I've struggled to rate this one as I try to separate my own experiences from what was portrayed in the movie.
By way of background, I have over 16 years with the emergency services and have seen my share of Stringers. Most are really good to deal with and know what their limitations are, respect our job and don't cause issues or get in the way.
This relationship ends up being a win-win as we often allowed them better access to scenes and at times allowed them to record extra stuff for our benefit knowing that they wouldn't use the footage (more so because the networks wouldn't or couldn't anyway due to the graphic nature of the footage).
However, on the other hand you have the occasional Stringer who would do anything to be the shot, would disregard instructions and get in the way constantly, which in turn distracted people from doing their job. The good thing though was this was rare.
When I watched this movie, I was taken back to a few of my own experiences in dealing with Stringers and it got my blood boiling as I though of how they conducted themselves.
Thus my dilemma in rating this movie.
I've tried to put aside my bias towards the minority and rate this purely as a movie- on that, I've got to give it a good rating as I thought it was well done, it was realistic, it was confronting.
It also made me wonder how many Stringers would actually go as far as he did to get the perfect shot? Would the shot take precedence over everything else? Hope not, but don't know.
By way of background, I have over 16 years with the emergency services and have seen my share of Stringers. Most are really good to deal with and know what their limitations are, respect our job and don't cause issues or get in the way.
This relationship ends up being a win-win as we often allowed them better access to scenes and at times allowed them to record extra stuff for our benefit knowing that they wouldn't use the footage (more so because the networks wouldn't or couldn't anyway due to the graphic nature of the footage).
However, on the other hand you have the occasional Stringer who would do anything to be the shot, would disregard instructions and get in the way constantly, which in turn distracted people from doing their job. The good thing though was this was rare.
When I watched this movie, I was taken back to a few of my own experiences in dealing with Stringers and it got my blood boiling as I though of how they conducted themselves.
Thus my dilemma in rating this movie.
I've tried to put aside my bias towards the minority and rate this purely as a movie- on that, I've got to give it a good rating as I thought it was well done, it was realistic, it was confronting.
It also made me wonder how many Stringers would actually go as far as he did to get the perfect shot? Would the shot take precedence over everything else? Hope not, but don't know.