If this were a boxing prize fight, "Argo" would have been knocked out in the first round. "Argo" was cynically amusing insofar as it solved a bad science fiction movie through the CIA's use of a bad science fiction movie as there would have been no story if not for the typical blundering of the American foreign policy of regime change. "Argo" creates an American super-hero to solve a problem America caused in the first place.
Quite apart from the Walt Disney view of the politics, "Argo" was in no way Academy Award class as that puts it in the same rank as "All That Jazz" which may be as close as American moviemaking will ever get to real cinema. Where "All That Jazz" was art, "Argo" was little more than a feel-good comic book and, apart from the last few minutes, wasn't even particularly exciting.
"Zero Dark Thirty" gives an immediate and striking contrast as the editing, the photography and the story are gripping throughout. While this story also presents an American super-hero solving a problem that America, at least to some extent, caused, it does so without the sanctimonious superiority of "Argo."
While "Zero Dark Thirty" has been rejected as false relative to the CIA's torturing of prisoners, you know as well as I that it is probably as close to truth as we will ever get and likely the actual truth is even worse than the movie showed.
Notwithstanding any failures in foreign policy, Maya plays a sympathetic heroine out to avenge the deaths of three thousand civilians and is the only one in the movie who shows any real emotion. Her tears at the end summarise it better than anything she could have said as what other reaction is there after all of that happened.
Problems with the Islam world did not start with 9/11 but rather have been taking place for centuries and it really doesn't matter anymore who threw the first punch. What matters is finding peace.
Quite apart from the Walt Disney view of the politics, "Argo" was in no way Academy Award class as that puts it in the same rank as "All That Jazz" which may be as close as American moviemaking will ever get to real cinema. Where "All That Jazz" was art, "Argo" was little more than a feel-good comic book and, apart from the last few minutes, wasn't even particularly exciting.
"Zero Dark Thirty" gives an immediate and striking contrast as the editing, the photography and the story are gripping throughout. While this story also presents an American super-hero solving a problem that America, at least to some extent, caused, it does so without the sanctimonious superiority of "Argo."
While "Zero Dark Thirty" has been rejected as false relative to the CIA's torturing of prisoners, you know as well as I that it is probably as close to truth as we will ever get and likely the actual truth is even worse than the movie showed.
Notwithstanding any failures in foreign policy, Maya plays a sympathetic heroine out to avenge the deaths of three thousand civilians and is the only one in the movie who shows any real emotion. Her tears at the end summarise it better than anything she could have said as what other reaction is there after all of that happened.
Problems with the Islam world did not start with 9/11 but rather have been taking place for centuries and it really doesn't matter anymore who threw the first punch. What matters is finding peace.
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