PREJUDICE REIGNS IN DEAR WHITE PEOPLE The title is the name of a vlog operated by Samantha White (played by Tessa Thompson), a Black student at an Ivy League school (though filmed at the University of Minnesota). A candidate for the presidency of a dorm, she is annoyed by White naïveté toward her race and
HATRED REIGNS IN CAMP X-RAY There are two ways of reviewing Camp X-Ray, a dramatic film directed by Peter Sattler on behalf of a production company in Karachi. One is to watch Private First Class Cole (played by Kristen Stewart) as she is assigned to the maximum security prison at Guantánamo, learns the routine, but
FURY HAS SOUND, BUT WHAT DOES IT SIGNIFY? Fury, written and directed by David Ayer, is not designed as an anti-war film. Credits at the beginning note that German tanks were technically superior to American tanks, yet in the film the American tanks do better. Featured is a tank unit commanded by Don “Wardaddy” Collier
KILL THE MESSENGER SHOWS HOW TO DISCREDIT AN HONEST REPORTER During 1985-1987, members of the Reagan administration persuaded Israel to sell guns to Iran in exchange for the release of Americans held hostage in Lebanon by a group connected with Iran. The United States Central Intelligence Agency then sold replacement weapons to Israel and used
Political Film Review #458 Read More »
HATRED REIGNS IN CAMP X-RAY There are two ways of reviewing Camp X-Ray, a dramatic film directed by Peter Sattler on behalf of a production company in Karachi. One is to watch Private First Class Cole (played by Kristen Stewart) as she is assigned to the maximum security prison at Guantánamo, learns the routine, but
Political Film Review #459 Read More »
SIMÓN BOLÍVAR IS CELEBRATED IN THE LIBERATOR Biopics can provide fascinating personal background information, and The Liberator is no exception. To make the film enjoyable, director Alberto Alvero even has Bolívar (played by Édgar Ramírez) naked a couple of times to stress his charisma with women as well as men, but flashbacks to provide personal
PREJUDICES ARE OVERCOME IN PRIDE During London’s gay pride parade of June 30, 1984, miners were on strike throughout Britain, harassed by the police and given the cold shoulder by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Mark Ashton (played by Ben Schnetzer) provokes his fellow gays to support the miners financially, as both gays and miners suffer
PREJUDICES ARE OVERCOME IN PRIDE During London’s gay pride parade of June 30, 1984, miners were on strike throughout Britain, harassed by the police and given the cold shoulder by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Mark Ashton (played by Ben Schnetzer) provokes his fellow gays to support the miners financially, as both gays and miners suffer
Political Film Review #457 Read More »
BLOOD RUNS IN COLDWATER Titles at the end of the fictional Coldwater inform that there is no federal law regulating camps for delinquents, and state law enforcement is lax. When the film begins, macho Brad Lunders (played by B. J. Boudousqué) is arrested and taken to Coldwater, a camp in Colorado (actually filmed in the
A MOST WANTED MAN IS NOT WHAT YOU FIRST IMAGINE To gain some credibility for the fiction film A Most Wanted Man, based on a 2008 spy novel by John Le Carré, credits at the beginning remind filmviewers that the 9/11 plot was hatched in Hamburg, and then inform that Hamburg is a closely watched