Post by Return of the Thin Olive Duke on Apr 26, 2016 12:23:45 GMT -5
A Mighty Heart
Dir. Michael Winterbottom
Premiered June 22, 2007
In the winter of 2002, elements within Al Qaeda lured Daniel Pearl into their hands by claiming to represent a radical cleric looking to be interviewed in Pakistan. Pearl was unapologetically Jewish, a descendent of one of the founders of Israel, and worked for the Wall Street Journal, which in a moment of perceived invincibility had bragged about its cooperation with the CIA. The Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, many of whom were close to Al Qaeda and blamed international Jewry for the September 11 Attacks, were often uncooperative in the search for Pearl before he was beheaded, probably by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Daniel Pearl lived in Woodland Hills, California, and his kidnapping and death were a huge blow to the Jewish community in Southern California, during several years that could charitably be called intense. In 1999, white supremacist Buford Furrow opened fire at a Jewish community center in nearby Granada Hills, killing one and wounding five. The September 11 Attacks happened two years later, and then this. My bar mitzvah and entire Jewish education was undertaken under armed guard. At the time, the Pearl killing didn’t mean as much to me as it does now; I thought that Journalists had always been targeted in wars; but the effect it had on the community was much deeper. A good man had been singled out. The bad times were not in fact behind us. Maybe they never would be.
At the time, Pearl’s wife Mariane, also a journalist, was pregnant with their son Adam, and became the face of the tragedy. That her account of this tragedy would be made into a film was inevitable, and the movie as advertised came off as another Oscar-bait prestige film made solely so Angelina Jolie could finally get taken seriously. I should’ve realized my mistake when the director turned out to be Michael Winterbottom.
Michael Winterbottom is essentially all that remains of the British film industry: a British filmmaker working in Britain, making movies for British audiences, with British money, that actually get seen by the rest of the world. He’s massively prolific, having directed 25 movies in 21 years, often with common themes (journalism, popular music, current events, left-wing politics, Northwest England, classic literature) but which can be extremely varied in tone and content, from westerns to farces, in a way that compares to Richard Linklater or Steven Soderbergh. Most importantly, if Michael Winterbottom is going to make a movie based on a real tragedy, he’ll treat it with respect.
And that’s what he does here. The film unsparingly takes us through the crisis, from Daniel’s disappearance to the efforts of Pearl’s fellow journalist (Archie Panjabi), and the American Diplomat (Will Patton) and Pakistani Police Chief (Irrfan Khan) trying to unravel the mystery while Mariane (Angelina Jolie) feels powerless to do anything, yet still resolved, all with such intensity as to suggest that it’s happening at the moment you’re watching it. And while many critics at the time dismissed Jolie’s presence in the film as distracting at best and racist at worst (or, if you’re Salon, borderline-fascist propaganda), it works with time. Yes, I see Angelina Jolie, but I think Mariane Pearl. She was Pearl’s choice to star and is probably the only reason the movie got made, and while her accent may vary from scene to scene, I believed her.
Also in Theaters
1408 and A Mighty Heart premiered June 22. Also debuting that weekend was Evan Almighty, a stillborn sequel to Bruce Almighty from Tom Shadyac (Patch Adams) and Steve Oedekerk (Kung-Pow: Enter the Fist) that Jim Carrey wisely said no to.
Next Time: Ratatouille
Dir. Michael Winterbottom
Premiered June 22, 2007
In the winter of 2002, elements within Al Qaeda lured Daniel Pearl into their hands by claiming to represent a radical cleric looking to be interviewed in Pakistan. Pearl was unapologetically Jewish, a descendent of one of the founders of Israel, and worked for the Wall Street Journal, which in a moment of perceived invincibility had bragged about its cooperation with the CIA. The Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, many of whom were close to Al Qaeda and blamed international Jewry for the September 11 Attacks, were often uncooperative in the search for Pearl before he was beheaded, probably by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Daniel Pearl lived in Woodland Hills, California, and his kidnapping and death were a huge blow to the Jewish community in Southern California, during several years that could charitably be called intense. In 1999, white supremacist Buford Furrow opened fire at a Jewish community center in nearby Granada Hills, killing one and wounding five. The September 11 Attacks happened two years later, and then this. My bar mitzvah and entire Jewish education was undertaken under armed guard. At the time, the Pearl killing didn’t mean as much to me as it does now; I thought that Journalists had always been targeted in wars; but the effect it had on the community was much deeper. A good man had been singled out. The bad times were not in fact behind us. Maybe they never would be.
At the time, Pearl’s wife Mariane, also a journalist, was pregnant with their son Adam, and became the face of the tragedy. That her account of this tragedy would be made into a film was inevitable, and the movie as advertised came off as another Oscar-bait prestige film made solely so Angelina Jolie could finally get taken seriously. I should’ve realized my mistake when the director turned out to be Michael Winterbottom.
Michael Winterbottom is essentially all that remains of the British film industry: a British filmmaker working in Britain, making movies for British audiences, with British money, that actually get seen by the rest of the world. He’s massively prolific, having directed 25 movies in 21 years, often with common themes (journalism, popular music, current events, left-wing politics, Northwest England, classic literature) but which can be extremely varied in tone and content, from westerns to farces, in a way that compares to Richard Linklater or Steven Soderbergh. Most importantly, if Michael Winterbottom is going to make a movie based on a real tragedy, he’ll treat it with respect.
And that’s what he does here. The film unsparingly takes us through the crisis, from Daniel’s disappearance to the efforts of Pearl’s fellow journalist (Archie Panjabi), and the American Diplomat (Will Patton) and Pakistani Police Chief (Irrfan Khan) trying to unravel the mystery while Mariane (Angelina Jolie) feels powerless to do anything, yet still resolved, all with such intensity as to suggest that it’s happening at the moment you’re watching it. And while many critics at the time dismissed Jolie’s presence in the film as distracting at best and racist at worst (or, if you’re Salon, borderline-fascist propaganda), it works with time. Yes, I see Angelina Jolie, but I think Mariane Pearl. She was Pearl’s choice to star and is probably the only reason the movie got made, and while her accent may vary from scene to scene, I believed her.
Also in Theaters
1408 and A Mighty Heart premiered June 22. Also debuting that weekend was Evan Almighty, a stillborn sequel to Bruce Almighty from Tom Shadyac (Patch Adams) and Steve Oedekerk (Kung-Pow: Enter the Fist) that Jim Carrey wisely said no to.
Next Time: Ratatouille