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roaringfirefilms
Reviews
House of Numbers: Anatomy of an Epidemic (2009)
Shows the complexity of opinions rather than giving a single one
All documentaries serves as possible tools of manipulation and I see many thoughts flying around about this one but at the end of the day what it does show is that many key scientists in the HIV and AIDS world clearly have very different opinions about what they are dealing with. We live in a world where we want to put things into simple boxes and give them an easy heading. Life is rarely like that and what this documentary does is makes the viewer want to know more. I don't think anyone watching this doc comes away thinking they now have answers they didn't have at the beginning, just more questions and thus less likely to just take any information put in front of them as fact.
People no doubt will get into fighting matches over this doc but I found the diversity of idea's within it to be fascinating. To hear any professional in the field of HIV say that due to differences in testing you can be HIV positive in one country and negative in another is fascinating. If this doc opens up more debate that leads to a clearer picture then that's great. I don't imagine the audience of this doc are stupid enough after watching to suddenly throw away the condoms.
This doc really kicked me up the ass to find out more, a pretty great attribute if you ask me.
Charlie Wilson's War (2007)
An entertaining movie spoiled by major historical flaw.
This movie moves along in an entertaining fashion but its fundamental flaw is that it ignores the fact that the CIA induced the Russians into the conflict in the first place and so the entire historical fairytale is destroyed. There is no doubt over this historical fact as it has been confirmed by the likes of Robert Gates the defense secretary and members of Carters administration that oversaw it. When you know that the "good guys" were behind inducing the Afghan government for asking the Russian military to help them fight the Islamic extremists (CIA funded that became the Taleban) then it changes everything in the movie to being a rather distasteful propaganda piece.
Carter adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski stated "According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the mujahideen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, Dec 24th 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise." Brzezinski himself played a fundamental role in crafting U.S. policy, which, unbeknown even to the Mujahideen, was part of a larger strategy "to induce a Soviet military intervention." This is taken from the article "MESS IN Pakistan ALL STEMS BACK TO US INDUCING SOVIETS INTO AFGHAN CONFLICT" which you can search for on the blog pages at the site rezbomb (dot) com
An Unlikely Weapon (2008)
Stunning - A must see
I saw this at the Fort Lauderdale film festival and it jumped into my soul. It's about as compelling a guy as you can find but the story telling is pitch perfect as well. It took fifteen minutes for me to decompress on my own outside the cinema. Very powerful stuff. I then had the joy of seeing it again at the Santa Fe film festival and second time it hit me as hard. It is for me one of the two best things I saw last year, the other being Man on Wire. When are fiction films going to live up to the standard of the best of their non fiction siblings. Bear in mind Man on Wire beat Slumdog Millionaire for the Best British Film Award at the British Academy Awards this year.
Please go see this film as you won't regret it.