Thursday, November 15, 2007
Now this ...
I think I'm going to offer this without comment. It's a Reuters story on two Iraq war documentaries. Here's the lede:
Read the story. It's short. And while I don't have any particular comment about, I do have some questions:
1. How would De Palma, Haggis and the others quoted in the story define the truth?
2. How do they documentary filmmakers go about seeking the truth (however they define it)?
3. What marketplace pressures make it difficult to tell the truth? ¶ 11:30 AM
LONDON (Reuters) - Two Hollywood directors who are part of a wave of films about the war in Iraq and the broader fallout from the September 11, 2001 attacks have said they were only doing what media failed to do -- telling the truth.What jumped off the page -- uh, off the screen -- at me was those last three words in the first graf, "... telling the truth."
Brian De Palma's "Redacted", arguably the most shocking feature yet about events in Iraq, hits theatres on Friday, using a documentary style to tell the true story of the gang rape and murder of an Iraqi girl by U.S. troops in 2006.
Paul Haggis also based "In The Valley Of Elah", already released, on true events linked to the war, although, unlike De Palma's cast of unknown actors, he employed major stars Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon.
Read the story. It's short. And while I don't have any particular comment about, I do have some questions:
1. How would De Palma, Haggis and the others quoted in the story define the truth?
2. How do they documentary filmmakers go about seeking the truth (however they define it)?
3. What marketplace pressures make it difficult to tell the truth? ¶ 11:30 AM
