If you liked Joyeux Noel, you should check out A Midnight Clear. It features Gary Sinise in his first feature film role, along with Ethan Hawke, Peter Berg, Kevin Dillon, and Frank Whaley (aka Brett from Pulp Fiction). It's based on the same true story. There's also a book about it that I've yet to read, but want to, called "Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce."
And for the record, I think French protests are awesome. If they don't like something the government does, they take to the streets. Hell yeah.
How so? I really don't understand that logic. No government is perfect, they all make mistakes. The French just let their government know every time they do. Which is great. With some notable exceptions (1968 student riots is an obvious example), they are completely peaceful, yet the people let the government know exactly where they stand. In the US, the people fear the government (the government controls the people). In France, if anything, it's the other way around (the people control the government, as democracy is theoretically supposed to be). Of course, it's not so cut and dry, but that's the general idea.
I guess it's just a bit foreign to me. Like last year in Vancouver, we had the librarians and garbage workers go on strike for 3 months, plus all the protesting of the 2010 Olympics and I got the impression that the government and city were pretty messed up at that point. The French protest like they're really angry about something (regardless of the happy music) and I have no idea whether all this protesting actually gets them what they want or not. Is all this daily protesting making them happy for having this freedom or frustrated that they're not getting whatever they're protesting for? Again, it may just be culture shock for me and I'd probably have to live there for awhile to get a better idea.
I had a whole huge problem with the Cuba thing...tabbymorphApril 14 2008, 01:11:16 UTC
....it is dishonest.The whole film answers critics by glossing over their criticism with happy feel good music (there we agree), half truths and good old fashion lies
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Re: I had a whole huge problem with the Cuba thing...cheesemonApril 15 2008, 04:53:00 UTC
Maybe the facts aren't as entertaining? I dunno, I'm Canadian and knew nothing about American health care. When I was a kid, I used to want to move to America because I figured the health care was great if you had to pay for it. I suppose if you do live in America and have experience with the insurance companies, than its lies or what not become more evident. For me, I thought it was an entertaining introduction to health care in and outside America, and maybe it'll inspire some other filmmakers to make a more in-depth fact-based documentary later.
In any case, the good thing to come out of this is that it did get people like us talking about it. Moore's movies, no matter how dishonest they may be, generate discussion. Lots of people probably went on the net like me to learn more, visit even the anti-Moore sites etc and hopefully come to their own conclusion, or be more informed.
I loved Joyeux Noel. It takes a lot these days for a movie to really move me but that one did. It may have been a bit too feel good to be realistic, but I didn't care, because it's stayed with me ever since I first saw it.
I honestly thought Sicko was one of Moore's weakest documentaries. He doesn't really say anything that most average Americans don't already know, that we're all getting screwed over by our insurance companies, and he paints such a rosy picture of all the health care systems in other countries that you know it can't be true how perfect they are. There was such a good opportunity here to really present some alternative solutions to a real problem, but he wasted it.
I thought it did feel realistic mostly, otherwise how would we have felt anything if the emotion wasn't genuine? BTW, did you have a tough time telling everyone apart?
I've only seen this and 9/11 and Sicko just struck me as far better than 9/11 which put me to sleep. And since I'm Canadian, a lot of it was new to me. And the pro-Canada stuff won me over . . nobody says good things about Canada on film these days! Canada barely ever appears! (Did you know that even after 21 James Bond films, he's never visited Canada once?? err . .) I suppose it could get boring if you are American and the problems are pretty obvious. Man, every documentary I've seen so far is criticizing America in some way . . must get pretty annoying for you guys that these are the ones that keep getting nominated. Is your country really that big of a wreck right now? ;)
It wasn't so hard for me to tell people apart in that movie. It helped that everyone was speaking a different language.
If you want pro-Canada stuff you should watch Bowling for Columbine. Like all of Moore's documentaries the facts are highly skewed so you'll want to go do some research after you watch it, but I think it was his best film at exploring an issue, in this case America's obsession with guns.
America's not so much a wreck as it is a 50 car pile up. It's such a mess you don't really know where to start cleaning up. =P
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And for the record, I think French protests are awesome. If they don't like something the government does, they take to the streets. Hell yeah.
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If there's *that* many protests though, doesn't that mean that the government sucks?
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In any case, the good thing to come out of this is that it did get people like us talking about it. Moore's movies, no matter how dishonest they may be, generate discussion. Lots of people probably went on the net like me to learn more, visit even the anti-Moore sites etc and hopefully come to their own conclusion, or be more informed.
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I honestly thought Sicko was one of Moore's weakest documentaries. He doesn't really say anything that most average Americans don't already know, that we're all getting screwed over by our insurance companies, and he paints such a rosy picture of all the health care systems in other countries that you know it can't be true how perfect they are. There was such a good opportunity here to really present some alternative solutions to a real problem, but he wasted it.
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I've only seen this and 9/11 and Sicko just struck me as far better than 9/11 which put me to sleep. And since I'm Canadian, a lot of it was new to me. And the pro-Canada stuff won me over . . nobody says good things about Canada on film these days! Canada barely ever appears! (Did you know that even after 21 James Bond films, he's never visited Canada once?? err . .) I suppose it could get boring if you are American and the problems are pretty obvious. Man, every documentary I've seen so far is criticizing America in some way . . must get pretty annoying for you guys that these are the ones that keep getting nominated. Is your country really that big of a wreck right now? ;)
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If you want pro-Canada stuff you should watch Bowling for Columbine. Like all of Moore's documentaries the facts are highly skewed so you'll want to go do some research after you watch it, but I think it was his best film at exploring an issue, in this case America's obsession with guns.
America's not so much a wreck as it is a 50 car pile up. It's such a mess you don't really know where to start cleaning up. =P
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