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paulharhen
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Body of Lies (2008)
Hollywood fails the Middle East again Just another action movie!!!
I must refer to the historical perspective, first before I comment on "Body of Lies".
The Treaty of Versailles, (i.e. the break-up of the Ottoman Empire, and the creation of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Jordan and Saudi Arabia ) agreed to by the Western Powers in 1919, paved the way for military and political chaos in the Middle East, which continues to this very day.
Oil reserves in the Middle East have become an important strategic concern for Western Powers, helping to justify their economic, diplomatic and military interference in the region.
Now, most of the leading Hollywood male actors have now done an Arab world related movie. E.g. Rendition, Syriana, and now this Body of Lies. Syriana was probably the best. However Hollywood has done this region before, e.g. Lawrence of Arabia (1963).
Syriana to some extent, but none of the rest, address properly the political dimensions of the conflicts in the Middle East.
What we get left with, are simple action movies, with no depth. Action movies coming out of Hollywood, need a background or context. These seem to be limited to Alien Attack (Terminator, Transformers, ...) , Fast Cars (Fast & Furious, etc) , Espionage (Bond & Bourne, ..) and now the Arab world. I see Matt Damon has "Green Zone" coming out this year.
Oliver Stone's "W" is better, although it is not Middle East movie. Stone can do "depth", even where there is little depth to be had....
88 Minutes (2007)
Weak screenplay, crazy casting, and poor editing.
This potentially had a lot going for it. It did have enough good actors, the camera crew were well skilled, and the locations were fine. However, the script was not up to scratch. There were large holes in its logic, and consistency. Pacino too was at least 25 years too old for the part. He was "pulling" ladies in their 20's or 30's... (However I was impressed with all his running scenes...) All the women were too attractive. This was more like a 1970's TV soap opera. The editing matched the script too. Meaningless sections, scenes that seemed to just hang, Pacino's short stature was very obvious in places, etc.... I did like the porter part, reminded me of the barman in "The Shining", however again it just didn't fit in, with the rest of the movie.
Trop belle pour toi (1989)
Excellent French Complex Love Triangle and Comedy
Here is a man who wants more than the trophy wife, career, house and family, and loses it all.
She, the wife, is an upper-class beautiful women. She also has given her husband access to her circle of friends too. She operates in an artificial world and is essentially lonely.
The new women on the other hand has given up, a long time ago, on meeting her "prince in shining armour".
The mixing of past, present and future, and the internal retrospective views add complexity.
It potentially can happen to us all. Hence the allure...