Body of Lies is at its core a critique of the U.S.’s War on Terror, yet winds up discussing too many underdeveloped ideas. Set in the Middle East after Post War Iraq, the movie focuses on a CIA operative’s mission to catch the terrorist leader Al-Saleem, a task that sets most of the setting in Iraq, Jordan, and Syria. The operative and main character Roger Ferris is played by Leonardo DiCaprio who collaborates with the head of his division Ed Hoffman, played by Russell Crowe, and the head of the Jordanian intelligence Hani Salaam, played by Mark Strong. Director Ridley Scott ensures a well-produced movie, utilizing techniques that gear towards driving its narrative. The film provides the name of every location through a quick black backdrop with white letters or does so at the bottom of the screen. The music sets the tone through a …show more content…
Crowe’s character embodies the U.S. Machiavellian in nature, Hoffman is cold, calculating, and does not have much respect or understanding for the Middle Eastern people and its culture. This is evident in that Hoffman makes no efforts to pronounce Arabic names correctly, but is well acquainted with the intricacies of terrorist warfare. In contrast, Al-Saleem’s followers are not the smartest terrorists, at times leaving themselves wide open to attack by driving eye-catching black vans and carelessly peeking their heads from behind cover. As the New York Times review of the movie put it, “the movie is a hodgepodge of borrowings and half-cooked ideas flung together into a feverishly edited jet-setting exercise in purposeless intensity.” The movie does its job of being a spy thriller with plenty of twists, turns, and intense action sequences. However, it struggles to obtain a lasting impact through the bigger picture ideas it pushes that end up being nothing more than interesting dialogue to the average
At the time of its release many critics had written this film off considering as an average film with an average story. Chicago Sun-Times labeled it as an attempt to divert away from the traditional cinema, with a new concept silent film and it failed to make an impression on the audience because of lack of creativity in the story. The film had no surprise element in it for the audience.
“The Imposter” made in 2012, is a film tale that follows the chronicles of Frederic Bourdin, a con artist, who managed to trick an unsuspecting family into believing he was a long lost relative. Bart Layton directed this documentary and uses unconventional techniques to unravel this complicated, unbelievable story.
My initial reaction to the film was of utter shock at the brutally raw reality of the film. Upon reflection and commentary from other sources, the film’s simple yet vastly effective filmmaking techniques of developing the explicit and implicit meaning of the film. The explicit meaning, as
As Ericsson begins to introduce her topic, she says “We lie. We all do. We exaggerate, we minimize, we avoid confrontation, we spare people’s feelings, we conveniently forget, we keep secrets, we justify lying to the big-guy institutions.” (Ericsson, 495). The fact that she repeats the word “we” conveys how she is not accusing anyone of lying.
In the essay The Way We Lie, Stephanie Ericsson writes that “All the ‘isms’-racism, sexism, ageism, et al.-are founded on and fueled by the stereotype and the cliché, which are lies of exaggeration, omission, and ignorance. They are always dangerous. They take a single tree and make it a landscape.” This quote is important due to the fact that stereotypes play a major role in many aspects of our society. In American society we have a tendency to pass judgment on people just because of a pre-existing stereotype that our society has formed on particular groups over the years. American Society tends to create stereotypes because of the simplicity it adds to our lives, but stereotypes can cause us to oversimplify the characteristics
The film, while being critically acclaimed with a 4.5/5 on Amazon, bears many flaws in the truth aspect of being a “true story”. The film some how attempts to present itself as being “accurate” and “truly American”, while simultaneously cutting through lengths of complexities in history and politics in the events that occurred post-9/11 and preceding the Invasion of iraq. The Main enemy of the film American Sniper is an enemy sniper, who somehow is presented as an ally of several opposing radical terrorist groups. The issue lies not in the conflicting interests, but in the generalizing of the muslim population as “terrorists”. In order to create a simple and clean-cut narrative, the film skips several years of political discourse in the events leading up to the invasion of iraq in order to imply to the viewer that the main character is joining the invasion in attempt to “avenge” 9/11 (despite the fact that the invasion of iraq was not a result of (9/11), and also manages to falsely label millions of innocent people as
Stereotypes are used to compartmentalize the vast human race. They allow us to, in the blink of an eye, know about a person without knowing a person, to create the whole narrative of a person from one glance. Though they are often inaccurate, stereotypes are a large aspect of our day to day social interactions, and are commonly used in ways that are offensive or oppressive. In “The Ways We Lie’ by Stephanie Ericsson, she references why and how they are used, and the harmful effects of stereotypes. For those who find themselves a victim of stereotyping, daily life can be significantly affected. These people are treated based on the category that they belong to, rather than based upon their individual qualities and experiences. Judith Ortiz Cofer, writer of “The Myth of The Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” and Brent Staples, author of “Just Walk on By: Black Men In Public Space” both chronicle their routine experiences of stereotyping and the consequences of such experiences. Though every individual can be stereotyped based upon the category to which they seem to belong, people of minority races or ethnicities face more stereotyping and are adversely affected on a regular basis, as
wise woman once said “Stereotypes are fast and easy/ but they are lies/ and the truth takes time.” Deb Caletti. This quote follows stereotyping by saying that they are fast and easy, but what people tell them are not always true. That what people say about someone doesn’t always mean that they have to believe what they are saying. People don't defines them, the only person that define them is themselves. Stereotyping is a big problem in books, movies, and even the world.
The Sniper had much suspense in it each passing sentence got you more on the eadge of your seat. The biggist suspense scene was when the sniper made the enemy think he was dead, and waiting for the enemy to come up and see his kill. Then after the sniper
Since the 9/11 attacks on the United States, the war against terrorism has become “the” major foreign policy objective. Violence is a hallmark of terrorism; terrorist groups participate in gruesome acts to create widespread revulsion and fear. According to Sandler, the true target of terrorism is a wider public, who will then pressure the government to give in to the demands of the terrorists.
4. What was the film’s purpose or thesis? Was it clear or did you have to infer it?
Overall I found the movie to be quite interesting and exciting at times but a bit slow in others. The story itself was very clear to me and didn’t cause any confusion. It had a good flow also, just as you were on the verge of falling into boredom with a scene they switched it up on you to keep you
When the movie “The Siege” starring Bruce Willis and Denzel Washington premiered in 1998, it was met with protest in Michigan. Nizam Arain, who belongs to the Muslim Community Association thought that Hollywood went too far with the Arab stereotype. He was quoted as saying: “To have the American public aware of the existence of Muslim terrorists is the job of the news media. But the purpose of the film is entertainment” (CNN 1998). After September 11, 2001, Arab-Americans were the targets of hate. “Mosques were firebombed, Arab-Americans were vocally abused and physically attacked, and at least six persons of Arab descent were murdered” (Lester 2002). This can be attributed to the false stereotype that the media created that all Arabs are terrorists, because that is what they are predominately portrayed as.
The Departed, a film written by William Monahan, Alan Mak, and Felix Chong, directed by Martin Scorsese, was in my opinion a spectacular crime-thriller deserving of less criticism from overly sentimental viewers. Though this film is in some scenes brutal and vicious, I praise Martin Scorsese’s refusal to cower away from the undeniable truth that organized crime in the United States is murderous in nature just to satisfy certain viewers as critics advocated he should. Being a four time Oscar winning film with sixty-three other awards for numerous aspects in the movie industry, I don’t believe anyone can contradict that The Departed is profoundly unforgettable to masses of moviegoers.
Hidden Figures, an extraordinary film that shines light on women existence and their intelligence. The women, Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, Dorothy Vaughan used the power of their intelligence to decipher complex math calculations, computer language to build rockets that other could not see. Throughout the movie racial descrepancies were vividly clear, but these eager women had something to stand for. They dared not let the words of bitterness deter them of their worth.