Change Your Image
dean-mcinerney
Reviews
American Coup (2010)
A must!!!
Iran is a country whose history has been stolen. The British and Americans are to blame for that, and we still have to sleep in the soiled bed that is this history. If people wonder why we are in the mess we are in, in a world where nothing can be truly trusted they should watch this and see the beginnings of it. The Tories and Republicans are to blame, as always... then and now.
This documentary is well detailed and the people interviewed are all erudite. What strikes me is those involved in this type of anti-democratic sleaze the Dulles's in particular acted like they are playing a game. They had not a scant concern for anybody else's suffering. They were psychopaths, and they took this sleaze onwards to be inflicted on more and more countries over the following decade.
It is no wonder that so many people regard US involvement in Ukraine with suspicion. The US cannot be trusted, and the more you look at how the US has treated Russia after the fall of USSR, you cannot take some simplistic and dualistic view of that crisis either.
On another note, this documentary is a bare bones journalistic and educational film, its not a work of art. The editing could afford to be tighter, and the overall length could have been reduced. But its a great way to get a good understanding of why Iran is where it is now.
Johnny Cash: The Anthology (2000)
Just a "Cash-in"
2 documentaries on one disc that just seem to be two alternative edit's, one being about the songs, one being about the man... both often using the same material. It consists of a few of Cash's friends, peers and relatives gushing endlessly but little of Johnny speaking, or much meaningful revelation. All in all a sloppily researched "Cash-In".
I would have been kinder in this review except for a shocking error by the filmmaker, using a Cash rendition of Leonard Cohens' "Bird On A Wire", to illustrate Johnny Cash's gifts as a "Poet". It's one of those rare mistakes that is truly inexcusable. You would either have zero idea of music history, or really don't give a damn about the task. Either way, both artists were insulted in the process.
There's a much better documentary out there currently.... "The Gift - The Journey of Johnny Cash".
Runaway Daughters (1956)
Wittier and snappier than most kids!!
I was amazed at how droll, urbane, and witty the kids were presented as being, It made me realize that these films really aimed to speak to the teenagers and articulate their frustrations. I much prefer this film to other AIP fare which lacks character development. Fairly ordinary cinema style. Its a time capsule film that explores the burgeoning permissiveness of the late 1950's.
The parents of one girl are verging on being bourgeois-bohemian, having parties and drinking booze all the time. Another girl has a bitter hyper-conservative catholic single dad whose domination of her is almost a bit creepy in an incestuous way. Whilst the angry uber-sarcastic and highly enjoyable girl (definately too sophisticated to be realistic) is simply left to fend for herself by some terrible mother who has gone abroad.
Other great characters such as the con-man brother, the streetwise grifter, and maternal and tough private dancer... The film seemed to be struggling with the fine art of pleasing the teen and parent viewer alike, which makes it a curio... so much so that the typical moralising end seemed beleaguered