The War Tapes tell it like it is

In theaters Friday: I Know Who Killed Me, No Reservations, The Simpsons Movie
New on DVD: The Number 23, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Zodiac
Celebrity birthday: Former child star and one-time “next big thing” Brad Renfro turns 25 today. Happy birthday. Things haven’t really gone your way since Ghost World, and now this? Oh, boy.

Do you ever feel bad about disliking a film that has been dubbed by most as a classic? That’s kind of the feeling I got recently at the end of Jean Luc Godard’s Breathless. It’s Godard’s first feature length project and it has since been said to have heralded the French New Wave movement. There are some things I really like about the film. I’m a sucker for hand-held photography that’s well done. The jump cuts are timed perfectly, and Jean-Paul Belmondo’s last words to Jean Seberg are hilarious.

My thing is, if you’re going to call a movie about a car thief and murderer Breathless, there needs to be some real tension and danger there. I just think with the hand-held style, Godard could have gone further to ratchet up the suspense instead of lying back in this sort of Parisian detachment. His leads, attractive though they are, are too emotionally removed for audiences to really care about them. Breathless was new and exciting for it’s time, but it’s all style and very little substance. Which means it’s not really timeless and must be appreciated in its historical context. That’s not to take away from its importance to the French New Wave, or it’s influence on a wide range of directors today from Wes Anderson to Quentin Tarantino.

The War Tapes. As much as CNN and Fox News have provided some eye-popping footage from the war in Iraq, the major networks certainly haven’t given us anything like this. Produced and edited by Steve James who did the wonderful coming of age basketball documentary Hoop Dreams, The War Tapes utilizes footage shot by three national guard infantry soldiers during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004. Rounding out the documentary are interviews with the soldiers wives and girlfriends while their husbands are away and particularly revealing disclosures about what they are like when they return from duty.

I really admire these soldiers and their attempt to produce a well-balanced and revealing look at life on the ground in Iraq. Particularly poignant was a moment one of the soldiers who speaks fluent Arabic says he refuses to translate bad news to the Iraqi people. When his commander orders him to tell an Iraqi that his sick father cannot be allowed through the U.S. line on their way to a hospital, the soldier says no. Most of all, it was enlightening to see soldiers who are just as confused as to why they are in Iraq as most of the American public. On the other hand, as a viewer, I have to wonder how these soldiers are able to concentrate on their jobs while filming all the time. I’m not sure I would have wanted to be on the tank with the guy who keeps pointing the camera at me and waving.

The trailer for Wes Anderson’s upcoming Indian adventure The Darjeeling Limited is supposed to be running ahead of Sunshine, which had a limited release last weekend, but opens wider this Friday. I’m hoping Baton Rouge gets Sunshine so I can finally take a look at Anderson’s latest. (And Danny Boyle’s sci fi thriller about a team of future scientists trying to reignite our dying sun looks really good too). Here is the trailer in glorious QuickTime. “I love you but I’m going to mace you in the face!” Classic.