It is once again Wednesday, which means it is humpday. It also means that it is time for me to
review a movie that was picked for me by my sister in-law, Hannah. The picture (pun not intended) that I will be
looking at today is The Bang Bang Club,
a film about a group of photographers in South Africa who operated together
between 1990 and 1994 as apartheid was drawing to an end. It is based off of a true story of
photojournalists who covered the violence between supporters of the African
National Congress party and the Inkatha Freedom Party.
The first act of the film starts off very strong, as we meet
up with young photographer Greg (Ryan Phillipe) who is working freelance and
meets the three who would later make up what was referred to as ‘The Bang Bang
Club.’ He is treated well by the seasoned
photojournalist and is warmly encouraged by Kevin (Taylor Kitsch) and shows a
level of bravery as he heads into a hostile neighbourhood to get the other side
of the story to a bloody altercation that has just happened. This impresses the others, who allow him into
their circle as they try and photograph the bloody violence that is happening
in South African townships.
We see an interesting dynamic in the first part of the film,
as the lens of the camera almost appears to act as an emotional divide between
the photographer and the atrocities that surround them. They look through their viewfinders and scan
for pictures, all the while showing no connection to the severity of turmoil in
which they are standing. A corpse
mutilated by an opposing faction is something to be captured, not something to
be lamented. It is an interesting
dynamic for the viewer, who has the ability to feel for the morbid nature of
what we see, and yet seeing business and profession playing out in the main
characters before us.
While this presented an interesting contrast, it was not a
theme that director Steven Silver seemed interested in carrying
throughout. On one hand that is good,
because we want to see the emotional walls of these people start to crack and
break under the reality of their jobs.
On the other hand, the execution of such a transition needs to be
handled properly for it to become effective.
There were some scenes that seemed rather forced, as it tried to push
the narrative into focusing more about the individuals of the group and their
dynamics. Within this shift I felt like
the power that was established at the beginning of the film was left behind.
There were a number of very interesting themes that
this film looked to explore though it never fully exposed any of them. There was the racial aspect of white
photographers taking pictures of black on black violence and profiting on
it. There was the celebration of
accomplishment for the photographers after walking away from horrific events
and the emotional disconnect that they had.
And there was the issue of them taking pictures of awful things, but not
taking any action to assist fellow humans in need (this issue was perhaps
investigated the most). The film
introduced each of these elements but it never felt like it did enough to
develop them, and instead lightly touched down on them from time to time. I was left feeling life there was some
terrific content to be uncovered, but the transitions and pace kept the
concepts from being fully explored and the emotions I was meant to feel were
never given enough time to properly sink in.
That being said, there were some amazing scenes in
this film that were gripping and tense.
We get scenes of literally hundreds of people in a tense standoff that
the viewer is sure will end poorly.
There is an incredibly well shot pursuit through a village as Ryan
Phillipe’s character is running from pursuers waving machetes. The locations that were picked and the set-up
of the scenes of turmoil were well constructed and provided a solid emotional
punch. Perhaps the most powerful scene
of the movie is just how quietly someone dies from being hacked and bludgeoned,
a scene that has the ability to live inside your head when the film is over.
By the time the movie came around to the end,
however, I felt like the intended effect was diminished by the sometimes rushed
pace that came into play during the second and third act. I found that, just as the photographers had
an emotional disconnect with what they were seeing at the beginning of the
film, I had the same experience at the end.
As the story wound up I felt like I knew aspects of the characters, but
never knew them as individuals, keeping me from being fully invested when they
were finally personally affected by the events on the other side of their
cameras.
Rating – 2.5 out of 4 stars
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