Sunday, December 23, 2007

So this is Christmas, and what have you done?











Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight (now on DVD) shames us. The film starts with two-second shots of talking heads whom we will grow to know over its running time -- Pentagon officials, journalists, military, diplomats. The talking heads aren't talking yet, though. They are staring with a range of emotions: contempt, guilt, grief, helplessness. It is an extremely powerful sequence. Self-examination is something we as a nation need to do, Ferguson implies. Regardless of our position or status in society, we are all responsible for what this country has done to another. The film's last line? "That makes me angry." We aren't -- and have never been -- angry enough.

2 comments:

ah said...

meep. must check this one out. people sure like buzzing about it.

Mike z said...

These two-second shots might be a modern-day delve into the Kuleshov Experiment. Even so, they work.