Great Medley–Bete Noire Meets Good Bad and Ugly, The Mexican
March 28, 2010
Isaach De Bankolé
Strongly recommended for those that have my tastes in DVDs and have enjoyed my recommendations in the past. This movie was fun to watch, relaxing, intriguing, and totally enjoyable.
For me, this movie is NOT over-played, its a great combination of some good and bad clandestine tradecraft, some sparkling lines (am re-learning French and appreciate anything with French actually spoken), some artful nudity, some real art, and over-all, a smooth panorama.
I watched this on background while finishing up my new book and on balance it is certainly most satisfying and I would recommend it to anyone along with Ike – Countdown to D-Day.
His great speeches on tape are delivered better on tape than in the movie (I do not recommend the books of his speeches, the publishers failed to put them in the original poetic form for proper appreciation and reading).
I had real reservations about this DVD based on the write-up, but Meg Ryan carried it over as I was picking out three DVDs to keep me company on an editing marathon.
BE PATIENT with the beginning. Despite Meg Ryan (doing very well playing a stressed out robot lawyer), I almost lost patience and moved on.
On balance the movie is fun, provokes thought, and it has an absolutely killer ending that makes the whole thing totally worth watching from beginning to end, and leaves me chuckling with appreciation for Meg Ryan the actress and Meg Ryan the character as played in the film.
As a former spy who has spent the last 21 years in commercial intelligence, i expected much more from this film with its great actors but I was very disappointed. Had it not been in front of me on background as I edit my new book I would have turned it off completely on more than one occasion.
The ending is sort of clever and I will not spoil it, but there are no clues at the beginning so the movie more or less ends with “fooled you, didn't I, but your going to have to take my word for it.” And about that pink elephant that I am keeping away from your front lawn….
Over-all, this is a cluttered mess.
There are still no really great commercial intelligence films, nor should they be, because those who spend heavily on commercial espionage lack both ethics and brains. 95% of what you need to be a successful ethical commercial intelligence practioner is openly available and your customers should be providing you with the rest, i.e. what they want that no one else has thought to give them.
I found this movie very compelling and am putting it into circulation as a shared good. It is built around four specific veterans (one each from WWII, Viet-Nam, and Gulf I) and does a superb job of weaving direct interviews, past photos of the three protagonists, and archival film clips.
The Marine from Gulf I is especially compelling as he tells of his deliberate refusal to accept a Conscientious Objective discharge after killing over 30 people in Iraq, and ultimately, with the aid of a high-powered lawyer, prevails in getting an Honorable Discharge.
The same Marine–and the others–discuss how one must train normal people to kill, and there is no thought of how to untrain them (war dogs get reintegration training, humans do not).
The clear message, in these words: We are One, and War is no way to settle disagreements. That is of course both correct and naive–it discounts the fact that Empire is about money for a few, and the troops are merely cannon fodder. That's the first thing we have to change–take the money out of war and into peace.
Although I tend to shy away from sequels, I broke down and bought this at Giant to pass time away while completing a tediuous task. It was GREAT.
There is zero babe factor in this movie, which was a disappointment, it could have been scripted much more engagingly, but three things really blew me away throughout:
1) The staging or the access to ostensible Vatican inside and underground areas–presumably not actually within the Vatican, this was all done superbly
2) The twists and turns and the ending were great. I actually had tears of surprise at the end and will not spoil it.
3) Finally, Tom Hanks and the historical allusions still fascinate me. It would be great if history could be taught so ably, but more deeply and more thoroughly.
Absolutely recommended.
To browse all 86 of the DVDs that I recommend, visit Phi Beta Iota the Public Intelligence Blog, each links back to their respective Amazon page but only there can you see JUST my DVD reviews. [Use Reviews (DVD Only) (86)]
Robert Altman, James Baker, Bill Bradley, Harold Brown, Hodding Carter, William Coleman, Walter Cronkite, Barabara Ehrenreich, Vartan Gregorian, Robert Hackney, Doug Henwood, Mike Dedavoy, Joseph Nye, Samuel Peabody, John Perkins, Pete Seeger, Lawrence Summers, Arthur Sulzberger, William Taft, Kurt Vonnegut, Howard Zinn
This DVD is superb and also subversive. I doubt that the “stars” in this movie, particularly James Baker, Bill Bradley, Howard Brown, and Larry Summers, really knew what they were getting into, since their words–and their bland denials–ring so false in this context.
I put the film in while trying to deal with Microsoft's latest “update” that cost me half the morning, and I recommend it very strongly as a Christmas present or for classrooms and book clubs.
My notes:
+ A Peabody, whose ancestors came on “the boat” and also founded Groton, laments that whereas all the leaders used to pass through Groton, now there is no real “source.” I am reminded of Lee Iacocca's Where Have All the Leaders Gone?.
+ Hedge fund visits basically boils all ownership in America down to four banks, and later in the film we learn that six multinational control almost all “content.”
Great Medley–Bete Noire Meets Good Bad and Ugly, The Mexican
Very Satisfying but Not Inspiring
Confused, Overly Complex, Badly Staged
