This is very, VERY true. Sabin and Italiano are correct (and good distinctions between those two films, Marco!). They're both lousy films but at least North Country isn't really offensive (except perhaps to good taste).ITALIANO wrote:It's different, flipp. North Country was a dreadful movie, ineptly done, an embarassment for all concerned, but it probably was honest in his treatment of the problem of sexual harassment - it was just poorly made. I think Blood Diamond is more expertly done (at least technically - the script is a mess) but its use of a real issue, the way it treats it as an easy excuse for very superficial thrills and action scenes, with all the bad guys vs good guys cliches, and never once attempting to go to the roots of the problem - but still showing it off as a "proof" of its good intentions (as if dealing with such subjects gave a movie the right to critical appraisal), are simply cynical and immoral. Thi
Blood Diamond is the worst kind of "issues" film. A bleeding heart liberal film that actually limits and essentializes the characters it pretends to care for. I have no doubt that Zwick meant well but honestly, it's not social progress when you move from treating ethnically marginalzied subjects as "noble savages" to treating them as catalysts for the enlightenment of white people (and for the audience, presumably white middle class people).
All of this atrocity basically exists so that white people can have a chance of heart onscreen and pat themselves on the back offscreen without seriously challenging anything. I think Slant Magazine got it right when they said the whole thing occurs so Leo DiCaprio's character could score with Jennifer Connelly. Which, ok I admit scoring with Jennifer Connelly is quite a feat, and hey I'd love to arm wrestle Paul Bettany for her - but it's hardly forward thinking.