I just watched this movie last night and frankly think it's terrible. I can't believe this won the Oscar for Best Documentary in 1999. Is the director the nephew of someone at the Academy? If the subject itself weren't so interesting (and he has picked a great subject, make no mistake), this movie would be unwatchable. OK, before I get carried away with invective, let me back up my dismay with some actual observations...
For starters, from a directorial point of view, this is one of the most ineptly put together films I've seen in a long time. McDonald pads his film constantly with highly stylized filler, throwing in Godfrey Reggio-inspired time-lapse photography of traffic (just as one example) in places where it does absolutely nothing to advance the story or give us more info. It's as though he doesn't trust the subject itself to be interesting enough, like he feels he needs to hold our attention with cinematographic tricks. Hey, Kevin--it's distracting and annoying. You've got a great subject here--just let it speak to us. There are points, too, where he lets grainy footage of certain tense moments roll on for much too long, in ways that get a little dull and also don't advance the story. Could've been tightened up a bit...
He also clearly thinks the sun shines out of Errol Morris's anus. He may even be right, but copying that style doesn't help his film, either. He isn't creating a character study of oddballs and social outcasts who will end up telling us unexpectedly profound things about life (Morris), nor is he making some grand visionary statement about the world (Reggio)--he's ostensibly documenting a real historical event, and I think he would've done a much better job by just presenting the facts and letting the audience take it all in. He seems to trust neither our patience nor our intelligence. Blah...
On top of all that, he uses music that is so wholly inappropriate for the scenes over which it is laid that the juxtaposition ends up being laughable. The use of music in this film is in such poor taste that it can't help but be further distracting. It's even music that I really like, but used in such completely terrible ways that I couldn't let this review go by without commenting on it. Just awful...
Finally, and most importantly, McDonald just doesn't seem to have put together his film in a way that says anything. He flirts with making some sort of political statement but either pulls his punches or just botches it so terribly that I'm not sure what he's trying to say. The human drama he tries to portray is somehow not nearly as affecting as it could've (and should've) been, in large part because the elements commented on earlier keep inserting themselves loudly and obnoxiously in between the viewer and the subject. He does virtually no job at all of putting these events into any sort of historical context--if you come to this film without an understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict then everything that happens seems random and meaningless. Lastly, and perhaps most egregiously, the film just seems awfully unfulfilling. As it ends one has the sense that one has just watched an incredibly important historical event presented in a way that makes it seem confusing and boring. It seemed I should perhaps feel angry about something or sad about something but all I could do is marvel at what a horrible job was done with this movie.
OK, to balance things a little I'll say this. There are some interesting factual revelations in the film--in particular the much-commented-on West German cover-up of their horrible mismanagement of the whole affair and their conspiracy to release the three surviving extremists. In general, in fact, I'd say this movie is a decent (though by no means good) presentation of the facts in the case. If you don't know anything about the kidnapping, this is an OK enough place to start in terms of understanding the progression of events.
On the other hand, where it fails miserably is in terms of giving those facts any weight or dimension. You will not walk away from this movie with any depth of understanding of the events, and that is the greatest crime a historical documentary can commit. Too often Kevin McDonald tries too hard to make slick, entertaining Hollywood-style drama out of this incredibly sad story and commits the "Hey, Ma--look at me! I'm making a movie!" error of drawing attention to himself and his film, interfering with the film's capacity to reach out to the audience. Sad and bungled, though more or less well-intentioned...
For starters, from a directorial point of view, this is one of the most ineptly put together films I've seen in a long time. McDonald pads his film constantly with highly stylized filler, throwing in Godfrey Reggio-inspired time-lapse photography of traffic (just as one example) in places where it does absolutely nothing to advance the story or give us more info. It's as though he doesn't trust the subject itself to be interesting enough, like he feels he needs to hold our attention with cinematographic tricks. Hey, Kevin--it's distracting and annoying. You've got a great subject here--just let it speak to us. There are points, too, where he lets grainy footage of certain tense moments roll on for much too long, in ways that get a little dull and also don't advance the story. Could've been tightened up a bit...
He also clearly thinks the sun shines out of Errol Morris's anus. He may even be right, but copying that style doesn't help his film, either. He isn't creating a character study of oddballs and social outcasts who will end up telling us unexpectedly profound things about life (Morris), nor is he making some grand visionary statement about the world (Reggio)--he's ostensibly documenting a real historical event, and I think he would've done a much better job by just presenting the facts and letting the audience take it all in. He seems to trust neither our patience nor our intelligence. Blah...
On top of all that, he uses music that is so wholly inappropriate for the scenes over which it is laid that the juxtaposition ends up being laughable. The use of music in this film is in such poor taste that it can't help but be further distracting. It's even music that I really like, but used in such completely terrible ways that I couldn't let this review go by without commenting on it. Just awful...
Finally, and most importantly, McDonald just doesn't seem to have put together his film in a way that says anything. He flirts with making some sort of political statement but either pulls his punches or just botches it so terribly that I'm not sure what he's trying to say. The human drama he tries to portray is somehow not nearly as affecting as it could've (and should've) been, in large part because the elements commented on earlier keep inserting themselves loudly and obnoxiously in between the viewer and the subject. He does virtually no job at all of putting these events into any sort of historical context--if you come to this film without an understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict then everything that happens seems random and meaningless. Lastly, and perhaps most egregiously, the film just seems awfully unfulfilling. As it ends one has the sense that one has just watched an incredibly important historical event presented in a way that makes it seem confusing and boring. It seemed I should perhaps feel angry about something or sad about something but all I could do is marvel at what a horrible job was done with this movie.
OK, to balance things a little I'll say this. There are some interesting factual revelations in the film--in particular the much-commented-on West German cover-up of their horrible mismanagement of the whole affair and their conspiracy to release the three surviving extremists. In general, in fact, I'd say this movie is a decent (though by no means good) presentation of the facts in the case. If you don't know anything about the kidnapping, this is an OK enough place to start in terms of understanding the progression of events.
On the other hand, where it fails miserably is in terms of giving those facts any weight or dimension. You will not walk away from this movie with any depth of understanding of the events, and that is the greatest crime a historical documentary can commit. Too often Kevin McDonald tries too hard to make slick, entertaining Hollywood-style drama out of this incredibly sad story and commits the "Hey, Ma--look at me! I'm making a movie!" error of drawing attention to himself and his film, interfering with the film's capacity to reach out to the audience. Sad and bungled, though more or less well-intentioned...