June 30, 2006
Film Friday: The Road to Guantanamo is Paved with Unlawful Detentions
We’re all still busy basking in the warm glow of the revelation that the Royal, at least, will live again, and we know we mentioned it last week, but Superman Returns has been getting good enough word of mouth it might actually be worth checking out. Eye’s Jason Anderson claims “it's the rare blockbuster that lives up to advance hype”, but thankfully, good old trustworthy John Harkness of NOW gives it a kicking because the cast are too young and “here's still the big problem with all Superman stories, which is that he's kind of dull”.
Dull? Isn’t Harkness aware that Supes married Jimmy Olsen to an ape, amongst other things? Of course, he did most of those things in alternate realities, but whatever.
John Harkness does, however, go utterly gaga over the final film of Cinematheque Ontario before it takes a week’s break – Arnaud Desplechin's Rois et Reine (Kings and Queen). An “unclassifiable gem” he notes “I've seen this film three times and am convinced that it has still more to show me. Think I'll see it again when it hits the Carlton after the Cinematheque screenings.” Which is some dedication.
One of the other big releases this week, Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross’ The Road to Guantanamo may, on release, already be out of date as a tool for change, with the U.S. Supreme Court declaring the Guantanamo military tribunals illegal. Even if this (landmark) ruling might one day signal the end for Guantanamo, that doesn’t mean that it should be forgotten, of course. Eye’s Jason Anderson gives a very deep review of the film that purports to show the realities faced for three British Guantanamo detainees, noting “You may come out of the experience feeling like you've learned (and felt) less than you could have.”, which works well to counterpoint some extreme hyperbole from NOW’s Cameron Bailey. “More than any director working, Michael Winterbottom solves the riddle of how to be a filmmaker now.” Noting it’s “One of the best of the year.” He does, before that, say “As in Tristram Shandy and In This World, Winterbottom plays fast and loose with fiction and documentary”. Torontoist was all like, what? Parts of it are fictitious?
We’ll leave that hanging, why not.
Just the one festival this week, folks – the Power of Place Festival at the Harbourfront Centre (235 Queens Quay W). It features City of God on Monday, which is utterly brilliant, and we urge you to go and check it out. Have a good Canada Day weekend, everyone!
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Jason Anderson is quite right. Guantanemo isn't, in the final analysis, a great film. Too much of it plays like like theatre of the absurd: a never-ending string of chopped-up interrogation scenes, in which the actors playing the American bad guys play bad very badly indeed, and the good guys mumble "that's bull!" over and over. Then back to the cell block, where American soldiers yell "Shut up! Shut up!" for five minutes. Repeat. Repeat.
The whole second half is jumbled and meaningless, more of an exercise in son et lumiere than anything else. Fair enough, if that's what the detainees are said to have experienced, but it's a lousy way of telling a story.
More irksome is what the film avoids. What are these guys' political beliefs? What was the logic behind holding them for so long? Would the answers justify their treatment? Doubtful. But they would make this a movie to learn from and think about, rather than just something to suffer through.