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jbecket
Reviews
Searching for Home: Coming Back from War (2015)
An important and intensely moving film about American vets returning from this country's wars.
A very moving important film. A magnificent job by the director/ editor etc to pull all of this together. Every person in the film was so well chosen and profound.
At the same time you can't help wondering about the politicians that sent these young men off to useless wars after World War II. The decision by the Bush administration and the Supreme Court left a million dead, millions displaced and it still goes on. Madness. And then on their return they're brought out at football games and honored as the military is celebrated. But as the film shows returning vets are not taken care of properly as the understanding and the resources are just insufficient. Despite the dedicated efforts of so many. Heartbreaking.
At the same time the film had an inspiring side with those vets who stepped up to help others and thus helped themselves.
thank you Eric for taking this subject on and doing such an amazing job bringing together such a wealth of material great visual and emotional filmmaking.
Seeds of Freedom (2012)
An excellent film on the current battle between agro-ecology and agro-industry
This is the best film that I've seen (out of the many that I have seen) in explaining the history of agriculture and the role of seed up to today with the battle between corporate chemical industrial agriculture and organic biodiverse agriculture. It's a David and Goliath story and the future of the world's food supply is at stake. Choosing both experts like Vandana Shiva and farmers from around the world, the film gives a global view of a global problem. The narration by Jeremy Irons is just right and to get the information across it was the proper decision of have narration as well as the numerous brief trenchant 'talking heads'. In a half hour this brilliant, very well written and constructed film lays out the battle lines.
Unknown (2011)
Brilliant script
A very satisfying thriller with a brilliant script full of misdirection taking us along for the ride noticing little inconsistencies and oddities and then at the end a total surprise ending makes all those questions fall neatly into place. For me it was the script that put it way above the normal fare and then all the elements were well executed. And it's always fun with a thriller for an audience to be taken to a foreign locale and in this case seeing much of the city of Berlin from the heights to the depths. Our total sympathies lie with the Liam Neeson character who is trying to establish his identity and the very people he knows so well refuse to acknowledge that they know him. And the ending managed to work out to everyone's satisfaction, most of all the audience. A good example of the thriller genre with the complexity modern audiences demand. A much more interesting movie than TAKEN which was a linear recover my daughter story.