Change Your Image
old_prof
Reviews
Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006)
Negative, You Bet, Since When Is That a Crime?
As I think back over the movies I saw in 2006, this one stands out, because it's making an imp't pt that the public needs to consider. And it makes it in an entertaining way--fascinating, dramatic, revelatory of human nature.
I was amazed by roger-levy's comment, which you are featuring, that this movie is "kind of negative" & if we cd see the "deleted footage" (how is this possible?) we wd get a completely different impression. Of what--the environmental board in Calif. that caved into the corporate interests (cars & oil)? We will see these men as courageous & visionary? The industry giants who only thought it terms of what they wanted, not what the public wanted (or could be made to want by more effective advertising)? Would we see these men as less selfish and intolerant? As far as I'm concerned, the most inspiring person in the movie was the man who invented the electric engine & his wife. At the end, they weren't looking backward (despite their age) but turning towards the future. They thought the electric car wd eventually come into its own, & this morning (1/9/07)'s Washington Post says this is now happening.
Also--when you go to see a movie titled, "Who Killed. . .?" (Anything, incl. Roger Rabbit), you don't expect a "feel-good" experience! I hope this guy doesn't go to see any Shakespearean tragedies in the near future; even in its own time, people wanted Shakespeare to change the ending of "King Lear."
Heights (2005)
Focus on the Wrong Character
Since this play was written by a young woman, the focus on the young woman (Isabel, played by Elizabeth Banks) is logical, but misguided. Despite the many close-ups of her agonized pretty face, the young woman is NOT the character with the problem here. In fact, the authors contrive a soft landing for her (I won't spoil this one). But it's the young man who has the problem that won't go away after the last frame. I wish Hollywood had the courage to confront the effect of the patriarchal ideal on homosexual males. A gay friend once told me, "These people who say homosexuals choose their life are crazy. If I could choose, I'd have a wife & a house & kids to come home to every night." Some gay guys think they can have it all, & maybe in a few cases they manage it. But to focus on the young man's initial desire to have it both ways, then on his eventual decision (under severe pressure) to give up that dream, and finally to extend the film to include his subsequentexperiences at the office & elsewhere, would be to turn this film upside down. (Also, to keep the length down, several subplots would have to go. Do we need the mother--even mesmerizingly played by Glenn Close--at all?) Perhaps the playwright, like the young woman in the film, has to learn the art of empathy. Good writers begin by writing about themselves, but great ones go on to write about other people.
Mad Hot Ballroom (2005)
Dancing Makes More Sense than Spelling
While George Bush was dreaming up "no child left behind," a real educational genius was starting a ballroom dancing program in the public schools of NYC. Such programs do a lot more for kids' mental & physical health than all the emphasis on testing. Would that every school in the nation could have such a program! This is such a happy movie. I liked it much better than the one about the national spelling bee a few years ago. Many of the spelling words seemed esoteric & almost useless in the children's future life. The level of competitiveness & the amount of pressure on the children got ugly at times. Whereas in this dancing movie, you know the children will go on dancing & having fun (& healthy exercise) doing it. I hope a lot of young people see this movie & decide to become elementary school teachers. The kids were wonderfully appealing & in many cases wise beyond their years.
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
Hurrah for the UN!
I live in Boise, Idaho, where the U.N. isn't the most popular organization around. (What is? Why, the N.R.A. of course. One of our U.S. Senators, re-elected w/o a Dem opponent last Nov., is actually on the national board of the N.R.A., but doesn't see this as a conflict of interest. My, wouldn't the N.R.A. have had a ball in Rwanda in the 1990's? But I digress.) Every Oct. 23 (U.N. Day) we hang up our U.N. flag (purchased at the U.N. in New York in 2002) & wait for comments one way or the other. So far we have been ignored, but I hope if a few more Boiseans see this movie, where the U.N. is the only force for peace, progress & stability in a scene of total physical & moral chaos, it will convince them that the U.N. is indeed doing the job that no other organization will do. Along w/ the U.N. colonel, who is a hero of the movie, a young Red Cross worker (refreshingly portrayed as not dazzlingly pretty & not at all made-up) is a heroine. So let's hear it also for the International Red Cross! And let's hope both the U.N. & the Red Cross are taking action to end the current carnage in Darfur, because now that Colin Powell is gone, I doubt anyone in the U.S. gov't is paying attention.
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
Michael Moore is a Hero
When I was a child, my parents & teachers (& especially, Sunday School teachers) told me it was very important to stand up for what is right, no matter what anybody said. I wonder how many instructors of the young are still telling their children that?
Michael Moore is an example for all of us of a person who dares to stand up for the values of honesty, responsibility & fairness. The most important point he is making in this movie is the immorality of using the children of poor people to fight a war for the benefit of the rich.
If all the young people who see this movie understand how unfair this is & get registered to vote, George W. Bush can be defeated in November.
One additional note: the image of GWB that continually haunts me is his mockery of the young woman who converted to Christianity while on death row in Texas, became a model prison citizen, and pleaded with him for her life. It was not enough that he sent her to her death, but his making fun of her desperation continues to characterize him as totally lacking in empathy and compassion. I'm sure, if he ever sees this movie, he will find the bereft mother in Flint MI equally amusing, but I think she is the strongest character in the film.