THE HURT LOCKER, THE DEER HUNTER, PLATOON, BRAVEHEART: The Oscars & War Movie Controversies

THE HURT LOCKER: Controversy Hasn’t Harmed Oscar-Nominated War Movies
Julie Christie in Variety, discussing The Deer Hunter (1978, right, with Robert De Niro): "The film presents the Vietcong as subhuman and sadistic, though they effectively resisted both France and the United States, which possessed enormous means of warfare."
Jane Fonda, the star of the post-Vietnam-syndrome Coming Home, later took it upon herself to campaign against The Deer Hunter, telling the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, "I haven’t seen it — I’m afraid to. My friends told me about it, though, and I just think it’s amazing that good people can see the movie and not even consider the racism." Despite the opposition of liberals and leftists, The Deer Hunter went on to win five [...]

by Andre Soares | March 7, 2010   
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Berlin 2010: Play it Again …! Series

Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg in Breathless

As per The Hollywood Reporter, the Berlin International Film Festival will mark its 60th anniversary with the retrospective "Play it Again …!," featuring 40 films compiled by British film critic David Thomson from previous Berlin festivals.
Among them are Curzio Malaparte’s The Forbidden Christ, Alf Sjoberg’s Miss Julie, Akira Kurosawa’s To Live, Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter, Zhang Yimou’s Red Sorghum, Niels Arden Oplev’s We Shall Overcome, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia.
Also, Nagisa Oshima’s In the Realm of the Senses, which caused a furor in 1976. German authorities — who probably had better things to do (weren’t the Baader Meinhof running [...]

by Andre Soares | November 11, 2009   
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