THE YEAR IN REVIEW

MOVIES

A mirror to our times

Films relfect current events with themes of war, identity

By DUANE DUDEK of the Journal Sentinel staff

Sunday, December 28, 2003

Filmmakers went on "orange" alert long before the rest of us.

Whether those in the creative community sensed the developing drums of war, coincidentally found their films in sync with the evolving zeitgeist or climbed on an already moving bandwagon, many films during 2003 were a snapshot of our times.

"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," the last film in a trilogy, was in development years ago, and its cautionary metaphor was imagined by J.R.R. Tolkien long before that. But its warlike imagery and fellowship against an impending evil captured now-timely truths beyond its fantasy setting; all it lacked was footage of a disembodied Sauron being examined for head lice.

The hawkish "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World," about a 19th-century naval engagement, romantically portrayed the camaraderie of men in battle. And the inhumanity of the Civil War gave a dovish subtext to the mawkish "Cold Mountain."

It's as if these last two, and Tom Cruise's "The Last Samurai," anticipated a growing militarism and attempted to put it in creative context, with varying degrees of success.

Filmmaking is a reactive and imitative industry, and making films that anticipate events is as close to roulette as you can get outside Las Vegas. But it is a safe bet that the lingering global uncertainty will make even films like the plague-themed zombie romp "28 Days Later" seem more meaningful than intended for some time to come.

Technology continues to allow nimble filmmakers to weigh in on current events with the intimacy and immediacy of crime scene photographers.

"In This World," in which director Michael Winterbottom followed two teenagers from an Afghan refugee camp on a perilous journey to England, had a dramatic arc and documentary style that made his digitally photographed work of fiction seem all too real. But that same vividness might limit the shelf life of such a film as events outrace it. "In This World" already has opened in larger cities but does not have a local opening date.

Hybrids on the screen

Winterbottom's film was one of several hybrid forms that flourished while superheroes like "The Hulk" and "Daredevil" waned, and blockbuster wannabes like "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life" and "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" swooned at the box office.

Cultural identity clashed and synthesized into universal experience. The poetic brutality of "Kill Bill Vol. 1," a hodgepodge of global junk food; its kinetically violent Third World cousin "City of God," about drug wars in the slums of 1970s Brazil; the hypnotic haiku "Lost in Translation"; and even Cruise's lumbering "Last Samurai" assimilated and reinterpreted regional aesthetics in a way that forced audiences to reassess artistic boundaries.

Middle Eastern cinema continued to be like a bulletin from the front: from the deadpan Palestinian cynicism of "Divine Intervention," to the sorrowful road trip of Kurdish refugees "Marooned in Iraq"; to "Osama," about a girl posing as a boy and given this fierce name to ward off any enemies, which claimed to be the first film made in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

The immigrant experience also was a recurring metaphor, as if by looking at "the other" we could better understand the world and our role in it.

In "House of Sand and Fog," an Iranian is blindsided by the American dream. In "In America," an Irish family moves here to overcome grief and build a new life. Director Stephen Frears' "Dirty Pretty Things" was about illegal immigrants in the service industry- type jobs we take for granted. "L'Auberge Espagnole" was a European Union-style frat house of youths carousing and occasionally studying in Spain.

Teen films such as the indefatigable "Bend It Like Beckham" and modest "Raising Victor Vargas" were ethnic-flavored tales, in which emerging self-identities clashed with expectations. Those two -- and the heart-wrenching "Thirteen," about a girl in a tailspin -- proved that films about teens did not have to be dumb or crude.

Real life, local brew

If works of fiction took on certain real-world qualities, many documentaries had a page-turning appeal.

"Spellbound" showed the pint-size contestants of the National Spelling Bee to be a microcosm of America, and resonated with a deep humanity. Audiences flocked to "Winged Migration," by filmmakers dedicated to the lyrical naturalism of the feathered community.

"The Fog of War" by University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate Errol Morris, about Robert McNamara, secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War (due in Milwaukee early next year) is a gripping work of history and biography. "Capturing the Friedmans" was a snapshot of a troubled family grappling with the sins of the father. And in "Stevie," which appeared only at film festivals here, "Hoop Dreams" director Steve James revisited a troubled youth he mentored 10 years earlier, to find him a troubled man.

The local film scene continued to percolate.

The Milwaukee International Film Festival became a forum for filmmakers with area ties such as Stephen Burrows, whose popular comedy "Chump Change" filled the cavernous Oriental Theatre with an audience that roared appreciatively at its local references. Chris Boebel's "Red Betsy," about changing lives during World War II, set in Boscobel and filmed in Delafield, was a vivid, autumnal portrait of that time and place and was shown across the state.

Chris Smith and Sarah Price, who made Milwaukee infamous with "American Movie," went global with "The Yes Men," a comically subversive documentary about political pranksters posing as World Trade Organization officials; the film will be shown at the Sundance Film Festival, and Smith will serve on the festival jury.

And Kenosha, home of the late Orson Welles, is also home to Jim Rygiel, Oscar-winning special effects supervisor for "Return of the King," and Mark Ruffalo, who acted in "In the Cut" and "My Life Without Me."

Giving heart to pirates, rockers

Many films were creatively indifferent. Yet the the best of them hinged on distinctive performances: Johnny Depp, who as the reckless misfit added to the exhilarating escapism of "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl"; Jack Black, who gave a take- no-prisoners dimension to the kick-out-the-jams irreverence of "School of Rock"; Will Ferrell's clueless innocence in "Old School" and "Elf"; Eugene Levy's endearing lost soul in "A Mighty Wind"; Peter Dinklage's soulful charisma in "The Station Agent"; Patricia Clarkson's mercurial matriarch in "Pieces of April"; and stooped, squinting and scowling Paul Giamatti as comic-book artist Harvey Pekar in "American Splendor," a film whose use of actors and real people, dramatic and documentary techniques was the perfect example of the years' hybrid motif.

Last week, Ben Affleck was in the Persian Gulf to screen his new film "Paycheck" for troops stationed there. While they might have been better served with something more substantial, they surely welcomed the gesture and the diversion.

But the fact that this Hollywood film was made by Hong Kong action director John Woo is another reminder of how small the world is and how fast it can turn. If you're planning to go the multiplex of Babel, be prepared to speak in tongues.

E-mail Duane Dudek at ddudek@journalsentinel.com.

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