skip to main |
skip to sidebar
‘Kite Flyer’ epic tale of boyhood, terror
“The Kite Flyer” is an epic film about boyhood, friendship and the horrors of war.
It opens almost like “Cinema Paradiso,” with a telephone call from someone in the past, a need to return home after many years and a long flashback to boyhood days.
Khalid Abdalla plays well-to-do Amir as a man, with Zekena Ebrahimi playing him as a boy.
His devoted buddy, Hassan, is played by Ahmad Khan Mahmoodza.
At 128 minutes, the film takes in a lot of material. A big section sets the pace, showing us the two boys growing up in Kabul, Afghanistan, circa 1981.
They participate in the annual kite-flying contest and win. The cinematography is amazing. How do they get those shots of kites flying high over the city.
How do they get those kites to fly that high without having to run and run to get the things aloft?
Amir lives with his father, father’s servant and the servant’s son, who happens to be Hassan. Amir’s mother died in childbirth.
Even as boys, running about the city, they learn about the different ethnic groups and young Hassan is brutally assaulted.
When the Russians take over the city, Amir’s father knows they must flee because he had openly criticized Russians. So they must sneak into Pakistan, leaving behind servant and Hassan.
Another flashback shows the grown Amir living with his formerly wealthy father, Baba (Homayoun Ershadi), in Fremont, Calif. They run a seedy service station and convenience store and sell items at a flea market. It is there he meets his future wife, Soraya Theri (Atossa Leoni.)
Years later, Amir gets a call from the former servant, played by Shaun Toub. Amir must return to troubled Afghanistan, now in the grips of the dreaded Taliban.
Hassan and his wife have been murdered by the Taliban and Amir must return and rescue the couple’s son. The reasons become evident in the film.
Modern Afghanistan is sad and shabby and a true horror. Amir must wear a false beard, as beards are required by the rulers.
A particularly disturbing scene is at a soccer game, where halftime activities include the stoning death of a woman who reportedly wasn’t faithful to her husband.
This is an enthralling, educational film that gives you a focused view on another culture.
The film is spoken in at least four languages, including English. Much of the film is subtitled. The film is banned in Afghanistan.
“Kite Flyer” is based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini, whose own life is similar to the main character.
This is a film that will stay with you. The cinematography is outstanding and all of the actors hold their own. If there’s one movie to check out, this is it.
p
Since many of the films I review are more obscure, someone called me recently looking for a particular film. The local video store she visited didn’t have it.
I believe in supporting the local merchants. They are the ones who employ local people, help sponsor local sports team and donate goods for prizes for nonprofit organizations.
But unfortunately, local stores often stock the movies that will readily be rented, whether they are worth watching or not. My main source — and I’m not getting any remuneration for this statement — is Netflix. With the exception of adult entertainment, virtually any film that is on DVD or Blu-Ray is available at Netflix.
So support your local stores when you can, but don’t deprive yourself of some fine, if not real popular, motion-picture entertainment. For those, you may have to look elsewhere, including Netflix if necessary.
Read more Viper reviews at videoviper.blogspot.com.
THE KITE RUNNER
• Directed by Marc Forster, written by David Beinoff and Khaled Hosseini
• Runtime: 128 minutes
• In English, Dari, Pashtu, Urdu and Russian
• Rated PG-13 for strong thematic material including the rape of a child and brief strong language.
• 4 stars out of 5
'Outfoxed' links news network, GOP
Appearing in the Star Beacon WEEKENDER July 18, 2008
Having a connection with news myself, I decided watching “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism” was a must-see.
It was obviously filmed on a shoe-string budget, using volunteers to gather Fox News footage for this 2004 effort.
The movie was also put together through the efforts of moveon.org, a decidedly liberal organization.
It chronicles Austrailian-born billionaire Rupert Murdoch, who created the Fox network and Fox News Network.
The documentary uses plenty of archival footage, media experts and former Fox reporters to chronicle how Fox is a mere extension of the Republican party, even though it purports to be “fair and balance.”
One program, we learn, had 83 percent Republican guests to 17 percent Democrats. The Democrats, we are told, were mostly middle to right of the political spectrum.
If you are a conservative and love Fox, you are risking a stroke watching this film.
Some of it is pretty funny, like when former reporter John DuPre tells about how he was assigned to cover President Reagan’s 90th birthday celebration at Reagan’s museum. Murdoch loves Reagan.
Trouble is, the only thing going on that day was some grade-school students were visiting. So the reporter chronicled how the kids sang “Happy Birthday” and ate cake. Fox executives asked for more. The reporter maintains nothing was going on but we see footage where he describes people streaming in from all over the U.S. and Canada to celebrate. Even pushing the truth wasn’t sufficient. The reporter was suspended for not doing more to emphasize the Gipper’s birthday.
The loathsome Bill O’Reilly is spotlighed, how he brings on guests, argues with them, calls them names, tells them to shut up and shuts off their microphones.
We see footage of O’Reilly saying only once did he ever tell a guest to shut up. Then we see a whole litany of excerpts of O’Reilly telling people to shut up.
One guest, Jeremy Glick, was not only cut off, but when the interview was over, staff people told Glick he better leave because O’Reilly was angry and they couldn’t assure his safety. Glick’s father died in the World Trade Center.
News experts tell how Fox uses terms like “people say” to criticize Democrats, while distancing themselves from the argument.
The night of the 2000 election, a Fox reporter whose wife works for the Bush campaign interviewed the president. We are treated to the exchange of niceties between the two, mentioning of mutual friends, before the interview begins.
The film mentions that it was Bush’s cousin who called the 2000 election for Bush, even though experts said it could have gone either way. The film maintains as a result, ABC, NBC and CBS followed suite and declared Bush the winner.
Archival footage included Brit Hume, Molly Ivins, John Kerry, Murdoch, Condoleezza Rice and many more.
The movie analyzes reported “talking points” supposedly put together by the Bush White House which would dominate right-wing radio talk shows and Fox news, using the exact same terminology. One example was the supposed flip flopping on issues by Sen. John Kerry.
What the film didn’t examine was the fact Fox TV network’s “Simpsons” series routinely lampoons Murdoch and Fox News. In one episode, a Fox truck is going down the street in front of the Simpson home with a Bush-Cheney bumper sticker. Nobody explains how this is permitted.
You know going into this film that it supports the liberal cause. But for people interested in news and politics, it certainly is worth a look, especially with its impact on journalism and the injection of opinion.
Famous executioner topic for film
Albert Pierrepoint delivered groceries for a living in England in the early 1930s.
But like his father, he found a way to supplement his income. He executed people.
He got paid per execution, along with a hot meal.
Timothy Spall recreates Pierrepoint in “Pierrepoint, The Last Hangman.”
Between 1933 and 1955, he executed 608, including convicted Nazis.
The film opens with a prison official telling a group of men just how the procedure works, stressing what happens at the prison, stays at the prison.
Pierrepoint seems nervous as the procedure is explained, while a fellow nubie can’t controll his excitement, until the first execution.
Then it is Pierrepoint’s methodical, exact procedures that get the job done quickly and efficiently. The other worker is horrified, vomits into his hankerchief, throws his share of the money at Pierrepoint and leaves, never to return.
Pierrepoint works hard to keep his home life separate from his freelance execution job. Director Adrian Shergold emphasises his executing duties more than homelife.
He fumbles his way into asking a store clerk, Annie, (Juliet Stevenson) for a date while living with his mother. The next thing you know, Mom is out of the picture and he’s married to Annie.
Pierrepoint is proud that he has broken his father’s record in the speed at which he executed, well, an execution. He takes quiet pride when he is complimented on his talent.
We see glimpses of Pierrepoint in private life, talking to his wife, singing for the crowd at the local pub with his mates.
But Pierrepoint’s anonimity disappears when he is assigned to execute 47 Nazis at Nuremburg.
He has his beliefs, which includes once the person is dead, he or she has paid for his or her sins and is pure again. Part of his job is to strip the bodies while they are still hung, wash them and prepare them for burial.
He is horrified when they run out of coffins for the Nazis and demands they find more before the excutions continue.
Pierrepoint wins unwanted notoriety for the Nuremburg executions.
But the money he earns allows he and wife to buy and open a pub.
But with his fame, it is more difficult to retain that line between homelife and executions.
It is even more difficult when a special person is executed. I was able to predict this would happen, but will let you figure it out on your own.
It is in these scenes that we see Spall’s acting talents shine.
The same scene is repeated many times in the film, when he barges into the doomed person’s cell, twirls him or her around, secures the person’s arms and have he or she follow him to the gallows.
But it is fascinating in each instance. Fortunately, the real Pierrepoint kept a meticulous journal.
One prisoner cries for help. Another keeps saying “forgive me.” Another keeps crying, ‘help me.” Others are eeriely quiet.
The film gets graphic and is certainly disturbing.
So if you are hanging around the video store and don’t know what to rent, give “Pierrepoint” a look.
It probably won’t make you want to switch careers.
Read more Viper reviews at videoviper.blogspot.com. This appeared in Star Beacon WEEKENDER July 11, 2008.
PIERREPOINT: THE LAST HANGMAN
• Directed by Adrian Shergold, written by Bob Mills and Jeff Pope
• Rated R for disturbing images, nudity and brief sexuality
• Runtime: 90 minutes
• 3 stars out of 4
‘Fido’ a new spin on zombie movies
Take a brief look at “Fido” and it looks like a typical, family picture.
“Fido” is the family pet in this tale that looks like it takes place in the 50s. The boy’s name? Why Timmy, of course.
But wait a minute! “Fido” is rated R. Timmy and his pet in an R-rated picture? What’s going on?
Well, Fido isn’t a dog. He probably doesn’t even have a wet nose. Fido is a zombie, a member of the undead that walks the earth of this highly-colorized world in which this picture takes place.
The film opens with one of those school educational films. It details how the Earth went through some space dust, causing the dead to rise up and feast on the living. Not a good thing.
But a scientist designs a collar that when placed on the zombie’s neck, makes him or her peaceful and docile. (How do they get that collar around his neck?)
And so we see this idyllic “Pleasantville” type community where rotting, walking corpses are serving drinks to their masters in suburban back yards.
The zombies are so prevalent, they are used to wave good-bye to visitors leaving the community.
As the film opens, Timmy’s (K’Sun Ray) family has no zombies. His father (Bill Robinson) is scared of them, after his father became a zombie and almost devoured him.
Ah, but the neighbor has all kinds of them, that’s because the man living there works for the company that invented the collar that keeps the zombies in check.
Timmy’s mother, Helen Robinson, wants a zombie, if only for the status. Enter Billy Connolly as Fido, who died of a heart ailment, as one can see from the scars on his chest.
Fido is fine for awhile, but then eats the nasty neighbor lady. Nobody is sorry to see her go, but then Timmy is concerned he will lose his dog, er, zombie.
The film, with its saturated color, is absolutely over-the-top crazy and very funny.
As “Shaun of the Dead” has already proved, zombies are no longer scary, they are funny.
There is a lot of satire that is contemporary and this perverse world takes a lot of imagination.
Most people don’t have funerals because the zombie craze has made that too expensive. But when there is one, the head has its own casket. That’s because the dead can’t become zombies if the head is detached.
Aren’t you glad to know that?
The R rating is really not fair. There is lots of blood and gore, but it is laced with so much humor, the film is anything but scary, except for young children.
Oh and the neighbor with all of the zombies? He and his company aren’t nice at all and that adds to the humor.
And when characters in the film die, there’s no need to worry. They’ll soon be back as the fun-loving undead.
So have yourself a skewed good time and rent “Fido.” Just don’t eat anything with ketchup at the time.
This appeared in the Star Beacon WEEKENDER July 4, 2008.
