Samson And Delilah (2009)
This is possibly one of the most boring movies I have ever seen and yet it seems to have 100% on RT. I was convinced that this must be because hardly anyone has reviewed it, but that's not so. They list 30 positive reviews. Here are some of the comments:
Visually stunning, this impressive feature debut places an Aboriginal love on the run tale against a fascinating socio-cultural context that's little known to non-Australians.Okay, first of all let's deal with "visually stunning". It wasn't. It really wasn't. Nearly every scene is in the middle of the desert. It looks bleak, unappealing and generally horrid.
Non-actors Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson don't so much perform their roles as live out the lives of those who have been around them. Their ability to involve us and to make their characters real is astonishing.
The surreal leitmotifs ... keep the essence alive even when the drama appears dormant.
It's a predominantly bleak story, but never defeatist, and it stays with you.
Thornton's film offers a unique experience set in the heart of Australia, and it surely will be a rare moviegoer who doesn't respond to the drama and humour he exposes in this tender and brutal love story.
Also, there's practically no dialogue. If this movie is intended to shed light on the plight of aborigines in Australia, perhaps we could have done with some explanation as to what is going on. Not only do the characters barely speak, but there is very little explanation for the events taking place.
The suggestion in one of the comments above is that there is a simple realism about the performances. Sorry, no. Not at all my experience. What I saw seemed more surreal. There's a kidnapping at one point with absolutely no explanation of why it happened or even what happened. The same character turns up later with severe bruises on their face. In a scene mirroring that scene later on (though, once again, for no good reason) that same character is hit head-on by a car. Once again there's no explanation for this and they turn up a bit later on crutches. Presumably this one of those "leitmotifs" which apparently makes up for absolutely nothing happening for most of the movie. "Samson and Delilah" is full of events like this with absolutely no explanation and once I came to the end of the movie I felt that there was no real point to any of it.
I'm not sure what one reviewer means when they say the movie is "bleak but not defeatist". It's certainly bleak. The substance abuse addiction, living on the streets, kidnapping and car accident are all horribly bleak. However, it's never terribly obvious why any of it is happening, so how can anyone really suggest any optimism when the cause of the problems is entirely unexplored?
What we have here is a slow-moving, bleak, miserable, surreal, confusing and frustrating movie about a dysfunctional aboriginal couple who, for no obvious reason, decide to run away from their home and live on the streets. It ugly, pointless and I'm amazed I even bothered to watch it to the end.
0.5/5
Sophie Scholl - The Final Days (2005)
To be honest, I reckon I could have done with knowing a great deal more about what happened in the earlier days of Sophie Scholl's life. Also, the random revelation at the end that after Sophie Scholl's death there's a much bigger event whereby leaflets are dropped from the sky was annoying because I have no idea how they would have acheived it. The early events of the movie show Sophie Scholl with her brother Hans leaving piles of anti-Nazi papers all over the university campus. They are quickly caught and taken to be interrogated by the gestapo. One is given cause to wonder what the White Rose organisation could ever possibly have achieved when such a minor stunt led them to be caught instantly.
In any case, to start with the movie seemed promising with Sophie Scholl's coolness under pressure being expertly performed by the lead actress. Sophie's personal prayers sounded like they were written for an audience (by that I mean a wider audience than simply the Almighty, of course), but then again this is hardly surprising in a movie where the intention is to emphasise the plight of the eponymous figure. Unfortunately around half way through the movie a pet peeve of mine was hit upon and I lost my ability to suspend my disbelief from then on.
Towards the end of Sophie Scholl's interrogation by the gestapo there's a conversation about the ethics of the Nazi regime. The dialogue is apparently using actual transcripts from old gestapo records (though there will naturally be gaps). As Sophie Scholl emphasises the importance of "decency, morals and god" the gestapo official, who throughout the discussion has been very careful about what he says, suddenly shouts "God doesn't exist!" launching himself out of his chair in exasperation and desperation.
The suggestion of the movie-makers seemed quite clear and quite obviously false. The gestapo official is sticking to a Nazi party line that God does not exist, but Sophie Scholl's claims about God and morality have moved him to sympathise with her plight. The problem? The Nazi party did not advocate atheism. Not even slightly. In fact, the party line would have been to strongly distance oneself from atheism in order not to be viewed as a communist sympathiser. Women were encouraged to focus on "Church, Cooking and Children", the uniform for Nazi soldiers featured a belt with the words "Gott Mit Uns" written on it, the Nazis quite openly emphasised their interest in "Positve Christianity" and included the Churches amongst the institutions which it was important to control.
Certainly atheists were amongst those sent to the camps, but most often for being Marxist rather than atheist per se. It was not unheard of for Nazis to be atheists, but the scene in question would have made far more sense if the gestapo official had simply said it to dismiss what Sophie Scholl was saying and move on, rather than something shouted across the desk as if it were part of Nazi ideology and a dogmatic slogan to hide behind when one's argument faltered.
It is noted in interviews that the director was an atheist himself. However, that does not stop him from employing cheap tactics to produce drama. The idea of a religious figure standing up to an atheistic authoritarian is a stereotype which the audience might respond to.
Next up Sophie Scholl is introduced to her defence lawyer, who is utterly uninterested in doing any real defending. In the trial itself we are introduced to the impatient ranting judge Freisler who spends more time ridiculing the accused than actually questioning them. Even when they are allowed to speak they are quickly interrupted. The problem is that this makes it harder to understand the points where Freisler actually allows Sophie Scholl to get through a speech uninterrupted. It feels very much like the actors are waiting for each other to finish, which once again makes it hard to believe in the events onscreen.
Before the final execution, the three members of the White Rose organisation accused of tyranny and sentenced to execution seem to be allowed to stand together in a hallway together. It's particularly odd since this looks like distinctly more freedom than one would expect to be given to prisoners within the UK, never mind in Nazi Germany. While the two men are standing unhindered by handcuffs, two elderly unarmed prison officers go to handcuff Sophie, leaving the exit door wide open. I couldn't help but wonder why the two men currently marked for death didn't take this opportunity to escape. They could even have successfully assaulted the prison guards and got Sophie out of there too. The answer seems to be that this scene is merely set up this way for dramatic effect (perhaps suggesting that no one really thought of these people as any real threat, but the system simply couldn't allow them to live). The problem with doing things for dramatic effect is that if you get it wrong people don't feel the drama, but instead feel frustrated.
This wasn't a bad movie, but I felt there were some severe errors which ruined it for me.
2.5/5