Siverfale
Auto-translated
God Bless America(2011)
For the first 15-20 minutes, I really liked the movie; I decided it was a kind of Falling Down, only done better in the sense that while the hero in that film was some sort of fool who boiled over at every little thing (though I watched it a long time ago, maybe it's worth rewatching), here, every person surrounding the man is actually a cretin and scum, yet remains quite believable. I was separately fascinated by how "brotherly nations" we are with the Americans — in terms of car stickers, TV shows, general behavior — it really is a global practice. The only thing we don't have yet is corporate fighting against sexual harassment, but no matter, progress will reach us someday.
But then the movie went somewhere wrong; credit must be given to Falling Down — it showed what it wanted to show, namely a white man driven to fury, and also showed what drove him to that state. Here, after a strong start that promises us some good grit, the movie loses its teeth, and the hero, along with a very pleasant companion, kills a couple of rude people and some conservatives in a fun, joking manner, mixing this with rambling conversations about nothing, the purpose of which is to stretch the runtime. At the same time, no "dangerous" topics (read: liberal agenda) were touched upon; it's even strange how the harassment moment passed — perhaps a certain part of the audience watching this movie simply decided that this wasn't a critique of modern American society, but the well-deserved punishment of the main character. In general, comparing it to the same Falling Down, which sincerely hated everyone who got on their nerves — whether migrants or Nazis, rich people who fenced off huge territories, or poor fast-food employees with disgusting pushiness — God Bless America is more like, in the literal sense of the word, the fantasies of a social justice warrior.
One could, of course, say that the movie criticizes modern media first and foremost, but even in that case, it's very strange that only conservatives or idiotic shows were targeted, while all the radical left-wing schizo-stuff was somehow bypassed.
The ending had one decent kind of twist, but nothing more.
Added after 21 hours 32 minutes
Come and See (1985)
As a preface, I will note that the film is entirely in Belarusian, and personally, I recommend watching it with Russian subtitles — of course, 90% can be understood without them, but I would still like to understand 100%.
At first, the film was hard to watch; not in the sense that it had emotionally heavy scenes, but in the sense that the director immediately wanted to take the whole arthouse combo — long empty shots about nothing, dialogues that aren't always clear (including because of the language), close-ups of the characters' faces looking straight into the camera, minimal attempts to explain anything to the viewer — I already sighed heavily and fully prepared myself for another disappointment; nevertheless, I decided not to abandon what I started, in order to get the "watched" achievement. But gradually, smoothly, everything began to change — close-ups of faces stopped appearing out of place, remaining only where they truly evoke an emotional response, the narrative gained coherence and clarity, dialogues became clear and to the point — in short, all the attributes of a normal movie appeared. But added to them were good, large-scale scenes, with plenty of equipment and people in the frame, as well as a truly emotionally heavy plot. Of course, I am a modern person, hardened by various dark webs, but even now this looks quite, quite harsh. Not because of the naturalism with guts, but specifically because of the naturalism of human cruelty and human despair. In general, the film unexpectedly flipped 180 degrees and completely redeemed itself in my eyes; maybe I'll even rewatch it someday.
What did I like about the movie? Well, after the first third passed, probably everything (and even in the first third there were good moments). I liked how the characters were shown — the partisans there are not Knight in shining armor (at least, that's how I saw them), but people who have seen some shit and are ready for anything to do what they believe is right. German soldiers, suddenly, also turned out not to be knight-like noble opponents, but who they were in real life. The main character is an ordinary boy who dreamed of a heroic feat, but got what war actually is. The SS man is shown holistically and without attempts to somehow humiliate him, and his order is based on a real story that the director heard (you can read it on the film's Wiki page). I already mentioned the abundance of equipment and people, but I'll write it again — when you see all this, there isn't the feeling, as in many modern films, that it's three cripples against a backdrop of decorations — you truly believe that there is a whole village of people here, and a full-fledged military unit is working with them. Although there are no guts, everything is shown in such a way that it still causes horror because you believe in the reality of what is happening, and it becomes creepy to see what atrocities people are capable of. Close-ups of the protagonist from this point on only strengthen the effect, as all the nightmare of what he experienced is printed on his face. In general, a good movie, although it needs time to "get up to speed".
Instead of an epilogue.
For the first 15-20 minutes, I really liked the movie; I decided it was a kind of Falling Down, only done better in the sense that while the hero in that film was some sort of fool who boiled over at every little thing (though I watched it a long time ago, maybe it's worth rewatching), here, every person surrounding the man is actually a cretin and scum, yet remains quite believable. I was separately fascinated by how "brotherly nations" we are with the Americans — in terms of car stickers, TV shows, general behavior — it really is a global practice. The only thing we don't have yet is corporate fighting against sexual harassment, but no matter, progress will reach us someday.
But then the movie went somewhere wrong; credit must be given to Falling Down — it showed what it wanted to show, namely a white man driven to fury, and also showed what drove him to that state. Here, after a strong start that promises us some good grit, the movie loses its teeth, and the hero, along with a very pleasant companion, kills a couple of rude people and some conservatives in a fun, joking manner, mixing this with rambling conversations about nothing, the purpose of which is to stretch the runtime. At the same time, no "dangerous" topics (read: liberal agenda) were touched upon; it's even strange how the harassment moment passed — perhaps a certain part of the audience watching this movie simply decided that this wasn't a critique of modern American society, but the well-deserved punishment of the main character. In general, comparing it to the same Falling Down, which sincerely hated everyone who got on their nerves — whether migrants or Nazis, rich people who fenced off huge territories, or poor fast-food employees with disgusting pushiness — God Bless America is more like, in the literal sense of the word, the fantasies of a social justice warrior.
One could, of course, say that the movie criticizes modern media first and foremost, but even in that case, it's very strange that only conservatives or idiotic shows were targeted, while all the radical left-wing schizo-stuff was somehow bypassed.
The ending had one decent kind of twist, but nothing more.
Added after 21 hours 32 minutes
Come and See (1985)
As a preface, I will note that the film is entirely in Belarusian, and personally, I recommend watching it with Russian subtitles — of course, 90% can be understood without them, but I would still like to understand 100%.
At first, the film was hard to watch; not in the sense that it had emotionally heavy scenes, but in the sense that the director immediately wanted to take the whole arthouse combo — long empty shots about nothing, dialogues that aren't always clear (including because of the language), close-ups of the characters' faces looking straight into the camera, minimal attempts to explain anything to the viewer — I already sighed heavily and fully prepared myself for another disappointment; nevertheless, I decided not to abandon what I started, in order to get the "watched" achievement. But gradually, smoothly, everything began to change — close-ups of faces stopped appearing out of place, remaining only where they truly evoke an emotional response, the narrative gained coherence and clarity, dialogues became clear and to the point — in short, all the attributes of a normal movie appeared. But added to them were good, large-scale scenes, with plenty of equipment and people in the frame, as well as a truly emotionally heavy plot. Of course, I am a modern person, hardened by various dark webs, but even now this looks quite, quite harsh. Not because of the naturalism with guts, but specifically because of the naturalism of human cruelty and human despair. In general, the film unexpectedly flipped 180 degrees and completely redeemed itself in my eyes; maybe I'll even rewatch it someday.
What did I like about the movie? Well, after the first third passed, probably everything (and even in the first third there were good moments). I liked how the characters were shown — the partisans there are not Knight in shining armor (at least, that's how I saw them), but people who have seen some shit and are ready for anything to do what they believe is right. German soldiers, suddenly, also turned out not to be knight-like noble opponents, but who they were in real life. The main character is an ordinary boy who dreamed of a heroic feat, but got what war actually is. The SS man is shown holistically and without attempts to somehow humiliate him, and his order is based on a real story that the director heard (you can read it on the film's Wiki page). I already mentioned the abundance of equipment and people, but I'll write it again — when you see all this, there isn't the feeling, as in many modern films, that it's three cripples against a backdrop of decorations — you truly believe that there is a whole village of people here, and a full-fledged military unit is working with them. Although there are no guts, everything is shown in such a way that it still causes horror because you believe in the reality of what is happening, and it becomes creepy to see what atrocities people are capable of. Close-ups of the protagonist from this point on only strengthen the effect, as all the nightmare of what he experienced is printed on his face. In general, a good movie, although it needs time to "get up to speed".
Instead of an epilogue.
Where do we go?
Where do we end up when we save the world?
Where do we end up when we save the world?
Небо
