The Loneliness of Long Distance Runner

Tony Richardson, 99m, 1962, UK

Long distance running, particularly in the absence of a cell phone, is certainly an activity, which provides solitude of a special kind. As Smith, the teenage boy who is the subject runs and runs, memories come tumbling and he relives his past. This b/w movie is set in a bleak autumnal British landscape in social conditions far from the affluence of subsequent period. Smith is a teenager from the underprivileged section who lands in a reformatory after getting caught for a petty robbery. We have glimpses of life at the institution.

The head of the school spots the boy's talent for running and, to add a feather to his own cap, goads him with enticements to win the prize for a five mile race in an inter school race competition. Smith leaves his nearest competitor far behind, but close to the finishing line, brings himself to a halt, gifting away the trophy. It is an enigmatic yet powerful act of self assertion, whereby his existence as an individual is established. Like the protagonist of 400 Blows, he now faces the pathless sea of the future. A somewhat rough shod film of substance.

Armadillo

100m, Denmark, 2010

This documentary tells of the experience of the Afghan war, this time through the eyes of a company of soldiers from Denmark. The camera is very close to the site of action, and we see the casualties on either side as they occur. We see the gradual desensitization of the soldiers, and the increasing depersonalization of the enemy. The surprising thing is that having completed their period of deployment, most of the soldiers elect to return to the same arena of war a year later, as though war were an addictive substance. The movie has the texture of a feature, and one has the feel of watching fiction, not reality.

Super Size Me

 Morgan Spurlock, 2004, 89m

You should see this film for reasons of health. It accentuates my feeling of revulsion towards junk food, specially the multi layer types which have to be consumed in portions that fully occupy the mouth--hardly the thing you can talk things over over. Eating, and eating together, should be a sacred act of human communion and bonding. Taste is not on the taste buds alone. But here it is reduced to a physiological exercise of stimulating and eliminating hunger using products that are essentially synthetic. This is eating for the sake of eating.

The director fed on nothing but what was available at McDonald's for thirty days, recording his own feelings as they vary between disgust, craving and fear. His medical parameters are monitored on a daily basis. The deterioration in health is even more drastic than anticipated. Among other things, the lipids and the weight shoot up. Most alarming and unexpected are the cirrhosis like signs which surface in the final days of the experiment, which could even be life threatening. Although framed in a breezy comic style, the topic is too serious to have any other effect than to set the alarm bells ringing.

Of course, arguments can be made about the drastic nature of the project, yet it is impossible to ignore the conclusions.  The results may be scaled down to the extent of one's own consumption, but it is hard to challenge the authenticity. One particularly gruesome animated sequence depicts the assembly line transformation of a chicken into golden deep fried nuggets. We also have the privilege of sharing the intimacy of the operation theater where an obesity surgery is being performed as swathes of lard are removed from an opened abdomen. Over-nutrition, like other addictions, is the result of an enfeebled mind. It is hardly less frightening than images of starvation, differing mainly in being self imposed.

Roger Ebert's review

Restrepo

2010, 87m, Junger and Hetherington dir

The directors spent two years around 2007 embedded in a group of American soldiers in a dangerous war theater of Taliban insurgency. In April 2011 the second of the two directors was killed on a similar assignment in Libya. This is an apolitical film and examines the ground realities of this war from the viewpoint of young American soldiers para dropped and transported into a hell within a Himalayan demi paradise. We can imagine the plight of the hapless mountain dwellers, viced between the grips of the insurgents on one side and on the other of foreigners with deadly weapons descending from the sky. We see people killed on both sides. In a revealing moment, an Afghan elder covers his mouth to unsuccessfully stifle a yawn as an American officer monotones the economic benefits expected to result from cooperation with the invaders rather than the insurgents. A worthwhile addition to one's cache of images of the world we share.

Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Morgan Spurlock, 2011, 88m, documentary

Half knowledge may be dangerous, but in our complex world, it is a better option to tunnel vision. Film documentaries seem a short route to the big fuzzy picture.This film is about the complex cut throat field of advertising and ruthless consumer manipulation and deception, even in America with all its laws. This funny film is not only about advertising but is itself an advertisement for various products which served to finance it. The director goes around meeting various business executives discussing the idea of sponsorship and in the process we gain insight into the way things are sold. Engrossing and educative.