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Reality cinema, the Moore way
(At PVR Plaza and
other Delhi theatres)
HERE COMES a docu-drama that sails to its destination with such crisp editing and concise narration that you wonder what was the fuss all about! And leaves you thinking if the Bush administration had sold the world at large, and Americans in particular, a dummy by first invading Afghanistan, and later leading a coalition of the likes of Palamau and Iceland to conquer Iraq! Yes, Michael Moore's argument is persuasive, even if he sees only one side of the coin, and would have you believe all that he does. But he does it well, cogently, coherently. There is not a moment in the film when you actually sit back and think that you are really watching a film. With some wonderful shots of Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney and others, he just cobbles together the argument that all is not well with George Bush and his men.
He nibbles at the government's ways of functioning, he cajoles, persuades you to believe that the American President has anything but the good of the world's most formidable democracy at heart. Of course, he takes recourse to the past to tell us about the billion dollar oil connection between Saudi Arabia and the U.S., how all the planes were grounded after September 11, yet the Laden family with well entrenched business stakes in the country, was allowed to fly out, how Osama at one time was a buddy for the U.S., how the Taliban minister was feted by the country a few months before the New York tragedy, and how Karzai, the new President of Afghanistan, has had a long association with companies said to be close to the U.S. President.
Trenchant shots
Yes, we all know that. The academics have been telling us as much. The journalists have been at work too. But it is one thing to read it in print, and quite another to see it on the big screen with real life shots. With trenchant shots, Moore exposes behind-the-scenes manipulation in the U.S. with the President reading out a children's book to kids in Florida at the time when Osama's men were taking the U.S. apart. Amazingly, he sat glued there for a full seven minutes even as reports came thick and fast of the murderous assault on the Twin Towers. That's not all. Moore exposes the hypocrisy of the American Government and reveals, stunning but factually the business interests of the Bush family with the Bin Ladens, how when the victims of 9/11 sued the Saudi Government, the Saudis hired as a lawyer somebody who had had some association with the President, how the government sought to erase from the list of suspensions the name of James Bath, later to become the Texas money manager of the Bin Ladens! He indicts the warmongers as only somebody married to peace can - all along he takes pot shots at those who call the shots in the U.S. There are some nice shots of the Senators shying away from sending their sons to the war front in Iraq, and that beautiful little piece on those who have the least going the longest to protect what they have.
Yes, watch this film. Though it gives only one argument, but Moore does it so well that never does it descend to the level of a diatribe. Initially when you watch this, there would be a feeling of outrage at how the world had been bluffed into the two invasions, then you would appreciate the sarcasm of the writer-director. Finally, you would admire his narration with unsuspecting humour, laced with wit and brevity. Watch it to see what you probably knew already. Watch it to experience the power of celluloid to thrash out an outstanding argument in favour of peace, and indictment of Bush and company. And to many in this election year, it provides reason enough to distrust the American President.
JEEPERS CREEPERS-II
(At Wave, Noida and
other theatres)
THE FIRST instalment left many cringing on their seats. The sequel does not do much to improve upon the mediocre offering of the original. This Victor Salva film presents a gory feast for those who swear by horror. But somehow down the line, the fare is neither blood curdling, nor never jangling. And the film pretty much proceeds on the expected lines with the director getting his man-eating creeper to launch into an assault with the trademark precision of a geometrician.
It would have been fine had it not been so married to predictability. Incidentally, the film itself has a storyline thin enough to wrap around your little finger. We have a bus full of athletes from a school caught in the middle of nowhere by the monster who is on a 23-day eating spree following a 23 year lull.
How he goes about controlling the bus first, then getting rid of the character artistes, inflicting heavy indemnities on those who ventured on this trip is pretty much the fare on offer here. Go for it only if you are languishing in this quite mediocre season for lovers of horror. Otherwise, maintain sanity, stay home.
By ZIYA US SALAM FAHRENHEIT 9/11
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