Arnold
Review: War Made Easy & Steep
I recently did a review of both War Made Easy & Steep.
War Made Easy is a new documentary based on the Norman Solomon's book of the same name. The documentary focuses not on just the Iraq War and what is happening in the Middle East right now, but more directly on Presidential rhetoric of war. How the White House has rehashed the same rhetoric over and over since Vietnam to garner the support of the nation for war. It also takes that analysis into how that forces the media to take the side of the government, how providing a "round" analysis of the pre-war stages becomes perceived as un-patriotic rather than actually providing facts, and how in those moment we are lead to believe providing good journalism involves interviewing military officials, but that is part of the pentagon plan for controlling the information the public gets. If the media believes that the only source is the military, and they are obviously pro-war, then the government can take control of the media, in a matter of speaking.
War Made Easy is one of the best and most focused documentaries on war that I've ever seen come out. It is a great film on the problems in the media, and war. Check out my full review here
Steep is a ski documentary that takes a look at the history of extreme skiing. It's an odd film that never really finds a focus. It attempts to be too expansive and then narrow in towards the end in a way that makes the viewer unsure what the film is actually about. There are some interesting moments when the filmmakers begin to slowly reveal what is actually driving these skiers. It seems to me that this is an important question (What drives the individuals who are drawn to extreme sports?). And though it seems like a somewhat curmudgeonly questions it is really one of the great questions of my generation. What has drawn so much of a generation to extreme sports? The film isn't amazing, but if you're part of a younger generation it's interesting to hear these questions probed. You can find my review of Steep here.
War Made Easy is a new documentary based on the Norman Solomon's book of the same name. The documentary focuses not on just the Iraq War and what is happening in the Middle East right now, but more directly on Presidential rhetoric of war. How the White House has rehashed the same rhetoric over and over since Vietnam to garner the support of the nation for war. It also takes that analysis into how that forces the media to take the side of the government, how providing a "round" analysis of the pre-war stages becomes perceived as un-patriotic rather than actually providing facts, and how in those moment we are lead to believe providing good journalism involves interviewing military officials, but that is part of the pentagon plan for controlling the information the public gets. If the media believes that the only source is the military, and they are obviously pro-war, then the government can take control of the media, in a matter of speaking.
War Made Easy is one of the best and most focused documentaries on war that I've ever seen come out. It is a great film on the problems in the media, and war. Check out my full review here
Steep is a ski documentary that takes a look at the history of extreme skiing. It's an odd film that never really finds a focus. It attempts to be too expansive and then narrow in towards the end in a way that makes the viewer unsure what the film is actually about. There are some interesting moments when the filmmakers begin to slowly reveal what is actually driving these skiers. It seems to me that this is an important question (What drives the individuals who are drawn to extreme sports?). And though it seems like a somewhat curmudgeonly questions it is really one of the great questions of my generation. What has drawn so much of a generation to extreme sports? The film isn't amazing, but if you're part of a younger generation it's interesting to hear these questions probed. You can find my review of Steep here.
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