Mud Songs

Near the end of the 1995 documentary, Anne Frank: Remembered, there’s a two-second clip of Anne Frank — 1943, ‘44, something like that, six months or so before she and her family went into hiding. A wedding was being filmed by someone with an early home movie camera. After taking some shots of the bride and groom in the street, the camera pans up to get a shot of some spectators looking down from the balcony of their apartment at the wedding party below. There is a young girl leaning over the railing of the balcony; we barely get a glimpse of her. She quickly turns her head and goes back into the apartment. They slow the film down and play it back. And it’s Anne Frank. Motion picture footage of Anne Frank. The real person. That is the most powerful, emotionally profound moment I’ve experienced watching a film. I totally lost it when they showed that two-second clip of Anne Frank. It cut me half. There was no denying that what I had just seen in the previous 100 minutes of the documentary was real. It hit me so hard I couldn’t talk about it for weeks afterwards. And I can still get choked up trying to talk about. Rabbit-Proof Fence has a moment like that. For me, not as powerful as that moment of seeing Anne Frank, but for some people it will be. And if for nothing else but that moment, that possibility, I have to recommend the film. Rabbit-Proof Fence tells the story of three Australian aboriginal girls who run away from a school that is essentially a prison. They trek through a desert for 9 weeks to be with their families. It’s an enlightening and still entertaining film (with a powerful soundtrack by Peter Gabriel). [Commentary originally from 2004.]

There’s one good laugh in Hollywood Ending: the scene where Woody falls. He falls and CRASHES. I rewound it and watched it about fives times and laughed until I cried every time. And it happens in the background of the scene. So if you’re not paying attention to the background you’ll miss it. The rest of the movie is completely forgettable. Rent Decontructing Harry instead. [Commentary originally from 2002.]

Tigerland presents the most realistic portrayal of boot camp that I have seen in a movie next to Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, and for that I think it’s worth watching. I wasn’t expecting the highest calibre of film-making with Joel Schumacher directing this one, so I was surprised that Tigerland wasn’t a complete waste of my time. In technique, it’s derivative of Saving Private Ryan with the shaky camera work, grainy shots, the film occasionally running like it’s skipping a sprocke. All those tricks Speilberg used to make his film seem more realistic are distracting here. Comparatively, the characters in Tigerland are more like real people and the story less contrived, not so wrapped up in the American flag. It’s not a great film, but it’s not too bad. [Commentary originally from 2001.]