‘Do you want to win the war on terror? Yes or No?’

We watched Lions for Lambs on DVD last night and I’m so glad we did.  It was one of those movies that I saw trailed and though about going to see but never got round to so when I saw it in the supermarket last night it found its way into my basket.

Lions for Lambs is an intelligent examination of the war on terror, telling three connected stories in real time.

The first story is that of a bright, ambitions senator (Tom Cruise) who has a plan to win the war in Afghanistan and needs a journalist (Meryl Streep) to sell it for him.  Their discussion is all about the failure of the strategists to learn from the past, and the media’s complicity in the war on terror.

The second story sees a professor of political science (Robert Redford) engaged in a fascinating conversation with a bright student who is cruising and having fun, wasting his talent and ability.

The final story is about two of Redford’s previous students who have signed up to the army and are at the front line of the Senator’s plan.

This is a complex and engaging film with lots of questions and no answers.  It asks us to think about engagement.  How do we engage with the world?  How do we engage with the political process?  How do we engage with life?  Do we say that it is someone else’s problem?  Do we believe everything we see and read?

The film made me think of the current US elections where McCain is busy defending Obama while his running mate Palin is busy making all kinds of accusations at the same time.  McCain looks decent and generous but the mud thrown at Obama sticks.

It made me think about how parents want a better life for their kids but that better life isn’t for their kids to sit around being amused and entertained, it is to make life better for other’s kids.

It made me think.  That has to be a good thing.  I wonder if it will make me act?

The movie of one of my favourite books is out today and with it comes a load of downloadable discussion resources for church groups.  Go here to get them.

Tired of boring slideshows? Don’t have the time or the software to make you snaps look interesting…

ANIMOTO is for you!

It’s a genius online application that allows you to import your photos and creates very cool shows with music. Click the My Videos link on the right and see what happens when you import a random selection of holiday snaps! (HT Ewan)

The Road To Perdition was on TV last night.  We discovered it while channel surfing.  We have it on DVD but watched it anyway.  Why?

It is probably one of the most visually beautiful pieces of cinema ever made.  Directed by Sam Mendes, who also directed American Beauty, and filmed by Conrad Hall, this is surely a masterpiece.

The story is simple, Tom Hanks, Paul Newman and Jude Law are fantastic, as are a pre-Bond Daniel Craig and Tyler Hoechlin who plays Hank’s 12 year old son.  Hanks is a hit-man, Newman the Boss and Craig his petulant and greedy son.  Hanks learns too much and his wife and son are murdered.  He and his boy go on the run and bid to settle the score.

This is no slick shoot ‘em up.  This is a slow and deliberate movie that takes its time and makes the most of the stunning images combined with Thomas Newman’s amazing score.  If you haven’t seen this film rent it or buy it. 

Simply beautiful.

I finally got round to watching V For Vendetta and I have to say I was a little disappointed with the movie over all.  It lacked depth and tension.

 That said I thought the ideas it dealt with are a timely reminder of what could be.  On this morning’s news I heard that the Archbishop of York was warning that the UK could slip into becoming a police state.  He was speaking out in opposition to proposals for police to be able to detain suspects for up to 90 days without charge, and I agree with him.  We need only look back over recent history to see that it is possible for people to manipulate the public through fear.  Hitler did it.  Bush is doing it.  Blair is doing it.  Fear is a powerful emotion, easily created and channeled.

V For Vendetta is set in such a police state where fear of people who are different has led to repression and torture of those who are seen as different.  A man known only as V starts a chain of events based on the Gunpowder Plot.  One of the things I liked about the film was that at the end it needs lots of people to act to make the change.

What did confuse me was the choice of the Houses of Parliament as the target.  Surely Parliament is a symbol of democracy?  But then again… maybe not.

I know lent is a whole month away but in a stunning act of forward thinking I was looking through my files and came across these images by Si Smith illustrating Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness. 

They are fantastic and also make a pretty cool movie if you stick them in movie maker or something and add music.  I’ve used Springsteen’s Devils And Dust.

We watched the Jonny Cash bio Walk The Line the other night.  What a brilliant film.  I don’t know much about Cash but the movie was very engaging.

Bono wrote a song for Cash called The Wanderer and it’s on the Zooropa album, performed by Cash himself.  You should search it out.  It is a stunning song, one of my favourites.  Here are the lyrics:

I went out walking through the streets paved with gold
Lifted some stones
Saw the skin and bones
Of a city without a soul
I went out walking under an atomic sky
Where the ground wont turn
And the rain it burns
Like the tears when I said goodbye

Yeah I went with nothing
Nothing but the thought of you
I went wandering

I went drifting through the capitals of tin
Where men cant walk
Or freely talk
And sons turn their fathers in
I stopped outside a church house
Where the citizens like to sit
They say they want the kingdom
But they dont want God in it

I went out riding
Down that ol eight lane
I passed by a thousand signs
Looking for my own name

I went with nothing
But the thought youd be there too
Looking for you

I went out there
In search of experience
To taste and to touch
And to feel as much
As a man can
Before he repents

I went out searching, lookin for one good man
A spirit who would not bend or break
Who would sit at his fathers right hand
I went out walking with a Bible and a gun
The word of God lay heavy on my heart
I was sure I was the one
Now jesus, dont you wait up
Jesus, Ill be home soon
Yeah I went out for the papers
Told her Id be back by noon

Yeah I left with nothing
But the thought youd be there too
Looking for you…
Yeah I left with nothing
Nothing but the thought of you…
I went wandering

It seems from the film that this song sums up Cash and his life.  deep, dark but ultimately hopeful.

I borrowed Hotel Rwanda on DVD ages ago but have never got round to watching it, sometimes deliberately as I perhaps wasn’t in the mood to watch a film about a genocide. Last night was the night and I’m so glad I did watch it.

It is an astonishing true story about a man who finds himself an unlikely hero in the middle the most despicable episode in recent word history, the Rwandan genocide.

Paul is the manager of a 4 star hotel which, due to his bravery, quick thinking and connections, becomes a safe haven in the chaos.  It’s an amazing story of real evil, a few good people standing against it and more people doing nothing.

What appalled me, both at the time and while watching the DVD, was the total disregard shown by the west.  Rwanda has nothing of value. No oil, no strategic benefit.  The western powers sent troops in to get their own citizens out and left everyone else to be slaughtered.

1,000,000 people were killed.  And we in the west did nothing.  When I say nothing, of course I mean nothing except supply weapons to the Rwandan army and Hutus so they could carry out their massacre of the Tutsis more effectively.

Of course we have a long history of only interceeding in situations like this only when our interests are threatened.  Sierra Leone,  Somalia, The Sudan… When will all human lives be of equal value in the eyes of our leaders?  Until they are genoside will happen again and again because it is allowed to happen without consequence. 

American History X is one of the most powerful films I’ve ever seen. It tells the story of a young man sucked into a neo-nazi group and his agonising journey of discovery through prison and beyond.

Amazon said: Perhaps the highest compliment you can pay to Edward Norton is that his Oscar-nominated performance in American History X nearly convinces you that there is a shred of logic in the tenets of white supremacy. If that statement doesn’t horrify you, it should; Norton is so fully immersed in his role as a neo-Nazi skinhead that his character’s eloquent defense of racism is disturbingly persuasive–at least on the surface. Looking lean and mean with a swastika tattoo and a mind full of hate, Derek Vinyard (Norton) has inherited racism from his father, and that learning has been intensified through his service to Cameron (Stacy Keach), a grown-up thug playing tyrant and teacher to a growing band of disenfranchised teens from Venice Beach, California, all hungry for an ideology that fuels their brooding alienation.

The film’s basic message–that hate is learned and can be unlearned–is expressed through Derek’s kid brother, Danny (Edward Furlong), whose sibling hero-worship increases after Derek is imprisoned (or, in Danny’s mind, martyred) for the killing of two black men. Lacking Derek’s gift of rebel rhetoric, Danny is easily swayed into the violent, hateful lifestyle that Derek disowns during his thoughtful time in prison. Once released, Derek struggles to save his brother from a violent fate, and American History X partially suffers from a mix of intense emotions, awkward sentiment and predictably inevitable plotting. And yet British director Tony Kaye (who would later protest against Norton’s creative intervention during post-production) manages to juggle these qualities–and a compelling clash of visual styles–to considerable effect. No matter how strained their collaboration may have been, both Kaye and Norton can be proud to have created a film that addresses the issue of racism with dramatically forceful impact. –Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

This is a must see movie!!!