Our endless Afghanistan war seen from an odd perspective: Miles Lagoze's COMBAT OBSCURA

Well, times have certainly changed since those early days of our war in Afghanistan, when journalists were "embedded" with the military and did their "reporting" that way. Now, in the new documentary COMBAT OBSCURA, young Marine Corps enlistee Miles Lagoze (enlisting under the name of Jacob Miles Lagoze) served as his unit's official videographer, shooting and editing, according to the press materials for the film, "footage for the Corps’ recruiting purposes and historical initiatives." Upon discharge, Lagoze took the footage that he and his fellow-cameramen shot -- "We filmed what they wanted," he notes at the film's beginning, "and then we kept shooting" -- and assembled a documentary that the Marine Corps (or really any branch of our military) would not, I suspect, want the general public to view.

Perhaps, in order to keep his documentary as truthful and real as possible, Lagoze (shown at left), refuses to tell us anything about anything that is going on here. We simply see it as shot by the cameraperson and occasionally hear the marines involved talking amongst themselves (and once-in-awhile being themselves interviewed for the camera). This means that the viewer is simply tossed into the middle of things without often knowing what the hell those things are all about. Yes, this is confusing, but TrustMovies supposes that, if Lagoze had attempted to "explain " them, he could easily be accused of "slanting" that explanation one way or another. As it is, this is a very make-of-it-what-you-will kind of movie.

And while you may not quite know what to make a of a lot going on here, you probably will be able to figure out that you're seeing actual footage of everything from marines exercising together and getting high to shooting Afghans and exploding things ("Oh, god," we hear someone say, "that's the wrong building!").

We see one marine (below) interacting with a couple of kids whom he insists kept saying to him the word bomb (the interpreter says they're now asking him for a cigarette). Then there's some crappy behavior involving a pair of donkeys, a nasty bit of chicken killing, and finally, yes, planting evidence: a gun in the hand of a fellow recently shot to death (on the accompanying soundtrack: "Oh, man, we killed a shopkeeper!").

For anyone who was or is against our endless middle-eastern wars (hell, even the Russians only wasted a decade on their war in Afghanistan; we've been there going on 18 years now), Combat Obscura will seem like the most depressing yet in a long string of documentaries. For any folk still stupid enough to think we're over there for any reason other than making those who profit from our military-industrial complex even wealthier, I urge you to listen to the eulogy one marine gives for a certain Lance Corporal Watson -- "Almighty god, we stand before you..." blah, blah, blah -- which will simultaneously turn your stomach and blow your mind. To re-coin a phrase, this surely is an embarrassment of wretches.

This 70-minute movie -- which midway along cleverly features a bit of this footage, sanitizingly edited as shown on CNN -- climaxes with a rescue of the wounded, followed by one Marine singing a version of Jingle Bells that would not make Bing Crosby proud. Combat Obscura may be a very difficult thing to watch, but it strikes me as the kind of honest patriotic endeavor that we need a hell of a lot more of. My country, right or wrong? Certainly, but only if you add the rest of that quote: If right, to be kept right; if wrong, to be set right. Currently, the USA, in every way, is about as wrong as I've seen it in my lifetime.

From Oscilloscope Films, the documentary opens this Friday, March 15, in some eleven cities across the country. In Los Angeles, it will play the Laemmle Glendale, in New York City the Village East Cinema, and here in South Florida the Bill Cosford Cinema in Miami and the Lake Worth Playhouse in Lake Worth. Click here and then scroll down to see all currently scheduled cities and venues.

A PRIVATE WAR: documentarian Matthew Heineman's first narrative feature opens

Those who saw Matthew Heineman's earlier documentaries, Cartel Land or City of Ghosts, well understand how effectively, near shockingly, he is able to place you, as well as the people whose stories he is telling, in the midst of horribly fraught situations in which the choices go from bad to beyond appalling.

Mr. Heineman, shown at left, has now directed his first narrative film -- A PRIVATE WAR -- an unusual bio-pic which brings us up close (and very personal) to a famous war correspondent, Marie Colvin, and the reporting she did from the middle of some of the most horrible wars of the end of this past century and those that occurred during the new one.

Using a documentary style, the filmmaker's achievement -- in addition to giving that wonderful actress Rosamund Pike (below) the best role she's had since Gone Girl (which she tears into so completely that, were there any justice to those generally frightful Academy Awards, she have another nomination sewn up) -- lies in placing us so firmly and relentlessly in the middle of the violence, carnage, desperation and despair Colvin is covering, that we feel we're as close to it all as movies can manage.

What's really interesting here is that Heineman, together with his cinematographer (Robert Richardson) and editor (Nick Fenton) instead of offering up lots of visual razzmatazz, goes more for precision and specific detail, as well for logistics and a sharp sense of space and place.

The director also concentrates as much on the results of the violence as on the violence itself -- showing us grieving women, parents who've lost their children, and those still in the midst of trying to save and/or somehow protect their offspring under the most difficult of circumstances.

All this works to demonstrate journalist Colvin's real mission: to show us the rotten results of war rather than glamorizing its excitement and violence, and not coincidentally, pointing the finger at heartless shitheel dictators like Syria's Assad, who would, has and will continue to sacrifice his entire nation's population in his bid to retain power.

The movie begins in the Syrian city of Homs, which would prove to be Ms Colvin's final assignment, then goes back to the late 1990s in Sri Lanka (three photos above), making its way via conflict after conflict until it again returns to Homs.

By this time, we've ascertained quite well who this unusual woman is, what she does, and why she must do it. (And, yes, you may decide that, buried within her along with all else, is something of a death wish.)  Ms Pike brings her to life in all her strength, sadness and oddball beauty (even with that eye patch she must use after Sri Lanka). We even get a good dose of this woman's alcohol addiction, too.

Heineman and his writer Arash Amel (whose screenplay is based on a magazine article by Marie Brenner) weave in Colvin's history, family background, sexual needs and lots more (some humor, too), doing this in short, swift scenes that help make her character as full-bodied as we could want, given the movie's 106-minute time frame.

In the supporting cast are some excellent actors, including Jamie Dornan (above, as the photographer she meets early on and continues to work with), Stanley Tucci (below, left, as her companion used as much for his intelligence as for his sexual expertise) and especially the wonderful Tom Hollander (two photos up) as her newspaper editor: kindly, smart, a little bit craven but mostly frightened for his intrepid reporter.

Colvin's story is a vital and important one, especially now, as so much that so many of us hold dear seems to be spinning out of control. I hope that audiences will rise to the occasion and go see this movie so that Academy members can't/won't simply pass it by.

From Aviron Pictures, A Private War opened last week on the coasts and expands this week to additional cities and venues, including here in South Florida  Wherever you reside, to find the theaters nearest you, simply click here, and then click on GET TICKETS in the task bar atop the screen.

IN THE FOG: Sergei Loznitsa's WWII drama of wartime morality among Russia partisans

TrustMovies has not yet seen Sergei Loznitsa's much-heralded My Joy, the 2010 feature that seemed to put this relatively young Russian director on the international movie map. I see that it is available via Netflix streaming, so maybe one of these days, I'll grit my teeth, gird up my loins and try it. Meanwhile, we've got Loznitsa's newest opening up today, which I have seen and lived to tell about. IN THE FOG is a very long and very bleak tale of wartime Russia in 1942 on the western frontier, where partisan activity against the Germans, who have overrun and conquered the area, is high, and any incursion is greeted with nasty retaliation from the Nazis.

The film begins, in fact, with a trio of... well, they're not even really partisans in the strict sense. As we later learn, they're just railway workers mad at their unpleasant boss ("He was a son-of-a-bitch when he served the Soviets, too." one of them declares). The three are marched along through the Russian citizenry, as examples and warnings, and then hung. (This hanging is not seen but it is heard.) Filmmaker Loznitsa (shown at right), who directed and adapted the screenplay from the novel by Vasili Bykov, tosses us into the midst of it all and then allows us to find our way via some fractured storytelling that -- once we figure out where and with whom we are and at what point in the story this particular event is happening -- finally fills in the blanks.

The meat of the movie involves Sushenya (Vladimir Svirskiy, above, center) the fourth member of that railway team who tried his best to get the guys not to pull their dirty trick on the Germans. When they went ahead, they were all arrested but instead of being hung, Sushenya was let go. "Collaborator!" is what the entire town, including maybe his own wife (played by Yulia Peresild, below), now believes. The truth, when we learn it, is otherwise.

Meanwhile, head partisan Burov (Vladislav Abashin, below, left) and his underling, Voitik (Sergei Kolesov, below, right) show up at Sushenya's home to kill him for his "betrayal." But first they take him away, so that his wife and child will not witness the event. And this is pretty much where the real story begins. As it meanders onward (and although the pacing here is extremely slow, it possesses, I think, its own justification and integrity), via flashback, exposition/explanation and occasional action, we learn not just what has happened but how these events have rather forced the three men to think and act the way that they do.

Still, certain of our characters (Sushenya) seem one hell of a lot more decent than others (Voitik). And the movie makes us consider, as it drifts by, the meaning of morality in wartime and if, in fact, those two words/things don't cancel each other out. Other questions pop up, too: Can people change? Is our hero morally incorruptible -- or simply slow? And just how sleazy is this guy, Voitik? Oh, lordy: You'll find out.

If we used to imagine that the phrase "war is hell" referred mostly to combat, this movie will cure us of that idea. There is no combat here; still, everything about this situation proves godawful -- and only gets worse. I would guess that Loznitsa's view of humanity is pretty bleak. Even so, his view, as seen here also proves pretty predictable, too. (From about the mid-point onwards, I began to guess correctly every event prior to its happening.)

The slow pacing also gives us plenty of time to question certain things. This movie contains enough coincidences to choke a rom-com, albeit these coincidence are always bleak, rather than feel-good. Eventually, you may come to the conclusion that you've been playing with a stacked deck. (On the other hand, doesn't war always offer a stacked deck?)

At over two hours running time, In the Fog's one long, long journey. And its ending, which takes us literally into that title place, borders on the comical, so drearily and absolutely negative is it. You sit there, thinking, "Wait for it. OK, wait for it. Now, wait some more. And here it comes.... Ah, yes: right again." From Strand Releasing and running 137 minutes, the movie opens today, Friday, June 14, in New York City at the Village East Cinema and in Los Angeles on July 12 at the Sundance Sunset Cinema.

DVDebut: DANGEROUS MAN/DANIEL ELLSBERG/PENTAGON PAPERS

The only thing wrong with the superb documentary that makes its debut on DVD today, July 20, is the length of its marquee-hoarding title. The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (I didn't capitalize this, as is my usual style, for fear that it would take up the remainder of the day's available space) is the grade-A product of filmmakers Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith (with co-writing by Michael Chandler and Lawrence Lerew).  It is so immediately accessible, thanks to the talent of this creative team, that I think young or old, Democrat or Republican*, there will be few who can nay-say the importance of uncovering the truth -- and blasting it out -- once a government has lied to its own people about something as important as a war that has cost thousands of lives at home and tens of thousands in the adversarial country.

How and why Daniel Ellsberg (that's he back in the day, above, and present-day, below), the man who exposed the Lyndon Johnson administration's lies about Vietnam, accomplished his great feat is the subject of the film.  The impact of his actions on how we view the lies that led us into the current war in Iraq will not, I hope, go unnoticed by viewers of the film -- though the filmmakers themselves make reference only obliquely, as I recall, to this connection. I first saw the documentary just prior to its Film Forum run last September, at which time I'm happy to say, I predicted its "Oscar" nomination for Best Documentary. (I wouldn't have minded at all had it won, though I admit that The Cove was, in its own way, unique, extremely important, and the epitome of smart, galvanizing "advocacy film-making.")

If you have not yet seen the Ellsberg movie, consider this your heads-up.  It is simply too good to miss, from both a content standpoint and as an object lesson on how to put together a talking-heads/historical footage/you-are-there documentary that is moving, riveting and goddamn important.  You can find my earlier review/post here.

*I would dearly love to believe what I wrote above, but considering the behavior of most Republicans, from elected officials to rank-and-file, over that past decade (or more), it is clear that they have about as much concern for truth and transparency-in-government as the still unprosecuted ex-President Bush fils and war criminal Henry Kissinger.  Still, I have hope that there are a few Republicans and many Democrats out there who do understand the importance of this -- even if, as it continues to appear, our current (and -- oh, my gosh, he's a Democrat!) President does not.