Saturday, August 06, 2005

Let Me Take That Back

Note to self: never recommend anything without having first seen it.

In spite of the hoopla over Original Child Bomb, I was totally disappointed when watching it tonight. It's stunning and heartbreaking when actual documentary footage from the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are shown, or when survivors are interviewed, but the rest (over two-thirds of the film) is a really undisciplined and poorly conceived effort to make a political statement via bad art. There can be no more powerful statement about Hiroshima and Nagasaki than the actual footage of the aftermath. Anything else dilutes the emotional impact and is nothing more than grandstanding.

There is an awful trend in this country toward political debate being engaged in the guise of art. Bad, bad idea. I want facts and data, not mocking narrative. The mocking doesn't make a point. Facts do. And too many political filmmaker (on both ends of the ideology spectrum) seem to either play fast and loose with the facts or not use them at all.

Anyway, my apologies for the recommendation and I will remember the note to self in the future.

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