BALLOTING FOR BEST FILMS OF 2012 CONTINUES
Members of the Political Film Society are now voting for the following:
Best Film on Democracy of 2012 nominees: either Lincoln or Promised Land
Best Film Exposé of 2012: Argo or Compliance or For Greater Glory or Lula, Son of Bra-zil or Mulberry Child
Best Film on Human Rights of 2012: For Greater Glory or Mulberry Child or Red Tails or
A Royal Affair or West of Thunder
Best Film on Peace of 2012: War of the Buttons or West of Thunder
Members who have not yet voted may encircle one choice per category and can return to pol-films@aol.com
Meanwhile, here are reviews of two recent films for 2013:
VIOLENCE IN BROKEN CITY HIDES THE MESSAGE
How can bankrupt cities, such as Detroit, balance their budgets? Broken City, directed by Allen Hughes, suggests that they might sell off city assets, which in the depicted New York City means having high rise developers tear down public or modest-income housing regardless of the impact on those who live there. The plot is more complicated, but shooting and slugging turn the film into an action film rather than real-izing the potential for a message film. True, there is an election for mayor, pitting the incumbent Hosteler (played by Russell Crowe) against a member of the City Council, Jack Valliant (played by Barry Pepper). And the latter sides with residents who would become homeless under the redevelopment plan that will line the mayor’s pockets. Meanwhile, ex-cop Billy Taggart (played by Mark Wahlberg) settles scores and takes the side of Valliant. Sexual infidelity is also a part of the plot. But excessive violence will distract most filmviewers from appreciating the message that taxpayers are not likely to be the real beneficiaries of urban redevelopment plans. MH
KNIFE FIGHT GOES INSIDE THE SPIN TO AVOID THE MESSAGE
Knife Fight begins as if a documentary featuring past presidential candidates, including some whose sex-ual affairs were never reported by the press at a time when television had not become a universal house-hold possession. Nowadays, many Americans vote for their favorite political party, so they do not have to pay attention to the issues at stake. Since some intelligence is required to compare candidates on issues, that leaves an easier choice for the uninformed, nonpartisan voter: Select on the basis of personal charac-teristics, as summed up by the question, “Can you trust this candidate?” The thesis of Knife Fight, di-rected by Bill Guttentag, is stated quite early by Paul Turner (played by Rob Lowe): Most successful poli-ticians are as brilliant as they are flawed in some way. Translation: They like people so much, who are in turn attracted to them, that they engage in sexual misconduct. Solution: The campaign fixit adviser, as per-sonified by Turner. In Knife Fight, Turner is handling advertising for an incumbent governor of Kentucky and an incumbent California Senator. The men are sexually active (to the chagrin of their wives), but Turner’s spin machine draws up ads and even plans a “spontaneous” admission on camera to counter blackmail from a shady attorney (played by Alan Dershowitz). But although Turner at first refuses to help a woman running for governor of California because she is an unknown, Turner’s assistant Kerstin (played by Jamie Chung) secretly pays a homeless man $100 to attack someone, giving the candidate an oppor-tunity on camera to sweet talk the man into giving up the knife, thereby propelling her to prominence. Do the three candidates win? That is the anticlimax of Knife Fight. MH