Reviews - Documentaries

A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash (Basil Gelpke, Ray McCormack, Reto Caduff - 2006)

This is chilling stuff if even half of it's true. The problem is that there just isn't enough oil being produced in the world to satisfy the demands of our modern society. That sounds bad I trust you'll agree, but it's a lot worse than it seems from that simple statement. As less well developed countries grow and develop they need more and more oil to satisfy the demands of their populations; so that they can all have sports cars and iPods and XBoxes, and we were already running low before these guys entered the picture. So there's less and less oil in the world, and what there is is getting more and more inaccessible, dangerous and consequently expensive to extract from the earths crust - and when this stuff's gone it's gone for good. It doesn't sound like a recipe for a rosy future. So, as a country which produces 2% of the worlds oil but consumes over 20%, what is the American government doing about this crisis? You guessed it - not much. Some of the information and archive footage presented here is truly shocking - and will be especially so to people who haven't given the subject much thought over the years. This is an incisively presented treatise on just how short-sighted those in power have been over the course of our short time on the planet, and it should be required viewing for every school child.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster (Chris Bell - 2008)

Interesting look at the use, abuse and politics surrounding anabolic steroids in sports - and more specifically contrasting their use in the bodybuilding world and at the Olympics - where of course they're prohibited. Some of the facts revealed here are quite eye-opening and the hypocrisy exhibited by some of the featured characters like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Lewis is really quite galling. Director/Presenter Chris Bell looks as if he's borrowed a few techniques from Erroll Morris and the resulting film is pretty accomplished. His interview technique may be a little raw and some of the points he makes may well be up for debate, but most of the information he presents us with is usually at least interesting. Should adult bodybuilders be able to take steroids? Probably not, but does it really matter to the average person? Bell does a decent job of showing us round his gym-rat world and filling us in on a lot of stuff we may not know in an entertaining way while making a case for changing the way steroids are perceived. As with most entertaining documentaries though it's the cast of characters that makes it fascinating - sneaking a glimpse into an unfamiliar world and observing the people that inhabit it and the things that drive them are what I find intriguing and Bell does a good job of opening our eyes to the realities of steroid use and introduces us to some interesting characters along the way.

The Bridge (Eric Steel - 2006)

Ever thought of suicide? If you've given it more than a passing thought you may well have wondered exactly how you'd go about it. The logistics of it can be somewhat overwhelming to contemplate. It sounds like it should be an easy thing to achieve but when you get right down to it it's actually quite tricky. The simplest method I could come up with is to jump off a very tall bridge, and that's what this film is about. It consists of actual footage from twenty three of the the twenty four people who killed themselves in 2004 by throwing themselves off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and this footage is intercut with very candid interviews from the deceased's friends and family. It's quite disturbing for a few reasons; firstly when the media is so strictly controlled by the spin gurus it's very rare to see real people really dying onscreen - something we're routinely shielded from these days. Secondly, it turns out the families were not aware that the person interviewing them had actual footage of their loved one's suicide on film, which is ethically questionable when you think about it, as is the fact the filmmakers obtained permission to film the bridge for a year under false pretenses. Indeed one could debate the ethics of filming people killing themselves rather than helping them (apparently the filmmakers averted all they could in the course of the year they spent filming the bridge from the coasts), but whatever your view on these issues and of suicide in general this film is certainly food for thought and will probably spark some sort of debate between you and whoever you watch it with. Personally I think this film is sincere and I found it very sad - not so much because it showed people committing suicide but because society as a whole didn't seem to care whether they killed themselves or why. Far from being exploitative I found this quite moving and a fascinating meditation on suicide and mental illness.

Capturing The Friedmans (Andrew Jarecki - 2003)

There are some very interesting documentaries being made these days and this is one of the best. It's about a Jewish family that is torn apart when allegations of child abuse are levelled at both the father and Jesse - one of his three teenage sons. The family, who were always home video enthusiasts filmed all the events during the investigation and subsequent hearings, and it's grimly fascinating following the meltdown of the family unit. It's not at all clear exactly how much guilt lies with the accused and how much is fabrication by the accusors and the police, especially where Jesse is concerned. It's an interesting snapshot of an average middle class American family doing average middle class stuff then suddenly it's a brutal car crash of a movie that you can't look away from, and you know can only end in complete devastation. Its even more interesting watching this for a second time, as it adds a whole new dimension to the first half of the film when you know exactly the fate that awaits the family in the second half. I suppose the best way to describe this film would be morbidly entertaining.

Cinemania (Angela Christlieb & Stephen Kijak - 2002)

In which we follow five film freaks as they devour every obscure film within striking distance of their homes as a matter of their daily routine. You know you're dealing with some serious obsessional behaviour when the first line out of the first character's mouth is, 'movies are better than sex', followed by, 'actually - movies are better than love'. Some of the more enjoyable documentaries I've seen involve chronicling the daily lives of borderline personalities and sometimes it feels a bit like a guilty pleasure watching these people as it's akin to watching a freak show. As long as the film is made with a degree of empathy and affection for the characters then you can relax and enjoy it as a glimpse into an odd world though, and I think Cinemania largely achieves this. These five characters - who could easily be considered figures of fun - come off for the most part as free spirits; people simply doing what they want to do and to hell with what everyone else thinks of their lifestyle choices. Some of the behaviour exhibited here is disturbingly similar to some of the things I've thought about or even actually done (for five years I kept a journal of every film I'd seen at the movies, I know the running time of a lot of movies, and I used to own many of the vinyl soundtracks Harvey shows off in his apartment) but it's all a matter of degree with obsessions I think. These people have seen many many more movies than I'll probably see in my lifetime, and watching movies is the one thing they do to the exclusion of everything else in life, and that's why they're so fascinating. It would be easy to feel sorry for these guys, but at the end of the day they're doing what they want to do with their lives and I for one think that's admirable.

The English Surgeon (Geoffrey Smith - 2007)

This is a documentary full of humanity and heartbreak. Henry Marsh is the English surgeon of the title - a neurosurgeon to be more precise and he's been travelling back and forth to the Ukraine for the past fifteen years to help a young Ukrainian surgeon learn his trade and consult with patients there, many of whom are in desperate need of treatment and oftentimes dying from the lack of it. We follow Marsh on one of his trips to the Ukraine where he meets up with Igor, his young surgeon friend and we sit in on some consults with people who have brain tumours. An old grandmother finds out her young granddaughter is going to die and nothing can be done for her, a beautiful twenty-three year old woman - looking the picture of health presents with a rare tumour with which nothing can be done; she'll be blind in a couple of years and dead within five. The two doctors are at a loss as to how to proceed - not wanting to tell the girl the truth for fear of crushing her spirit. We also follow the two neurosurgeons as they shop for a drill at the local market - the drill they'll be using on a young man getting a brain tumour removed while he's fully conscious; both events quite surreal. This is fascinating to watch, if dreadfully sad at times, but it's Henry's personality and world view that holds everything together. His simple and straight-forward desire to help people and get things done to improve their situation is truly uplifting and offers some real hope for the future, even if at times it seems a long way off.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (Seth Gordon - 2007)

Fascinating insight into the world of retro video-gaming and the rivalries that exist within it. We meet the two best Donkey Kong players in the world - Billy Mitchell who's held the world record since 1982 and Steve Weibe who claims he can beat that. Billy is still living off past glories and seems to be avoiding a new clash, and Weibe is desperate to prove he's the best in the world at something and needs a public showdown. Watching the relentless quest to gain (or regain) the title of world champion for something as completely meaningless to the wider world as a thirty year old arcade game is at once hilarious and tragic, and seeing the psychological damage inflicted on Weibe by Mitchell and his groupies (and Weibe himself) is actually kind of harrowing if you forget it's all over a videogame. This is a great documentary for people who have no interest in the subject matter (ie arcade games) to watch as it's really about so much more than arcade games. At its core this movie perfectly illustrates how the world's a fascinating place full of weird and wonderful people doing strange things with their lives, and those kind of documentaries are always the most interesting for me.

Man On Wire (James Marsh - 2008)

This is as good a documentary as your likely to see this year and it's almost certainly going to win the Best Documentary Award at the 2008/9 Oscars. It details the escapades of one Philippe Petit - you may have heard of him: He's a wirewalker - one of those people who walk along steel cables with a long pole in their hands. Well, surely Monsieur Petit is the man to beat when it comes to wirewalking as his feat back in 1974 of walking a tightrope between the roofs of the twin towers in New York must surely rank as one of the most spectacular and foolhardy endeavours ever undertaken by an individual. This is a fascinating glimpse into someone's ambitions and dreams, all narrated by the man himself and his accomplices (wirewalking between any public buildings being illegal of course). Man On Wire is tense, engaging and actually very funny a lot of the time. The reconstructions are expertly done and some of the characters are quite witty in the telling of their thrilling tale. It's clear to me that the world would be a far more pleasant and interesting place if there were more Philippe Petits in it, and for that reason he's to be commended, and for demonstrating that fact so clearly this documentary deserves all the plaudits it's going to receive.

No End In Sight (Charles Ferguson - 2007)

I've never considered myself to be a political animal at all - in large part because it's so hard to get to the truth of things in this age of clever propaganda, smokescreens and deliberate obfuscation by those in power. But over the course of the last year I've seen three major documentaries on the Gulf War, this being the second, that have really galvanised my world-view and is making me despair of the way things are, especially in America. This is a very effective recounting by those involved of just how the US government under the Bush Jr. administration went about the business of invading, controlling and running Iraq from the initial invasion in 2002 through to 2006 and beyond. The ineptitude, stubbornness and just pure wrong-headedness of the key players in this affair just beggars belief. Honestly, without ranting on for pages about the incredible arrogance, greed, and uncaring maliciousness of these people I'll just say that the wealth of information that has surfaced since the invasion is enough to have you gritting your teeth in frustration. Not quite as aggravating as Ferguson's subsequent film Inside Job, but still enough to put you off your dinner..

Sicko (Michael Moore - 2007)

It's difficult to comment on Michael Moore's work as conventional documentary filmmaking because the films he makes are really political in nature rather than simply informative. It's no secret that Moore is a staunch liberal and I don't have a problem with that, but a lot of people see him as a hypocrite and I can see their point: His films make him a lot of money so he's not the everyman he presents himself as; he can be self-serving and smug, and some of the 'facts' he presents have been proved spurious, but if he's sincere in what he says then he's to be applauded because I think the people he's pointing the finger at deserve to be exposed as the bad guys a lot more than he does. However, I think all this may be missing the point. What he's doing is bringing to the attention of as many people as he can subjects that he cares about in an eye-catching way. What you've got to ask yourself is do you agree with his point of view? In this case do you think healthcare should be free for all citizens in a country as wealthy and technologically advanced as America? If you do then this is an easy film to watch; if you don't then you'll spend the whole time shouting at the screen and gnashing your teeth. Obviously every healthcare system has its problems, and some presented here as better aren't the utopian vision Moore shows but do they compare favourably to the American system? I see Michael Moore as a clever lawyer who knows his audience and is savvy about how to present his case. This is not objective filmmaking - this is biased propaganda once again, but it's done with a sly humour and a lot of nous. The bottom line is this: Sicko is entertaining and thought-provoking enough to get like-minded people spoiling for a fight. Job done.

Standard Operating Procedure (Erroll Morris - 2008)

New film from Erroll Morris about the shameful goings on in the Abu Ghraib detention complex in Iraq. America's recent record on human rights has been pretty poor, to say the least and it seems to be coming back to bite them what with this and Michael Moore's blasting of the healthcare industry in last year's Sicko. (Although as far as objective reporting goes the two are poles apart). Being that both these films have been made by US citizens though and bearing in mind the landslide victory achieved by Barack Obama in this year's presidential elections, maybe the US is turning a corner, and realising the way they've been going about getting what they want from the world is wrong. Somehow I doubt it, but certainly any clear thinking person viewing this documentary would be dismayed at the reprehensible behaviour on display here by US soldiers, under instruction from their government, and hopefully Standard Operating Procedure will be widely seen throughout the world as a clear demonstration of the wrong-headedness implicit in the 'might is right' ethos the US government has adhered to itself and instilled in its populace over the years. S.O.P is less flashy than other Erroll Morris films, and missing is the usual Philip Glass score (although Danny Elfman has come up with a very good Glass-esque score in its place) but it's certainly topical, sometimes controversial and always interesting. In short Morris is still at the forefront of informed documentary filmmaking and this is a worthy addition to his body of work.

Supersize Me (Morgan Spurlock - 2004)

Morgan Spurlock's devastatingly effective idea of trying to survive one month eating nothing but what's served up on McDonald's menus makes his point more effectively than watching a dozen healthy eating programmes could do. The point being that the food served in McDonalds and places like McDonalds is really not healthy. Of course most people know that junk food isn't the healthiest food to eat, but mostly in a disconnected, abstract kind of way. Watching Spurlock's steady decline from fit and healthy bright-eyed guy full of energy and enthusiasm to a pudgy, tired and grumpy slob is something to behold. I'm sure there's more to the whole journey than meets the eye - probably a lot of incidents were staged or exaggerated to make a point, but the thrust of Spurlock's argument certainly holds water, and even the most cursory viewing of the film should send shivers down the spine of anyone who's ever eaten fast food (and surely that's just about everyone in the western world).

Tie Xi Qu: West of The Tracks - Rust (Wang Bing - 2003)

This is the first of a three-part documentary with a total running time of over nine hours - all of which is well worth watching. If you only get to see one part though this is the one to watch. In this first part, titled Rust we follow a number of men who work in a large industrial plant that's on the brink of bankruptcy. All the workers are in fear for their future, none has alternative employment prospects and as the film progresses you become acutely aware of the reality - the inevitibility - of the closure of the whole industrial complex these people have been a part of for years. Some of the workers are more aware of what's happening than others but they all turn up for work each day, even when there's nothing left to do and they're not getting paid. It's tragic to see these men floundering, but in such a quiet, resigned way. Everyone seems completely bereft of any idea of an alternative to what they've been doing. You just want to shake the screen sometimes and tell them what's happening, but then you realise the futility of that because life outside their workplace offers nothing better for them. With Rust director Wang Bing has shot a devastating expose on the price of progress and the effect it has on the little guys of the world, and he's done it in a supremely cinematic way. The cinematography perfectly captures the grimness of the smelting plants, the decay of all the facilities the men live and work in and the unhealthiness of both the physical environment these men are part of every day and the politics and questionable business practices going on behind the scenes. Once you're about twenty minutes or so into watching this film you'll feel like you're in the place, so unobtrusive and natural does the camera glide around, seemingly unnoticed. An educational, emotional, and cinematic triumph.

Touching The Void (Kevin Macdonald - 2003)

Utterly absorbing, totally compelling documentary about Joe Simpson and Simon Yates' journey up the Siula Grande - one of the few unconquered ascents remaining in the mountain ranges of Peru. The two complete the climb to the summit only to find that's where their troubles are really about to begin. The story of the pair - but in particular Joe's survival is related by masterful recreation, interspersed with Joe and Simon themselves in interview. Surprisingly, there's a lot of humour to be had from watching this film - the two are quite laconic in their re-telling of their ordeal and when Joe mentions his fear of dying in the middle of nowhere to the strains of Boney Ms 'Brown Girl In The Ring' echoing round his brain you can't help but laugh. The two men's down to earth attitude really anchors the film in a very straightforward humanistic way and creates a tremendous amount of empathy in the viewer. Aswell as being a great human drama it's also a recounting of one of the most heroic tales of endurance in the face of adversity I've heard of, this side of Shackleton's epic South Pole debacle. Gripping stuff.

War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us To Death (L. Alper & J. Earp - 2008)

Another documentary about Gulf War II . This time it focusses on the inextricable ties that exist between the US government and the US media and it's just one more thing to stick in your throat about the whole ugly affair. War Made Easy illustrates - in some detail - how the people in charge in the government go about gaining popular support from the public for a war that really was unjustified, unreasonable and in the end unconscionable. If the public at large knows only what they see on television, the reasoning goes, why don't we just make sure television tells them exactly what we know will get them on our side? And that's exactly what they did. They told the people there was an evil madman on the loose stockpiling weapons of mass destruction and he was bent on killing his neighbours and attacking the United States and nobody was telling them otherwise so sure enough they got their war. The worrying thing is that in American television serious investigative journalism seems to have completely died out. Every piece of news starts with 'According to official sources...' and none of them seems to questions anything. The most disturbing trend in recent years has been to denounce anyone who doesn't support the latest war once it's underway. It's dispiriting to see the way things are now and it's difficult to see how it's ever going to change.

Who Killed The Electric Car? (Chris Paine - 2006)

Once upon a time the state of California decreed that a small percentage of General Motors cars must produce zero emissions, so very reluctantly they built an electric car - the EV1, which by all accounts was a great little car; it certainly looked good to me, and the people who had leased them (not owned - GM wouldn't let anyone own them) said they were just peachy to drive. Famous people like Mel Gibson and Tom Hanks loved their EV1s, but in the end General Motors wanted every last one of them back. And why did they so desperately want them back? So they could crush them up and shred them into millions of tiny pieces of scrap metal of course, once they'd succesfully lobbied to get the statute books changed. Well, they can't risk the general public finding out that there's a sensible alternative to fossil fuel-burning vehicles can they? Why that would put the big car and fuel companies at risk of losing their stranglehold on the auto industry! Don't you sometimes wish they wouldn't tell you some of the things that go on in the world because they just infuriate, depress and dismay you? Me too, but I keep going back for more like a moth to a flame. This is a documentary about power, greed, corporate short-sightedness and weak government that's sure to raise the hackles of anyone with an ounce of civic responsibility and common sense.