Bhopali
(2012/IndiePix DVD)/He
Named Me Malala (2015/Fox
DVD)/The Nine Lives Of
Marion Barry
(2010/IndiePix DVD)/Our
Brand Is Crisis (2015
drama/Warner Blu-ray)
Picture:
C+/C+/C/B+ Sound: C/C+/C/B Extras: C+/C/C/C- Main
Program: B/B/B/C+
Here
are four new political and historical releases you should know about,
including a drama remake of a documentary and three other must-see
documentaries...
Van
Maximillian Carlson's Bhopali
(2012) is a serious look at the catastrophe in 1984 in Bhopal, one of
the poorest places in india, where the Union Carbide company (later
bought by Dow Chemical) set up a plant to make bug spray with storage
tanks it turns out they knew were not 100% fail safe and a tank
landed up exploding is contents all over the place. The majority of
the residents were affected, many died and a quarter-century later,
the company has STILL not cleaned up the area, dumping the
responsibility (irresponsibly) on the government of India who seem to
care less about the poverty-stricken area.
In
what feels like a tale about Flint, Michigan and lead poisoning in
the water since 2014, we have thousands of children being born with
birth defects, mental retardation and more while little help is
offered by anyone and certainly not by Dow or India itself. This
vital work tells how badly all there have suffered, how no one has
been held accountable and how the disaster has grown as each rain
washes the deadly chemicals which have never been broken down
properly into the groundwater that people have no choice but to drink
from. It is a nightmare and a very ugly, unacceptable situation, but
a movement is there to somehow change this and get justice at some
point.
If
Union Carbide (the Eveready Battery people, making the 'nine lives'
logo ironic) had just fixed things then instead of abandoning the
mess, this could have been solved. Instead, it is now a hyper-toxic
disaster area with the minimum estimated cost to clean it up at at
least $5 Billion! That is no match for all the lives ruined, but the
government and an ugly sense of a caste system does not help the
situation any. This only begins to spell out how bad things are. I
hope this helps get the ball rolling on a resolution, because as the
Flint fiasco shows, it is NOT an isolated incident.
Extras
(unlisted on the case) include a Deleted Scene, USC Q&A session
and Trailer.
Davis
Guggenheim's He Named Me
Malala (2015) tells the
story of a young woman in the Middle East who dared to say young gals
deserve education too, but for this was shot in the head by a Taliban
killer. She survived and became an advocate for what she stood up
for, continuing even with more death threats from the infamous
terrorist organization. Malala Yousafzai quickly became an
international celebrity, symbol for a Middle East that needs to
change or be left behind and this program spends its solid 88 minutes
showing us the heart and soul behind the face.
When
I head about this incident, I was outraged like any healthy human
being would be, but that she has survived and thrived is a great
thing and more than deserved this coverage. A real triumph, be sure
to see it.
Extras
include a Photo Gallery, info on the Malala Fund and five promotional
featurette clips.
Dana
Flor & Toby Oppenheimer's The
Nine Lives Of Marion Barry
(2010) is a nice surprise profile of the controversial Mayor of
Washington D.C., which we learn was a place where the majority poor,
African-American population had zero political power until the Civil
Rights movement in the late 1960s changed that. Before he was
vilified for being the crack-using sex addict the media eventually
portrayed him as, tearing him down, he was a groundbreaking
politician who in retrospect, helped make the presidency of Barack
Obama possible. At first, things were good, he was popular, got
things done, buildings built, business made and rebuilt a D.C. That
should have never been rotting outside of the government buildings.
Then
crack-cocaine made its world debut and the area was among the worst
hit in the country. He would succumb to it himself, along with sex
and womanizing when the FBI found a particularly sexy woman very, in
fairness to him) with a past they used to catch him red-handed on
tape. He fell for it, and that was the end of his political
career... almost. As the title says, he made yet another comeback,
but the documentary also shows certain in Washington interests never
liked him and did what they could to get him out of the way.
He
was also difficult in getting this made, so it is amazing this ever
got finished, but it proves he has a legacy, no matter how dearly he
paid and like John DeLorean, a bad fall can still leave a good legacy
for a flawed man. Even Norm MacDonald would have to admit that.
Extras
include a feature-length audio commentary by the directors, Archival
Photos, Trailer and Deleted Scenes.
David
Gordon Green's Our Brand
Is Crisis (2015) is a
live action comedy/drama remake 'suggested' by the 2005 documentary
by Rachel Boynton about 'expert' political intervention for big money
in Bolivia we reviewed at the time at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4517/Our+Brand+Is+Crisis+(Documentary
This
time, we get a star cast retelling the tale, but making it more of a
comedy than it needs to be, which means a little more predictable
(think Wag The Dog, Primary Colors, etc.) that would be
between two male rivals trying to help opposite candidates on the
long list starting with 12 candidates. However, one of them has been
turned into a female with a wild reputation, now played by Sandra
Bullock and though that alone might not be a bad historical change,
this film is not interested in honestly telling the full story the
documentary did. Billy Bob Thorton (who played James Carville in
Primary Colors) is her friendly rival, though if I'm reading
this well, she is suddenly Carville?
Either
way, this has some good moments, but not enough of them, which is why
it did not set the box office on fire. Still, if you are interested,
it has its moments and is worth a look. Anthony Mackie, Joaquim de
Almeida, Ann Dowd and Zoe Kazan also star.
A
behind the scenes featurette Sandra Bullock: A Role Like No Other,
is the only extra.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Bhopali and Malala
combine new footage with sometimes rough (and in Bhopali,
analog video from the original disaster), but solid editing and hard
work deliver the point. The 1.33 X 1 image on Barry is very
mixed, and because almost all the footage from the time is
black-style from old black & white civil rights films to analog
color videotape, it was the only aspect ratio choice that made sense,
even if is the poorest performer here. In all cases where you get
analog videotape in all three releases, expect flaws flaws including
video noise, video banding, telecine flicker, tape scratching,
staircasing, cross color, faded color and tape damage.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Crisis is shot
on 35mm film and to my surprise, is one of the years most
consistently good looking films, which brings out the humor better.
Especially since the documentary that inspired it was all-video, the
move to use film is very smart.
As
for sound, Malala is not bad for its lossy Dolby Digital 5.1
mix, but the sound is often stereo or mono, leaving music to the
surrounds, but that fares better than the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0
Mono on Bhopali and Barry, which in fairness have
plenty of rough audio from back in the day, thus they sound about as
good as they could.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Crisis
is easily the sonic leader with well mixed, professionally mixed,
well recorded and presented audio as expected for a top rate film.
Still, it can be more quiet and refined at times than you might
expect, but when the multi-channel surrounds kick in at times, it
shows its muscle.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
