Whitey Saves the Day Again

As a general rule, I don't like Edward Zwick's movies. True, while I did like Legends of the Fall, I saw that when I was merely a teenager, and easy to impress. I haven't seen it since, so I'll reserve my comments on that one. I was incredibly bored by Dances with Samurai - sorry, The Last Samurai, fell asleep during an action sequence, and was annoyed by the arrogant and simplistic East Good West Bad But West Must Save East's Ass dialectic of it.

That being said, after watching Blood Diamond... I still don't like his movies. It's not that I have a problem with simple good-versus-evil dialectics or big-budget action movies. It's when they attempt to exploit a global tragedy, trivialize it in the process, and stop every few scenes to make sure the audience gets the Message that I get very annoyed. The action scenes are competent enough (even though like in The Last Samurai, I also fell asleep in one of them), but the pacing goes to hell with all the moralizing and moping around. Yet still, the basic message is very similar to The Last Samurai's - There are Noble Black People who are being exploited, and they need the White Man to save their miserable asses. It's well-meaning liberal bullshit, but also incredibly arrogant.

Perhaps you might think that I'm being overly sensitive in reading political messages into this sort of thing, but I think it's justifiable because Zwick desperately wants to be political. He wants to be political so bad you can smell it in his sweat. And as any foxy girl in a dance club can tell you, desperation is a huge turn-off. Besides, I find it repugnant that he wants the audience to root for one exploited African, but finds nothing wrong in blowing hundreds of other such Africans, including child soldiers, to Kingdom Come in a pyrotechnic-filled attack. In other words, these people don't matter because it's their fault they weren't important enough to have been friends with the White Man.

Speaking of white men, the highlight of the film has to be Leonardo DiCaprio, who brings to the stock character of Danny Archer layers upon layers when neither the movie nor the director demanded any, in addition to a damn good South African accent. Compared to his riveting turn, Jennifer Connelly appears merely adequate, and Djimon Hounsou simply reprises the Noble Savage role that he plays in every bloody movie he's in. Leo makes me root for the character, despite disliking everything else. His performance is the heart and soul of the movie, and worth the admission price. Not like, say, Tom Cruise in Samurai...

Addendum: I have to whine a little about Safra here. They seem to take delight in sending me free passes to movies right after I've paid to see them. I saw Fast Food Nation last Saturday, and received free passes to that on Monday in the mail. Blood Diamond I saw on Monday, and lo and behold, in my mailbox are free passes the very next day. I know I shouldn't complain about getting free swag, but it would be nice to actually be able to use some of them instead of giving everything away.