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Reviews
The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)
very enjoyable
This piece of work can be summarised, as many others have commented as simple, and quite different to your average mainstream movie. It tries to mix a bit of documentary style narration of our world, with an entertaining fictional story. Now while it is a comedy, I do agree with some people who commented negatively, that this is not the "funniest movie ever", ala Monty python, or naked gun, or...you name it. There are some very funny moments, and some not very funny stupid ones, but overall it is merely pleasant.
The strength of it relies much more on its message, and its satirical comparison of the world viewed from the "civilized" man's perspective, and the bushman's perspective. Now don't get me wrong here, I only use "civilized" to get the message across in a common term. Not one second do I believe that these civilized men (i.e. most of us) are in any way morally superior to the bushmen. And, I think, this is also the portrayal the movie gives. The bushmen live their lives differently, no one can argue with that, and that is a mere evidence. Therefore they have a different view of the world. Now, beware spoiler, a bushman not knowing what a bottle of coke is, is in no way racist. Why would he know what it was, had he or his ancestors never experienced anything like it before. We have gone from treating some humans as slaves becauses of their differences, to treating anyone who mentions a difference in appearance or belief as a potential racist. This is just so representative of our inability to get a balance anywhere (e.g. between communism and cut-throat capitalism). The funniest thing of all is that we do in some cases do both at the same time in our supposedly civilised countries (i.e. badly discriminate people and put them to near-slavery, and accuse people of racism when they stress the differences in humorous ways). So please, this is definitely not a racist movie.
In conclusion, it is a refreshing movie and although it is more than 20y old, it is certainly as timely now (probably more) as it was back then.
The Meaning of Life (1983)
A great piece of work, only slightly below holy grail and life of brian
This is, put simply, slightly less hilarious than the other 2 Monthy Python movies. To me, who found the holy grail and the life of brian fantastic, this is also a very good and funny piece of work. Now it is a bit less accessible than the other 2, and reflects more of the Monty Python TV series. The reason why some people have not really liked it, I think, is due to the lack of a story or plot. Indeed it is an assemblage of many little stories under the title The Meaning of Life. And while the other 2 movies were funny nearly throughout, there are more ups and downs in this one. It's the same humor: silly, physical jokes, mixed with more refined puns and references, that made the glory of Monty Python. I don't see why anyone who liked the other 2 should particularly dislike this one, it is still very good, and scattered with phenomenal and classic moments : the stories on birth/the 3rd world children, and on death are the best, especially the former, which is in my opinion the most hilarious monty python act across all movies. The movie is worth it be it for that part only. It is a pity that some more mediocre parts made it into this film, such as the one they termed "middle-ages". Of course if you did not like the holy grail or the life of brian (something beyond me, but you do meet the occasional person who dislikes this humor, especially people not accustomed to British culture and therefore who possibly lack the necessary references that makes a lot of the jokes really funny), then this Meaning of Life is not for you. Finally, this humour is not outdated at all, because there is often reference to religion, human instinct & stupidity, death, poverty, food... and these guys really have a proper go on all of these and more. I would really love to find funnier movies out there, but to date I have not. The only contemporary anglophone movies I could link to this would be Leslie Nielsen's first naked guns,or Shrek...maybe, with obviously much more satire and historical context. It is in fact difficult to find recent comedies that can even compare in style and quality to the 3 Monty pythons. I can only think of one, La cite de la Peur, a french film, which is great if you speak french. So just see for yourself, it's far more than worth a try if you happen not to know Monty Python, but as i said above, start with the other 2.
Darwin's Nightmare (2004)
the title is indeed appropriate
(the following contains no spoilers, how can it, this is no fiction playing with your emotions) So what if the movie is not filmed as certain people would like it to be filmed. ..."scenes out of focus"...come on this is ridiculous.
This is just a documentary, showing the lives of people in parallel to the fish export industry (it does not focus on the ecological disaster). Who wants a plot? why talk of simplification? why talk of manipulation...again this is ridiculous.
This is mainly roar video footage, with no comments from the director. It's not cinema, it's someone with a camera talking to people willing to talk about their lives. It's simple, it's not propaganda (I do not think the director cut footage he deliberately wanted to hide from the viewer, again i cannot believe how insane someone can be to be able to say this is leftist propaganda), and it let's the viewer think by himself.
The film does not give answers. The mass arms trade is not proved, but how can it? No one involved in this at a high level would be willing to talk. This should be seen by anyone who has the slightest interest in life, it is however not a unique film, and is in the line of many other good docs. But not many directors manage to get millions of people to view their footage, and in this Sauper succeeded. I thank him for this.