget of 200k. However, director Zentelis has actually captured the double angst of being both a teenage girl and being mired in abject poverty. She has a single mom, and due to low income work they both have to move into a ramshackle house that leaks buckets when it rains with granny, the mom's mother.

Abbie Land does a credible job in her first performance as the teen, who has a penchant for two-toned hair, and a wealthy boy she meets in her new high school. Embarassed to bring him to her granny's house, she starts hanging out at his house instead, actually becoming friends with his mother, played by Mary Kay Place, an agoraphobic who hasn't left the house in years.

This film was made with a grant from the Sundance Institute, and was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at that film festival. Even though the film is a little raw, it's very unpretentious and achieves what it attempts, a realistic look at the plight of poor Americans vs. those who seem to have it all except happiness. Zentelis avoids judgment, the shortcomings and empty lives are shown on both sides of the economic fence.

Only a Native American card dealer, perfectly played by Gary Farmer (Powwow Highway, Smoke Signals), seems well-adjusted with his life, and he is so poor that he built his car by hand after stealing one part at a time while working at an auto plant, so only one door will even open and the hood is tied down with rope. And you thought that you had it tough!

People who liked An Education (2009), Thirteen (2005), and Winter's Bone (2010) will like this film as well.

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Birth

Jonathan Glazer, 2004 (8.2*)
One of the more interesting romances in all of film. Nicole Kidman plays a young wife whose husband is out jogging one morning and suffers a sudden fatal heart attack. While still recovering a decade later and with no new love, a young boy comes into her life who knows intimate personal details of her love life, and he claims to be the reincarnation of her dead husband.

This is one of the more compelling and unique mystery films of the decade due to the understated tone maintained throughout the film. The entire story is made credible thanks to an amazing performance by young Cameron Bright as the young Sean. Kidman is excellent as usual, and her penchant for choosing interesting and creative screenplays remains intact here. Lauren Becall, Anne Heche, and Arliss Howard all have small supporting roles.

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The Beautiful Country

Hans Petter Noland, Norway, 2004 (8.2*)
An orphaned Vietnamese youth has an aimless life in Vietnam after the death of his mother. His dad was a U.S. soldier stationed there during the war, but who has since returned to his life in the states. Binh, played by Damien Nguyen, dreams of going to America to be reunited with his natural father, and we follow him on his quest in this film.

Both Nick Nolte and Tim Roth have small parts in this film, Nolte is particularly effective, keeping himself understated for once. The title refers to Vietnam; the opening scenes are truly beautiful. This is one of those small indie films that makes an impression on you without car chases, explosions, or any of what passes for action, yet a story in which a character goes through profound individual changes in self-discovery.

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Downfall

Oliver Hirschbiegal, Germany, 2004 (8.5*)
Truly one of the best WW2 films, based on the book by Hitler's last private secretary, Downfall tells of the last days of the Third Reich within Hitler's bunker. Alexandra Maria Lara (Youth Without Youth, Control, The Reader), a Romanian actress whose family moved to Germany is Trudl Junge, the woman who survived those final days in order to bring this story to the world.

Bruno Ganz is excellent as Hitler, without being a parody or impressionist, but capturing the moody personality in his darkest days. There are some side stories just as interesting, such as one of a kid of 12 who takes out invading Soviet tanks in the streets of Berlin with the Russian invention of Molotov coctails. He becomes one of the last heroes given medals by Hitler outside the bunker.

This would now make a good companion film to Judgment at Nuremberg, which placed those surviving war criminals on trial, those who didn't commit suicide along with Hitler and others who didn't want to face a world without their beloved Fuehrer.

This is now one of the highest ranked war films at IMDB, #93 currently on their top 250. It won 15 of 29 award nominations, usually from critics, such as Online Film Critics, London, and Kansas City; it was also nominated for the foreign language film Oscar®, losing to Spain's The Sea Inside.

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Vera Drake

Mike Leigh, 2004 (7.9*)
This is not a pleasant film, nor one for those who can become squeamish (such as the adrenaline shot in Pulp Fiction) during movies. The subject is also abortion, which will make this a film many will want to avoid. In spite of all that, I will have to add that Imelda Staunton is one of the best actresses of our generation, and turned in a performance for all time in this film. If you want to see what powerful acting is all about, then watch this film. However, if you want an action film, or a cut and dry story with its own message to impart, then this will not be a film for you. Nearly all of Mike Leigh's films are on the human, interpersonal drama level, they're not action films.

Staunton plays a simple working-class London mother, who flits about her neighborhood daily, doing simple things for people in need. She epitomizes the term Good Samaritan. However, there is more to her than meets the eye, she has a secret life that even her lifetime husband doesn't know, and certainly not her children, who are now adults still living at home. The story and plot take a u-turn about midway, and that's when Staunton's artistry takes the film by the horns. This is a rare thing to see on film.

Staunton won 17 awards for her performance (and lost 9 other nominations), and would have easily won an Oscar® as well, but she was up against Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby, which has to be one of the best 10 performances of all time.
Her awards page at IMDB

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The Chorus

Christophe Barratier, France, 2004 (8.8*)
One of the few really good films about teachers, a worthy successor to 1939's classic school drama Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Clément Mathieu, a new teacher, played by Gérard Jugnot, volunteers for a remote music teaching post. He thinks it's maybe a small private school, but it turns out to be a near prison for juvenile delinquents, and he's basically a warden as well as a teacher.

This story is about how he gains the affection of his students, as well as shaping their dormant musical talents. This simple story never overreaches nor preaches, but remains perfectly within itself. This heartwarming film was nominated for two Oscars, foreign language film and music, and won 11 international awards (Awards Page at IMDB), 3 for music, 7 for director Barratier. On a short list with Mr. Chips and The Paper Chase (James Bridges, 1973) as great films about influential teachers.

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Zhou Yu's Train

Zhou Sun, 2004, China (8.1*)
This multi-layered romance will confuse some western audiences, boring many, and stimulate thinking and discussion about film style in others. A lot of what viewers will get from this will be based on what they take into it as experienced filmgoers.

On the surface, this is a simple romance about a porcelain painter, wonderfully played by Gong Li, one of the greatest Chinese actresses, who takes a long train journey twice a week to visit her lover, a poet (Tony Leung Ka Fai) who wins her heart with his tenderness and simple romantic poems to her he publishes in the local newspaper. She wants him to publish them in a book, feeling that he deserves a wide audience. She is also hounded on the trips by a brash but realistic vet, Honglei Sun, who begs her to quit traveling to a man not interested in commitment and stay closer to home, like with him. So she is pulled in two directions, one from the heart, one more from the body.

What makes this story more complex is that Gong Li plays a more modern woman with short hair, who also takes the train, and who is told this story from a third-person point of view, so we begin to wonder if this actually happened or is a fabrication of the poet as an author of a romance, perhaps based on the inspiration for his poems.

If you want a linear and clear story moving from A to C to get to conclusion D, this will frustrate you. If you enjoy Chinese films that are more about feelings, visual poetry, and life constantly in motion and change, then you will likely be haunted by this film for days to follow. I could make a case for either argument. Fans of the visual non-linear films of Wong Kar-Wai should enjoy this one from director Zhou Sun. Think French New Wave, a la modern China, with the rolling landscape and train also being major characters, as life is as much about the journey as the destination.

Note: Gong Li is so amazing that, as some said, I could watch her read the phone book. Her best film is Zhang Yimou's To Live (1994), winner of the Palm D'or at Cannes.

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A Very Long Engagement

aka Un long dimanche de fiancialles
Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France, 2004 (9.2*)
One of the best French films in recent years stars Audrey Tautou as Mathilde, whose fiance, Gaspard Ulliel, a Cèsar award winner, is serving at the front in WW1. This film of the novel by Sebastian Japrisot is one of the best yet made about this war, along with All Quiet on the Western Front and Kubrick's Paths of Glory; some even prefer it over Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan as a modern war film. I would have to admit that this film is more surprising, more innovative, and interesting, to me at least.

Jeunet deftly blends a romance, a mystery, and a war story by constantly shifting from one character to another as Mathilde searches for her fiance. At times the screen is split, and we see Mathilde's fantasies, along with events happening at other locales, to other characters.

This is such a major film that Oscar® winners Jodie Foster and Marion Cotillard each play supporting characters, with Foster speaking French. Cotillard is very effective as a vindictive lover out for revenge on all who wronged her man. One unforgettable scene has her using mechanical ingenuity as a weapon.

Well-deserved Oscar® nominations for art direction and cinematography (it won the American Society of Cinematographers award) makes me wonder why it received no nomination for foreign language film; the BAFTA awards did not make this same mistake. This has the feel of all great war epics, without being overlong at just 133 minutes. One would be hard pressed to find a more powerful WW1 film.

It won 16 awards overall, five Cèsars in France, losing best picture there to Games of Love and Chance. Awards page at IMDB

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Millions

Danny Boyle, 2004 (7.9*)

Long before he did Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle explored the same idea of rags to riches with the comedy Millions. Two brothers are playing in an empty box next to the railroad tracks, one saying he would wish for a big bag of money to come their way. About the same time, a train passes and someone throws a big bag of money off the train, which tumbles down the hill and into the boy's makeshift clubhouse!

Thinking the money fell from heaven, the boys hide the money, and begin using it to help others, a la Robin Hood. Soon complications arise, however, as some adults begin to get suspicious of the boys' activity.

This film raises ethical issues not bothered with in Slumdog, as in that film the money was legitimate. In this case, the origins of the loot may be criminal, making the kids accessories after the fact for not turning it in. Being rather poor, it also asks if people would 'do the right thing' or help their own desperate situation when given the opportunity.

Not as engrossing as Slumdog, but along with his first film Shallow Grave, yet another examination by Boyle of the theme of sudden riches presented to the downtrodden, and how it would change multiple lives.

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Touch the Sound

Thomas Riedelsheimer, 2004, Germany (8.2*)
The most sought after percussionist in the world is Dame Evelyn Glennie, a dimunitive woman from Scotland who was voted "Scottish woman of the decade". She is considered to be the first person to have a career as a solo percussionist. She can play anything that can be beaten with sticks, plastic tubes, horsehair bows, or really anything handy she happens to pick up. Even more amazing: she started going deaf at age 8, and by age 12 was designated to be 'profoundly deaf'. She wanted to continue her music career, so she was taught how to feel the sound of drums by touching them with her hands, and she can now perceive tones in her body.

In this film, director Riedelsheimer explores not only her music, but also what drives her creativity internally. She knows how to appreciate a Zen-like silence, saying that 'silence is one of the loudest sounds she's heard'. We are shown Dame Evelyn playing solo, creating improvisations with fellow experimental musician Fred Frith in a large vacant warehouse, and playing drums with some Japanese koto drummers, who say that it all comes from breathing.

She is an amazing woman, knighted before age 40, and is unlike anyone else you will see on film. A virtuoso adult musician, she seems to have the same inquisitive curiosity about sound that children have exploring their surroundings. This film won 5 awards at film festivals, most for best documentary. I lowered the rating a little due to less concentration on Evelyn's music and more on the visual aspects of her life.

Thomas Riedelsheimer makes gripping documentaries about uniquely talented individuals that most will never hear in the mass media. Rivers and Tides is about environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy, and is an arresting visual film, while this one is more awe-inspiring for it's audio.

Here is a clip of Evelyn playing a marimba solo from the film:

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Carrie's War

Coky Giedroyc, 2004 (8.8*)
Thankfully the British never tire of two things: filming Masterpiece Theater, and WW2 stories. This is another film about child evacuees from London being sent into the British countryside, in this case Wales. From the excellent novel by Nina Bawden, this story is an engaging family-safe story about a teenage girl, Carrie, excellently played by Keeley Fawcett, who ends up with her brother at the home of a stern, religious shopkeeper, Alun Armstrong, and his widowed sister, Lesley Sharp.

Soon after arriving, they are sent on a short journey to nearby Druid's Bottom, owned by the shopkeeper's sister, to fetch a Thanksgiving goose, and meet the wonderful self-proclaimed white witch Hepzibah, lovingly created by appropriately named Pauline Quirke, who fills the children with timeworn tales of a curse on the house and a 'screaming skull' which must be kept in the house of ill befalls the homeowner. They also meet the shopkeepers estranged sister, named Mrs. Gotobed, Geraldine McEwan, an engaging elderly widow who's wearing a different ball gown daily that were gifts from her husband, saving his favorite for her last day on earth, which she seems to know is coming. Add Carrie's evacuee friend Albert Sandwich, Eddie Cooper, who is staying at Druid's Bottom, and you have some wonderful Dickensian names.

This is another coming of age story during wartime, a subject brilliantly explored in Goodnight Mister Tom, starring the late John Thaw of Inspector Morse fame in his finest film performance. These two Masterpiece Theater films would make a great double-feature for the whole family. Carrie's War won four BAFTA awards, for makeup, design, costumes, and music. It's hard to believe that no actors won supporting awards.

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Finding Neverland

Dir: Marc Forster, 2004 (10*)

A beautiful and inspiring story, based on the life of author and playright J.M. Barrie, played by Johnny Depp in perhaps his best part, and his inspiration for Peter Pan and Neverland. Unfulfilled in a childless marriage (to Rahda Mitchell), Barrie meets some kids in a nearby park which he frequents, and their widowed mother, Kate Winslet (in her own personal favorite part and film). They begin a platonic friendship, in which Barrie becomes the surrogate father for her boys, and they in turn become the inspiration for his writing. Julie Christie also has a nice supporting part. A small but very touching film, wonderfully done. Nominated for 7 Oscars, but sadly only one Oscar for Music.

Note: as of Dec 8th, 2009, this film remains in the Netflix top 100, at #63 currently

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Turtles Can Fly

Bahman Ghobadi, 2004, Iraq-Iran-France (9.7*)
This is an amazing anti-war film which takes place in a Kurdish village on the border of Iraq and Turkey, just as the 2004 invasion of Iraq by the U.S. takes place. The star of the film is charismatic Soran Ebrahim, as a kid called Satellite because he sets up those dishes for remote areas who otherwise would have no tv. He's also the self-appointed leader of about 200 war orphans, organizing them into work details who earn most of their money by disarming land mines and reselling them, and harvesting spent artillery shells from two decades of war in the area for their scrap metal value. Into this village arrives a beautiful young girl (Ajil Sabari), taking care of her armless brother (who does amazing things with his teeth), and a near-blind infant her brother thinks deserves someone's care, who needs an ankle leash to keep him from wandering away.

This film is amazing for the amount of hope shown by the kids, all but ignored by the mostly shepherding adults, and how perseverance and ingenuity can allow survival in the harshest of conditions, amid a chaotic, war-torn environment. The Kurds are the largest ethnic group on earth without their own country or government, and they have been constantly attacked and persecuted by both Turkey and Iraq. This is one of the more memorable anti-war films ever made and should have a much wider audience, as it's been compared to Schindler's List for emotional impact.

All of the child actors were actual refugees, and this is the first film made in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Red Fish, shown throughout the film, are a symbol of the Iranian new year and symbolize life within life. This was Iran's submission for the Best Foreign Film category at the 2004 Oscars, and won 15 international awards out of 19 nominations.

Awards page at IMDB

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Brothers

Susanne Bier, 2004, Denmark (8.2*)
Sundance Audience Award
Brothers (aka Brødre) is another gripping and emotionally charged drama from master Danish director Susanne Bier (see After the Wedding here), winner of 13 international awards. This film deals with the effect of war on civilian life, as the film begins as one brother, Michael, a major in the army, is about to embark for duty in Afghanistan. We see a family dinner with his wife and two girls, his parents, and midway through his alcoholic brother Jannik shows up, who is an ex-convict and the black sheep of the family, who hangs in bars and shuns real jobs.

However everything changes after the brother leaves, and Jannik changes and becomes a good friend to the family, especially playful with the little girls. (Describing much more would spoil the plot, which has some turns). The stunningly beautiful Connie Nielsen (photo rt) is terrific as the wife, and won five international awards, including one as part of the winning ensemble, which is excellent overall. In a way, this is a Danish Best Years of Our Lives, updated for a modern world where small wars are fought but undeclared, raising moral issues for all concerned.

For me, not as artistic or subtle as After the Wedding, but still another worthy volume in Bier's impressive filmography as perhaps the best living female director.
Awards Page at Imdb

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Veer-Zaara

Yash Chopra, India, 2004 (8.0*)
This is a legendary love story, an epic musical-romance in the tradition of Austen and Bronte meets Bollywood. Veer Singh (played by Shahrukh Khan) is an Indian Air Force rescue helicopter pilot, who meets a beautiful young Pakistani woman, Zaara Khan (Priety Zinta), who has come to India to scatter the remains of her loyal servent in her homeland (which is a great scene), when he rescues her from a bus crash on a mountain road. She wants to repay him, so he asks for one day to show her his home village; of course, in a musical-romance, one day is all you need to fall in love for eternity.

Thus begins a three-hour epic with about 10 songs, some of which are needlessly thrown in, but others are perfect for both setting the mood and opening up the culture of this area for filmgoers as well the visitor from Pakistan. I especially liked "This Is Our Land" for that reason, a colorful Hollywoodish outdoor musical number with lots of locations and people. This is a long and evolving story, told as a flashback to a lawyer, with several interesting plot twists, for Zaara is already engaged to an arranged and political marriage fiance (to a bore) in her home town, so the plot immediately gets sticky for the romance.

This is typical of Bollywood films today: three hours, and with 6-8 musical numbers with pre-made videos for tv, a couple are quite exhilirating. It's also a good example of their two styles of film: a light-hearted musical with dancing crowds and vibrant colors, then a long slow drama with serious societal and humanitarian overtones. This film, with an intermission, is pretty much divided that way into two halves, with most of the music and cheeriness in the first half.

This could easily have been done in two hours, with about 4-5 songs, so I'm downgrading it some for that reason, but it's still a classic love story and entertaining musical as well, in the tradition of 50's Hollywood musicals (Sound of Music, Oklahoma, American in Paris).

Winner of 8 International Indian Film Awards, including picture, director, actor, actress (a lawyer, not the lover), story, music director, makeup. The awards page at IMDB, 20 wins, 47 nominations (rated 7.3/10 at IMDB, a reader's poll open to all viewers)

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Control Room

Jehane Nouhaim, 2004 (8.9*)
This is an excellent documentary, obviously shot by director Jehane Houhaim with a modest budget and crew, but one given a wide degree of access to all concerned. The film attempts to show the coverage of the Iraqi war from both sides of the issue, and expose the bias inherent in all newsmedia. We see more of the Al Jazeera coverage, who broadcasts to 40 million in the Arab world, but we also see the US Army's head media (ie, propaganda) liaison officer and hear the standard US pitch on events (liberate the people, make em safe, etc). We also go into the front lines of the war for at least one harrowing incident.

The filmmakers don't make a judgment but show some indicents that didn't get full coverage here in the US, such as the suspicious targeting of three different journalists outposts with missile attacks, killing three from Middle Eastern news sources. So much for freedom of the press, as the US said they shouldn't have been in war zone to begin with, preferring to brief the media themselves daily with the US version of events.

This is an important work for both sides to see, no matter what your own political stance, this is simply good documentary filmmaking and concerning an important era in history. As a BBC journalist states, "all media coverage is biased, they slant the news the way their audience wants to hear it. You listen to Fox for the right-wing, U.S. patriotic view, you watch Al Jazeera to get the opposite view for the Arab world."

As the director of 7-yr old Al Jazeera states, "this war will be a footnote in a few years, no one will still be talking about it, such is the attention span of modern man." Let's hope that films and other media keep it as alive in public consciousness as they have WW2.
[In English, with some subtitles]

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House of Flying Daggers

Zhang Yimou, 2004, China (8.1*)
Following his tremendous success with Hero, top-grossing film in Chinese history, Zhang Yimou continued with martial arts adventures with this story of a group of women who oppose the Tang Dynasty's male leaders continually involving the kingdom in wars. Believing if they overthrow the men and allow the women to take over, they can stop the wars and bring peace to the kingdom.

Ziyi Zhang (Crouching Tiger, The Road Home) is a member of the subversive revolutionary group known as House of Flying Daggers for their penchant of committing assassinations with daggers, made so that they can be thrown in curves, like a boomerang - so hiding behind a tree is useless. This is more exciting filmmaking from Yimou, who seems to have hit his stride in this genre: the historical, costume, epic action adventure, and the more intrigue the better. Along with Zhang, this stars Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau. Time Magazine and others called this the "best picture of the year".

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