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Reviews
A Dangerous Game (2014)
Another excellent film from this producer on the lies and corruption involved in the building of luxury golf courses
This film takes up where 'You've been Trumped' ends and takes the investigation further at the Menie Estate and into an unrelated luxury golf course development proposed for the vulnerable hills above Dubrovnik in Croatia.
The film was probably made on a shoestring (or an overdraft), but does not look constrained at all as it covers a lot of ground with great pictures of golf courses in several countries.
It is discouraging, but I guess not at all unexpected, that none of the promises made by Donald Trump for his development at the Menie Estate North of Aberdeen have been fulfilled. More disappointing is the way that Trump's victimised neighbours have been failed by Aberdeen Council and by the local MP, Alex Salmond. The revelation that Sarah Malone, the Vice President of Trump is married to the Editor of the Aberdeen Press and Journal, goes a long way to explaining the pro-Trump stance taken by that newspaper.
The film also investigates an unrelated, and yet strikingly similar, project to build a golf course in the environmentally sensitive hills above Dubrovnik, against the democratically expressed and overwhelming objections of the local population.
The film shows interviews with a range of deeply unpleasant people, including the Mayor of Dubrovnik and Donald Trump Junior.
There is also a final interview with Donald Trump himself, who remains utterly convinced, of course, that he is right and everyone else is wrong.
The film manages to cover a great deal of ground very well, including technical issues about chemical use and aquifer contamination - and environmental damage - and yet is actually quite suspenseful.
An excellent film that deserves a very wide audience...
Virunga (2014)
Beautiful and brave film spoilt by historical inaccuracies
The film was shot by a very brave group of people in what is a dangerous area. The pictures of the Park are beautiful and the those of the gorillas are captivating. I lived in DRC for five years, but mainly stuck to Kinshasa.
I was surprised by the historical inaccuracies in the initial background:
- the film states that other countries in Africa were run by European Governments, but that Congo was the only one run by companies. This is not correct. King Leopold convinced the other European Powers to grant him the Congo which he would 'run for the benefit of its people'. In fact he ran it entirely for his own financial benefit and this probably resulted in the death of 10 million Congolese (see 'King Leopold's Ghost' by Adam Hochschild).
- the film goes on to state that Patrice Lumumba, Congo's democratically elected Prime Minister at Independence was killed by mining companies. This is also not true. Patrice Lumumba made himself unpopular with the Belgian Govt with his speech at the Independence ceremony. He made himself unpopular with the American Govt with his approach to the Soviet Union for assistance.
The CIA was briefed to arrange his death (see 'Chief of Station, Congo' by Larry Devlin) and the Chief of Station (i.e. the head of CIA, Congo) was bizarrely provided with poisonous toothpaste to be introduced into Lumumba's bathroom - but this was not deployed.
The Belgian Govt took a direct role in Lumumba's murder with the Belgian Police Commissioner Frans Verscheure directing the firing squad (see 'The Assassination of Lumumba' by Ludo de Witte).
It was not mining companies that killed Lumumba, it was the Belgian and US Governments.
I can see that the film's makers wanted to present a uniform story where evil mining companies have been responsible for all the ills in Congo's past (and present), but this is not correct and this dishonesty detracts from the film.
The film's makers have downplayed the subsequent (11 June 2014) decision by SOCO to withdraw from the Park and not to return unless 'approved by UNESCO and the DRC Government'. The film makers may not like SOCO, but their undertaking seems pretty clear and categoric. I can't see UNESCO inviting them back in.
And part of the reason for that is the reality gathered and presented by the film. They, together with the campaigning efforts of WWF (likewise undervalued by the filmmakers) should get all due credit for saving this beautiful Park.
Cradle 2 the Grave (2003)
Pleasant, forgettable rubbish
Too much attention to making things look good, not enough on the plot and what was happening in the action. In some fight scenes, they put a lot of effort into arty shots of the kicks etc, but as a result it was frequently unclear who was kicking who. But it probably didn't matter.
Suspension of disbelief is essential if you watch this film. It is not normal for a helicopter to crash in flames and explode and then someone happily jumps out without a scratch.
No attempt at an explanation of how the (?) diamonds came to be created and how they got to a US Bank vault. Scene with arms dealers entirely non-credible - and badly acted.
Scenes with daughter cute-sy to the point of vomiting. They would have shot her. They had my vote.
I was lucky that I was slow to get out of the cinema, so I didn't miss the entertaining dialogue over the credits. I must be in the minority. So, if you make the mistake of going to this film, don't leave as soon as the credits start. Stick around. Get your money's worth!
Lumumba (2000)
A film that is horrific and unsettling, but real. Excellent.
Congo is a sad country which started with massive disadvantages (King Leopold used it as his private route to personal wealth) and never recovered.
The Belgians made little provision for independence, but that is not unusual in Africa and other countries have managed OK despite a bad start. Congo never did.
A combination of tribal and ethnic conflicts, underhand colonial behaviour and Cold War politics meant that failure was inevitable. Lumumba was brutally murdered by his own countrymen with America and Belgium cheering from the sidelines.
Lumumba never had a chance and he made it worse for himself by delivering an un-programmed and fiercely anti-colonial speech on Independence Day. This is not made too clear in the film - you have to listen really hard to know that that is what was happening. As a result of that unwise speech, he destroyed his relations with the Belgians and gave the Congolese people hopes and expectations that could never be realised.
He also made an enemy of the leader of the Katanga region.
He was thus regarded by his own people as having reneged on promises after an impossibly short time in Government and then, having been publicly and privately brutalised by Congolese troops, finally murdered by the Congolese leader in Katanga, who ordered two Belgian policemen to dig up and destroy the body. All true and faithfully, if gruesomely, repeated in the film.
Everyone comes out badly in the film - which is only right and proper. Belgians for practising apartheid before the word was invented to cover the Boers in SA. How could anyone operate a system where, as a native, you had to be assessed to see if you had developed (`evolved' - shades of Darwin) sufficiently to be licensed to have wine in your house?
The Americans come out rather lightly in the film. Maybe it was not known at the time the film was made that the CIA station chief (Devlin, not Carlucci) was sent poisoned toothpaste to introduce into Lumumba's bathroom cabinet (he didn't). By order of Eisenhower.
The Congolese come out worst of all, appropriately, since in the long term they are the ones who also suffered (and continue to suffer) the most as a result of not being able to act together irrespective of tribal origin.
There is still in reality no country that is Congo. It remains a collection of tribal and ethnic groupings. And therefore weak and poor and ready to be exploited. All this is accurately foreshadowed in this excellent film.
A film that is horrific and unsettling, but real. Excellent.
Blue Crush (2002)
Worth seeing for the shots of sea, waves and surfboards
Best in-sea effects I've seen. Some of the waves managed to look genuinely intimidating. Don't expect a great script, but the film is worth seeing for the shots of sea, waves and surfboards. Much better than I expected; it is not just a `chick-flick'. The non-traditional ending was a surprise, although there was an element of `they all lived happily ever after'.
Insomnia (2002)
Not a `feel-good' movie
Pacino was brilliant, but Robin Williams was not completely convincing as the murderer. The make-up people deserve an Oscar for making Pacino look progressively more and more exhausted as the film progresses. The sets are really depressing - this is not a `feel-good' movie and will do nothing for tourism to Alaska, which comes out as a tacky collection of shacks and bad modern architecture.
And yet, despite its strengths, somehow the film dragged and seemed to last a lot longer than it really did.
Not a film to see twice, but you have to see it once.