BS Movie Reviews

[I can't believe it's taken me ten years to realize that the name of my blog, the Blazing Sun, abbreviates to BS. -Editor]

I know what you're thinking.

You're thinking, wait, this blog is actually edited?
Haha, just kidding! You're thinking, I'm so excited to hear about what Alec thinks about movies which have been out for over ten years.

 So here's the rundown:

The Baader-Meinhof Complex: B+
Hip, stylish German movie about the rise, evolution, and promulgation of modern urban terrorists in Europe. Based on a book about the rise and fall of the Red Faction in West Germany. Very violent, but tempers the image of the the young militant radicals with their vanity, their short-sightedness, the compromises, depravity, and mission drift as they spiral out of control.

Cabaret: A
Just a really good movie. An interesting movie to follow The Baader-Meinhof Complex since both bookend Nazi Germany with a relatively young but similiar aged protagonists. Cabaret is set in the early rise of Nazism, the other follows the second generation after the Nazis. There are similar themes of all-consuming rebellion, of losing the self. Liza Minelli is amazing, and the characters and their triangle is interesting and compelling.

Brazil: A-
It is one of my favorite movies, but on the fifth or sixth watching, it does feel a bit draggy. Larry declared it "30 minutes too long" and I think that about hits it on the head. Still impressively prescient as far the as the surveillance state is concerned. Drones, mistaken identities, an ineffectual and vaguely defined war on terror. Sam Lowry walks into the NSA Information Retrieval Ministry and is astounded that he is not asked for ID. "I could be anyone!" he blurts out. "No you couldn't, sir," the unflappable front desk blandly replies, "this is Information Retrieval."