The legacy of Italian filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo (11/19/1919– 10/12/2006) has made, thanks in part to the Iraq War and multiple insurgencies, a major resurgence. Pontecorvo and his crew created two of my favorite films, both relatively low budget but smart and very exciting, / La battaglia di Algeria / The Battle of Algiers / Maarakat madinat al Jazaer (1966) and Queimada / Burn! (1969). At some point, I'll write a lengthier post for each.
From The Battle of Algiers:
Journalist: M. Ben M'Hidi, don't you think it's a bit cowardly to use women's baskets and handbags to carry explosive devices that kill so many innocent people?
Ben M'Hidi: And doesn't it seem to you even more cowardly to drop napalm bombs on defenseless villages, so that there are a thousand times more innocent victims? Of course, if we had your airplanes it would be a lot easier for us. Give us your bombers, and you can have our baskets.
U.S. warplanners have used this film to assess how they're coping with Islamic insurgencies. Apparently with mixed results. Iraqi insurgents have begun taking down helicopters in significant numbers. The Surge, so far, is more The Bloody Fizzle.
The current American President seems as bellicose and imbecilic as Benito Mussolini, which doesn't make him any less of a menace to his own people and to people in those countries he's chosen to invade. The Iraq War is without question one of the biggest American foreign policy blunders in the entire history of the U.S.A. Bank on it.
Today's Rune: Protection.
Birthdays: Martin Buber, Jules Verne, John Ruskin.
RIP: Anna Nicole Smith.
Ciao!
5 comments:
Women with baskets and handbags concealing explosive devices and napalm bombs are both very scarey. So why is it that the delivery of a special "gift basket" seems so much more personal than a bomb falling out of the sky? You got me thinking about this one, Erik.
Remember the Alamo!
When it comes to movies I'm so woefully uneducated that I can't even formulate opinions. I went to see one movie last year at the theater, and rented one more from PPV. Other than that I may see one occassionally on TV. I haven't seen either of these, although something about them remind me of "A Farewell to Arms."
I have an old City Lights publication from 1961 that some hipster had left behind in an apartment my family lived in in then-bohemian Lincoln Park in the mid-60's. There was a great Thomas Merton piece, written from the perspective of a concentration camp comandant who is being hanged. He points out that while the world powers are ready to incinerate the world with a push of a button, at least he looked at the people he murdered. Very powerful.
I own the Battle of Algiers, but haven't watched it yet. Not a "snuggle up in bed with the wife, some wine and some popcorn" movie.
Thanks all for the comments! Definitely not date films ;) But good for classes, at least snippets of them.
Post a Comment