suaheli

As I hate comments which endlessly rewrite the script, here is my take on the best movie I have seen in years. Always an ardent follower of Tarantino I still gave all the Kill Bill, Grindhouse et al a miss.Inglorious Basterds re-introduced me to the Tarantino I love. And now Django unchained.

Tarantino does it again! Awesome, awesome, awesome, will definitely watch it again this week. Better than IB, razorsharp script - even in the German version this definitely shines through, cuedos to the translators, breathtaking photography, and what could you possibly say about the actors, apart from stellar. Foxx's transition from slave to a proud, cool as f**k free man is nothing short of mesmerizing. Waltz is marvellous, as opposed to his Landa, here we have a killer with charm and a heart of gold, sort of (it's Tarantino), but who really steals the show is de Caprio. He makes Mr. Blonde look like your dream son in law. You have to see it to believe it. Amazing, how Tarantino rips out performances from well established actors that you wouldn't believe they could deliver. The soundtrack is simply great, it suits the scenes in ways you wouldn't believe. Of course the splatter factor reaches heights formerly unseen, and admittedly I couldn't stomach two scenes and hid behind my hand, and you're in for some "ear splatter" too. So, everything you might expect from the master, but with this one he topped himself. Go and watch it. It is cool, eye candy and funny as hell.

What a marvellous documentary, which I had the pleasure to watch in German TV afternoon after afternoon due to my vacation leave. Nowadays here at least historical events are presented with historical photos/movie clips which are added to by awfully staged scenes by mediocre actors, mostly even dubbed because these scenes are shot in Rumania or the likes (no offence).

This production here is simply breathtaking. No staged scenes just heartbreaking photographs of all these young people, staring confidently, sometimes a little fright is visible, into a camera. Add to this the letters being read - in German in my case, by marvellous contributors - it makes you feel like being there and rooting for Elisha Rhodes and Mary Chesnut and all their contemporaries.

I as a German never learned f all about the Civil war but was fortunate to have a Dad who was fascinated by all things American, the liberators for a young soldier who was drafted at 18 to do the Russian campaign. Should there ever be a documentary about these boys, I'd proudly present a little tin cigarette case which dad received from a Russian POW, made from a tin plate, the upper side shows a tank and war planes, the other side shows a little peaceful house with birds. All made by use of a fork and as a gift for bread being smuggled in by dad, Breslau it reads.

This drifting towards an other war just goes to tell how many heartbreaking stories have to be told. And the Ken Burns documentary is epic and wonderful by showing the faces of war, the voices of war. Could you imagine photographs of dead soldiers, some unimaginably mutilated in our days? Unimaginable. We today have clean wars, you get the numbers of deads but are spared the pictures. This documentary made me shed so many tears, war is hell (Sherman) and so many stories are still untold. War is hell indeed. And should be shown as such. Where is the documentary about letters, unsufferable pictures and such about nowadays wars? Unbelievable, but the two last centuries dealt with war much more honest than today when we are sold for in these days of internet and all around "information".

Watch it.

Everything has been told here, very pointedly, about James Carville and George Stephanopoulos, the dream team - along with Paul Begala - which helped Clinton to win against the odds.

I just rewatched the DVD after years and what really caught me this time was how awkward and downright embarrassing George H. W. Bush came across. Desperate to conceal his "patrecian" upbringing his juvenile verbal nasties were a hoot. In later years Junior was much more believable as a foulmouthed punk.

Which pretty much sums up the ill advised campaign of Senior. Whipping H. W. into a fake frenzy and then present Mary Matalin as a voice of reason was a fatal choice against the Dem's candidate playing the emphatic considerate charm card accompanied by the fiery spinning of Carville and the quiet ruthlessness of boyish Stephanopoulos.

And no, the filmmakers weren't biased in terms of Senior. The infamous "Govenor Taxes and the Ozone man/Halloween" weren't shown. As weren't lots of other gaffes.

So as much as showing a winning campaign the 15 % of the Bush failing campaign on show are just as revealing.