By Joe Bendel. Judah P. Benjamin was the first Jewish cabinet officer in North America. He served as Secretary of State for the C.S.A. The historical irony is obvious. In fact, Jewish Americans willingly enlisted on both sides of the Civil War at disproportionally high rates, yet their service remains largely overlooked. Intended to rectify Civil War historians’ unfortunate slights, Jonathan Gruber’s documentary Jewish Soldiers in Blue & Gray compellingly surveys Jewish participation in the Civil War. Produced in time for the war’s sesquicentennial, it screens this Tuesday and Wednesday as part of the 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival.
Benjamin was not the only Jewish Confederate. Though it clearly discomforts several of the contemporary Jewish historians interviewed throughout Soldiers, many Jewish Americans so appreciated the welcoming home they found in the Old South that they rushed to take arms on her behalf, despite the significance of slavery within their religious faith. Likewise, Jewish Northerners also readily volunteered as an unambiguous act of patriotism, while embracing abolitionism with a special import as the descendants of the slaves of Exodus.
More than simply dressing up historical footnotes, the film identifies several instances of battle-turning valor, leading to five Congressional Medals of Honor for Jewish soldiers, a wholly remarkable total given the relative overall size of the Jewish-American population. Yet, perhaps the most unfairly ignored historical figure receiving his just due in Soldiers is that of Isachar Zacharie, Lincoln’s self-taught podiatrist, who served the President as a spy and a diplomatic envoy to the Confederate States.
Frankly, Soldiers might challenge some pre-conceived notions, essentially implying that the Confederate Army was somewhat more congenial to Jewish serviceman than the Union forces. Still, it singles out one Northerner who overturned injustice for Jewish Americans whenever he confronted it. That man was indeed Abraham Lincoln.
Though Soldiers definitely looks ready-made for cable or PBS broadcast, it is legitimately educational. It also boasts some notable talent in the audio-booth, with Oscar-nominated screenwriter-director John Milius providing the authoritative narration and Sam Waterston giving voice to Pres. Lincoln.
It sounds like a tall order, but Soldiers should manage to increase most viewers’ appreciation of Lincoln. It definitely seems to have been produced from the perspective that America is a place where justice and tolerance ultimately triumph, albeit at a tremendous price in this case. Well paced and informative, it screens this Tuesday (1/18) and Wednesday (1/19) with a special panel discussion scheduled to follow the latter night.
By Jason Apuzzo.THE PITCH: Seth Rogan drops 400 lbs. and attempts to bring nebbish humor to the role of Britt Reid, wealthy Los Angeles scion to a newspaper dynasty who is also secretly the masked crimefighter-vigilante The Green Hornet.
THE SKINNY: It’s a film that might’ve worked had the spectacularly miscast Rogan not been its star, co-screenwriter and executive producer. Not even a slick, stylish Jay Chou as Kato, a fabulous stunt-car (The Black Beauty) or a perky Cameron Diaz can save this colossal turkey from the boring, bloated pseudo-star/narcissist at its core.
WHAT DOESN’T WORK:
• Seth Rogan, the film’s black hole. His titanic ego – unsupported by any actual talent or personal warmth – sucks all life out of the film, and basically ruins whatever slim chances The Green Hornet had to entertain.
• Christoph Waltz, playing a neurotic Russian gangster. His entire role is like a joke that someone keeps re-telling at a party, even after nobody laughed the first time. I felt sorry for him. With that said, it’s nice to finally see Russians replace Italians as the urban villain-of-choice.
• The film’s erratic stabs at humor, which never really gel. Rogan is simply not funny enough as a writer, and is otherwise way out of his league as an actor carrying a film of this size. His lame efforts, paunch and Borscht Belt schtick remind you of how good the Lethal Weapon films were back in the day when they were clicking.
• The action scenes, which never really take flight – although it was fun seeing The Black Beauty take an elevator ride late in the film. I didn’t know cars could fit in elevators.
WHAT WORKS:
• It seems almost impossible that anyone could step into Bruce Lee’s shoes as Kato, yet Taiwanese singer-actor Jay Chou does a nice job of it – exuding a stoic cool, unexpected humor and great martial arts moves. The fight sequences, shot in ‘Kato Vision’ (a combination of ‘bullet-time’ and exaggerated, forced-perspective 3D) worked nicely enough – although there weren’t nearly enough of them.
• The stylish Black Beauty (an Imperial Crown), a car almost as iconic in its day as the Batmobile, is brought back to life with some nice weaponry and gadgets (‘infra-green’ headlights!).
• Cameron Diaz somehow manages the unthinkable by extracting humor and warmth out of a nothing role as Lenore Case, Britt Reid’s personal assistant. I really hope she got paid a lot for being in this film.
Cameron Diaz as Lenore Case.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Hollywood – Sony in this case – has just ruined a great ‘property’ from its past.
A few months ago I happened to pick up a bootleg copy of the entire, original Green Hornet TV series – starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee – and I’ve been enjoying it ever since. (I’m aware, by the way, that there have been many incarnations of The Green Hornet – including on radio, in film serials and in comic books.) The old show was stylish, cool, and somehow more menacing than most standard comic book-style fare. In fact, The Green Hornet may be the only comic book character I actually like, and I was eager to see him brought to the big screen.
What’s great about the original TV series is that the Britt Reid character has no superpowers whatsoever; he’s just this cool, retro-mod guy, with the ultimate bad-ass kung fu partner (I will not stoop to calling the great Bruce Lee a ‘sidekick’) – who spends most of his time acting like the underworld hoods he’s secretly pursuing. And when he’s off work, he kicks back with a cocktail and plots strategy with his sexy secretary. What’s not to like here?
Van Williams brought a subdued intensity to the role; his overcoat, mask and fedora were really the entire character – there wasn’t much else to speak of. And the music – with the jazz trumpet solo by Al Hirt – gave the show the perfect, swinging vibe for the time.
But I was under no illusions about what this new film was going to be like, once Seth Rogan got involved. A project that should’ve been done straight – and most definitely not like a Woody Allen routine – Rogan has instead turned this new film into a vehicle for stupid humor, gross-out jokes and cheap sentimentality. You might say that Rogan has the reverse Midas touch, in that everything he touches turns to lead rather than gold. Someone like Hugh Jackman, or maybe even Affleck – the newer, wiser Affleck – might’ve been perfect to play Britt Reid … but in any case, Seth Rogan should’ve been kept by armed guard about 2,000 miles away from this film. What the hell did Sony owe him to give him this?
Anyway, save yourself the trouble of watching this mess – whether in 3D, IMAX or on a cheap bootleg. Rogan will sting you in any format you choose.
By Joe Bendel. Imagine the Keystone Cops with a severe mean streak. That is pretty much what you get from the Chinese military police stationed in a hardscrabble village on the North Korean border. Watching a full day of these officers on the job is not a pretty picture, but it is often quite absurd. Such is the nature of Chinese criminal justice subversively documented by Zhao Liang in Crime and Punishment (trailer above), which screens at the Anthology Film Archives in conjunction with the long-awaited theatrical release of Zhao’s devastating Petition.
Distributed by dGenerate Films, the specialists in independent Chinese cinema, Punishment watches fly-on-the-wall style as the recruits of the People’s Armed Police (PAP) gruffly patrol the isolated border town in hopes of a more permanent and prestigious assignment at the end of their two year tours. Essentially temps, the young men do not seem to be concerned with forging any rapport with the locals. Beatings are pretty much par for the course, as the soldiers quickly demonstrate during their first case of the day.
A severely hard-of-hearing man is hauled in on suspicion of stealing a cell-phone, with the obvious irony therein completely lost on the PAP. When their interrogation flounders, they first resort to public humiliation, eventually falling back on a good old-fashioned beating. “Turn off the cameras” they instruct Zhao. We will be hearing those words several times more before the film ends.
Although they do not physically assault the subject of their next investigation, their behavior towards a dirt poor farmer collecting scrap metal without a dozen government permits filed in triplicate is arguably crueler. Watching them badger and berate the clueless old man feels like one of the longest, most uncomfortable sequences ever captured on film.
As the day progresses, it looks like the coppers might be doing some legitimate police work when they launch a manhunt for a suspected killer. However, the only prey we see them bag is a desperate farmer poaching firewood to sell for New Year’s gifts for his children. Even the arresting officers have misgivings after seeing the suspect’s truly mean living conditions. Unfortunately, they had already administered the requite beat-down by this point.
Although Zhao basically cuts the camera when he is told, he still leaves no question as to the nature of what happens shortly thereafter. Like most Digital Generation filmmakers, Zhao eschews artificial conventions like voice-over narration and talking head interview segments. Aside from a few Dragnet like title cards explaining what happened to suspects after their questioning/thrashing, Zhao simply captures the scene in his lens, letting each character speak for himself through his behavior.
While Punishment does not have the same emotional heft as Petition, it is still a rather shocking expose of the Chinese criminal justice system. Yet, for all the abuse and intimidation meted out by the PAP, their actual results are less than impressive. After three investigations and much thuggery, they have less than one thousand Yuan in fines to show for their efforts. Daring in its own right, the unvarnished Punishment is definitely worth seeing when it screens at Anthology Film Archives Saturday (1/15) and Sunday (1/16) in conjunction with Zhao’s staggering Petition.
By Jason Apuzzo. • Given the sudden shift in theme and meanings in ABC’s V, it’s obvious that we’ve got to keep a careful eye on sci-fi these days – as each new project further proliferates and complicates the political messages being conveyed by the genre. Aside from V – which within one week went from satirizing global warming hysteria, to associating the Israeli Mossad and the Catholic Church with suicide bombing (!) – two other interesting cases in point are the forthcoming Battle: Los Angeles, and Steven Spielberg’s new Falling Skies TV series. Let’s do a little speculative ‘deep reading,’ shall we?
The latest Battle: LA trailer (see above), which just hit the internet this week, revealed something interesting: namely, the aliens’ motivations in the film for attacking Earth. Apparently Battle: LA‘s wave of alien invaders – among many similar alien hordes arriving on our planet during the 2011 and 2012 movie calendars – will be arriving specifically in order to seize our natural resources.
Now, this is a fairly typical theme in the alien invasion genre going all the way back to the 1950s, and it has been re-appearing as recently as in V (and James Cameron reversed the scenario in Avatar, with humans doing the invading) … and yet I can’t help but wonder if in a post-Iraq War world whether the subtext of this film, much as in Spielberg’s War of the Worlds (at least, according to War of the World‘s screenwriter, David Koepp), is to let Americans now feel ‘what it’s like to be invaded/exploited’ ourselves? (Even when we’re not actually exploiting anyone, but liberating people living under tyranny.)
I only ask this because of this somewhat peculiar, on-the-nose line that appears conspicuously early in the trailer:
“When you invade a place for its resources, you wipe out the indigenous population. Right now, we are being colonized.”
Which real-world invasion/’colonialist’ scenario is that referring to? I’d love to know. Somehow I think I already do.
Were it to be a reverse commentary on the Iraq War, Battle: LA would certainly resemble Spielberg’s War of the Worlds – and, on that note, the other big alien invasion trailer to hit recently was for Spielberg’s Falling Skies TV series (see above).
Aside from recycling every cliché of the genre imaginable, the trailer was noteworthy for this similarly on-the-nose line:
“History is full of inferior forces creating so much trouble that the invading army leaves.”
Hmm. I wonder what ‘history’ this line is referring to here. I keep scratching my head, but I can’t come up with anything – maybe some of Libertas’ clever readers could help? In any case, one gets the sense from both the Battle: LA and Falling Skies trailers – and even from last week’s episode of V (alas) – that the thematic ‘purpose’ of some of these alien invasion thrillers may actually be Iraq War-payback.
Should that be the case – and I’m not yet assuming it is – I’m allowed to find such a message troubling; it has an angry, vengeful, self-loathing quality at a time when the mandarins of our culture are currently lecturing everyone about how we’re supposed to be ‘toning down our rhetoric.’ Hollywood, look in the mirror.
• We’re apparently going to be getting a Total Recall remake with Colin Farrell, a remake which will not be taking audiences to Mars this time , however – nor will the film be shot in 3D. This might actually be the only case in recent memory of aliens actually being removed from a project, rather than added to them (i.e., Universal’s Battleship).
• And speaking of Universal’s Battleship, James Cameron is back in the news – after a whole 2 weeks – for publicly blasting, so to speak, Universal’s alien-invasion themed Battleship. Here’s Cameron:
We have a story crisis. Now they want to make the Battleship game into a film. This is pure desperation. Everyone in Hollywood knows how important it is that a film is a brand before it hit theaters. If a brand has been around, Harry Potter for example, or Spider-Man, you are light years ahead. And there lies the problem. Because unfortunately these franchises are become more and more ridiculous. Battleship. This degrades the cinema.
Unfortunately I agree with him here. We just had Missile Command go into development this week, and in a few months we’ll be getting a third Transformers movie, with McG’s Ouija board game movie not far behind. What’s next, a Voltron movie? Oh, wait, somebody’s already doing that … In other Cameron news, incidentally, here is an update on the Cameron-Guillermo del Toro adaptation of Lovecraft’s ‘alien invasion’ novel At the Mountains of Madness.
Actress-model Brooklyn Decker of "Battleship."
• Incidentally, Universal’s $200 million alien-invasion ‘epic’/board-game adaption Battleship is currently in the midst of reshoots – based on the fact that multiple endings of the film were apparently shot (which probably doesn’t help the budget) – but nonetheless Battleship star Brooklyn Decker is out praising her ’embattled’ director, Peter Berg.
But her standing up for her director isn’t really what’s got you excited, though, is it? You want to see the recent pictures of her shooting the film on the beach in Hawaii – so here you go. You deserve that, after making it through the Falling Skies trailer.
Anne Francis, from "Forbidden Planet."
• It seems impossible, yet even more alien invasion projects were announced this week: Fox just announced that it’s put a movie adaptation of Atari’s classic video game Missile Command into development – a game which has no plot, incidentally; and, just today, something called Alien Sleeper Cell went into development, as well, with District 9 producer Bill Block attached. The title Alien Sleeper Cell alone should tell you everything you need to know about whether the current wave of alien invasion films carry political/ideological connotations.
• The lovely and talented Anne Francis of 1956’s Forbidden Planet has died – just a few months after her Forbidden Planet co-star Leslie Nielsen also passed away. Our condolences to her family. Ms. Francis was a marvelous star, and did a wonderful (if short-lived) series in 1965 called Honey West in which she played a stylish, 60s go-go girl detective. She had a sweet, pixie-like charm about her – and she will certainly be missed.
• Did you know that the alien invasion genre has even hit this year’s Sundance? Of course, Sundance being Sundance … they’ll be premiering Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (no, that’s not a Roger Corman movie) at this year’s festival, along with Another Earth (check out an interview with director Mike Cahill here) and Troll Hunters – the latter being, I suppose, more of a ‘creature invasion’ film.
Rosie Huntington-Whitely of "Transformers 3."
• And on the Creature Invasion Front, Piranha 3D just hit Blu-ray (including 3D Blu-ray; see our review here); David Fincher will apparently be shooting the massive squids of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 3D; Gareth Edwards, director of the indie alien invasion thriller Monsters (see our review here) has improbably been given the Godzilla reboot – which can only mean Legendary Pictures hasn’t actually seen Edwards’ film; and, of course, Troll Hunters will be getting its world premiere at Sundance. I loveTroll Hunters’ trailer, by the way – is that because I’ve met so many trolls in LA? The movie does seem authentic in depicting trolls, although in real-life they’re usually much shorter.
• In other Alien Invasion/Sci-Fi News & Notes: we may be getting a Tron sequel after all; there will apparently be a Cowboys & Aliens Super Bowl commercial (you can catch actor Sam Rockwell discussing Cowboys & Alienshere); here are DVD/Blu-ray details for Skyline (see our review here); J.J. Abrams’ Super 8 and also Transformers 3 will be getting the IMAX treatment; we may also be getting a Super 8 trailer in March; there are some new production stills out for Steven Spielberg’s Terra Nova TV series; Charlize Theron may be in contention for the Alien prequels (I doubt she’ll make it; it will probably be Noomi Rapace); there’s a new TV spot out for I am Number Four; the new alien invader-comedy Paul has a new trailer (it’s terrible); the faux-documentary alien invasion thriller Apollo 18 will now be released on April 22nd; Jodie Foster has signed on for Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium; check out this new trailer for the Star Wars Blu-rays; and there’s a great new trailer out for the new Star Wars: The Old Republic video game.
• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … Transformers 3′s Rosie Huntington-Whiteley has an artsy, sexy new photoshoot out, perhaps designed to make people forget that Megan Fox was once the belle of that alien invasion franchise. Click here to see more of the shoot .. which is quite an eye-full.
And that’s what’s happening today on the Alien Invasion Front!
By Joe Bendel. They are the dregs of society. Scorned and maligned, they live a dangerous existence in crude shantytowns as they pursue their quixotic quest. They seek redress from the Chinese government and for filmmaker Zhao Liang, these “petitioners” are his country’s greatest heroes. The product of over ten years spent with these marginalized justice seekers, Zhao’s Petition stands as arguably the most damning documentary record of contemporary China to reach American theaters since the initial rise of the Digital Generation of independent filmmakers. A special selection of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, Petition finally opens in New York this Friday at the Anthology Film Archives.
Throughout Petition it is crystal clear that the Chinese government has institutionalized corruption and hopelessly stacked the deck against the petitioners. Those victimized by unfair rulings have limited options locally for appeal (from the same corrupt bodies), so their only recourse is through the Kafkaesque “Petition Offices” in Beijing. Never in the film do we see the bureaucrats there actually give a petitioner satisfaction. They do keep records though. In fact, the local authorities have a vested interest in maintaining low petition numbers. Hence, the presence of “retrievers,” hired thugs who physically assault petitioners as they approach the petition office.
Petition is definitely produced in the fly-on-the-wall, naturalistic style of Jia Zhangke and his “d-generate” followers, but there is no shortage of visceral drama here. Each petitioner we meet has an even greater story of injustice to tell. Perversely, it seems it is those who do not take bribes who usually find themselves prosecuted in China. Petitioners are arrested, beaten, and even die under mysterious circumstances. Yet, it is through Zhao’s central figures, Qi and her daughter Juan, that we experience the emotional drain of the petitioning process with uncomfortable immediacy. Frankly, even if you have seen a number of Chinese documentaries, this film will still profoundly disturb you.
Zhao deserves credit for both his significant investment of time and his fearlessness. Not surprisingly, filming is strictly prohibited in the Petition Offices, but that did not stop him from trying, often getting more than a slight jostle for his trouble. Indeed, Petition represents truly independent filmmaking.
Petition is the cinematic equivalent of a smoking gun. It is impossible to maintain any Pollyannaish illusions of about the rule of law in China after watching the film. Yet, like Zhao, viewers will be struck by the petitioners’ indomitable drive for justice. May God protect them, because their government certainly won’t. A legitimately bold and honest film that needs to be seen, Petition opens this Friday (1/14) in New York at the Anthology Film Archives.
According to Showtime, even though the miniseries is “well-produced, well-acted and a quality piece of work,” it still apparently “doesn’t fit the Showtime programming brand.” Let’s remember here that several series that do apparently fit the Showtime brand are: Californication, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Weeds, and Penn & Teller: Bullshit!
Available only as a bootleg?
I know that everyone is currently consumed with the controversy associated with the Arizona shooting, but this developing story with respect to the Kennedy miniseries is really quite extraordinary – and eerily reminiscent of the situation from several years ago with respect to ABC’s The Path to 9/11, a series that was critical of the Clintons. Whereas the CBS miniseries The Reagans – the series to which The Kennedys has repeatedly been compared in the media – did eventually land on Showtime, no such fate currently seems guaranteed for Surnow’s series, which is extraordinary.
In the years since The Path to 9/11 came out, my colleague Cyrus Nowrasteh has been reduced to handing out bootlegged copies of the film to friends and colleagues, because ABC refuses to release a DVD of the program. The situation is really quite incredible, when you consider that Path was a $40 million network movie that had 28 million viewers the night of its premiere. I’m sure Joel never thought such a situation was possible with respect to The Kennedys, yet here we are all over again.
It’s a shame that the Fox News and talk radio people are so busy right now having to defend their own careers, because at least they still have some measure of free speech in what they do. If you work in the Hollywood system? Forget it.
Benjamin was not the only Jewish Confederate. Though it clearly discomforts several of the contemporary Jewish historians interviewed throughout Soldiers, many Jewish Americans so appreciated the welcoming home they found in the Old South that they rushed to take arms on her behalf, despite the significance of slavery within their religious faith. Likewise, Jewish Northerners also readily volunteered as an unambiguous act of patriotism, while embracing abolitionism with a special import as the descendants of the slaves of Exodus.
