A tip to all you men hanging out on city streets: If you spot a muscular woman in a tight sleeveless top toting a camera, do not, by all means, do not make any comments, whistles, catcalls, or any other overture.
If you do, you're likely to wind up with your mug plastered on art house screens across America. "War Zone", Maggie Hadleigh-West's documentary about such unwanted encounters, is receiving its theatrical premiere at New York's Film Forum.
Hadleigh-West's basic approach to making this film was to walk down the street, wait for the inevitable male overtures, and then reciprocate by confronting the aggressors. Of the more than 1,000 "incidents of harassments" that she says she encountered during a five-week period, roughly 50 or so are depicted in the film, which attempts to use these examples of street confrontations, as well as interviews with various female victims, to present a wider portrait of male aggression toward women. One particularly harrowing segment features the audio tape of a 911 call made by a woman as she is being attacked by a home intruder.
Although the filmmaker's argument is a provocative one, she undercuts its effectiveness by her heavy-handed approach. She makes no differentiation between the various levels of male attention, with sideways glances accorded the same contempt and criminality as obscene remarks.
The men, caught by surprise, react in a gallery of ways: sheepish and embarrassed, defensive, denying, hostile and argumentative. Many protest that they were simply trying to offer a compliment; others suggest that Hadleigh-West dress less provocatively. One older man claims that he was not staring at Hadleigh-West's breasts, but merely at the bandage she is wearing, as he is suffering from a similar injury.
The film, which is being presented by actress Susan Sarandon, should spark plenty of spirited debate, especially between men and women, but it proves repetitive in its series of confrontations in which the filmmaker basically repeats over and over her assertion that uninvited male attention is a form of aggression that fills women with fear. The delight and sarcasm she displays in turning the tables on her male subjects seem more like revenge than useful social commentary, but that is another topic.
WAR ZONE
Presented by Susan Sarandon
A Film Fatale Inc. and Hank Levine Film, GmbH production
Director-screenwriter: Maggie Hadleigh-West
Producer: Hank Levine
Director of photography: Todd Liebler with Eileen Schreiber
Editor: Kelly Korzan, Fernando Villena
Color
Running time -- 76 minutes
No MPAA rating...
If you do, you're likely to wind up with your mug plastered on art house screens across America. "War Zone", Maggie Hadleigh-West's documentary about such unwanted encounters, is receiving its theatrical premiere at New York's Film Forum.
Hadleigh-West's basic approach to making this film was to walk down the street, wait for the inevitable male overtures, and then reciprocate by confronting the aggressors. Of the more than 1,000 "incidents of harassments" that she says she encountered during a five-week period, roughly 50 or so are depicted in the film, which attempts to use these examples of street confrontations, as well as interviews with various female victims, to present a wider portrait of male aggression toward women. One particularly harrowing segment features the audio tape of a 911 call made by a woman as she is being attacked by a home intruder.
Although the filmmaker's argument is a provocative one, she undercuts its effectiveness by her heavy-handed approach. She makes no differentiation between the various levels of male attention, with sideways glances accorded the same contempt and criminality as obscene remarks.
The men, caught by surprise, react in a gallery of ways: sheepish and embarrassed, defensive, denying, hostile and argumentative. Many protest that they were simply trying to offer a compliment; others suggest that Hadleigh-West dress less provocatively. One older man claims that he was not staring at Hadleigh-West's breasts, but merely at the bandage she is wearing, as he is suffering from a similar injury.
The film, which is being presented by actress Susan Sarandon, should spark plenty of spirited debate, especially between men and women, but it proves repetitive in its series of confrontations in which the filmmaker basically repeats over and over her assertion that uninvited male attention is a form of aggression that fills women with fear. The delight and sarcasm she displays in turning the tables on her male subjects seem more like revenge than useful social commentary, but that is another topic.
WAR ZONE
Presented by Susan Sarandon
A Film Fatale Inc. and Hank Levine Film, GmbH production
Director-screenwriter: Maggie Hadleigh-West
Producer: Hank Levine
Director of photography: Todd Liebler with Eileen Schreiber
Editor: Kelly Korzan, Fernando Villena
Color
Running time -- 76 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 8/26/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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