Scorsese’s
Gangs of New York: A whitewash of epic proportions
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Chumbawumba
to perform at DC anti-war rally on Jan. 18
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Meet the
Vietcong -
romantic, poetic, human
By Kalinga Seneviratne
Singapore, Jan. 11 (IPS)— Vietcong soldiers are romantic, poetic,
jovial. You may not see this in Hollywood movies on the Vietnam War, but
a new film, Song of the Stork, gives you an alternative peek into a conflict
that has been the subject of many movies in the last 25 years.
This Vietnamese-Singaporean co-production, which opened in Hanoi this
week, gives a refreshing new, human perspective on the Vietnam War told
through the real-life stories of Vietnamese who fought and survived to
tell them.
This 90-minute feature film, produced in Vietnamese with English subtitles,
has already been shown in film festivals in Belgium and Canada.
"My interpretation of the Vietnam War was based on American movies
and always the Vietnamese were dressed in pajamas with straw hats running
on the ground," said Singaporean Jonathan Foo, who co-directed the
film with Vietnam’s Nguyen Phan Quang Binh.
"So when I was doing a project for Singapore television [in Vietnam]
I asked my Vietnamese friends, who were the Vietcong? They said, ‘us,
me and him’. I asked ‘What?’," he recalled.
"Then I really learned that in the Vietnam War, all the people were
involved," added Foo. "So we went and met a lot of families
of friends and learned more about their stories. Then we decided to make
a film about that, to tell their version of the war."
This is how Foo’s Singapore-based production company Mega Media and
Binh’s Hanoi-based Vietnam Media Corp joined hands to produce the
first-ever Singapore-Vietnam joint-venture feature film.
Many of the blockbuster Hollywood movies on the Vietnam War such as Heaven
and Earth, Apocalypse Now, and Full Metal Jacket have been filmed in nearby
Thailand and the Philippines.
But the stories in Song of the Stork were filmed at the very locations
they originally occurred, along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which runs from
the north to the south of the country.
The film’s characters are based on actual people and actual incidents
from the war, which killed five million Vietnamese. Almost every Vietnamese
family lost someone in the war and there are limitless stories of peoples’
suffering, heroism, and survival.
"All these stories you see on the film are true stories of our family
and friends," said Binh, who was in Singapore recently to promote
the film at an international media festival.
The film begins on Apr. 30, 2000, when the 25th anniversary of the fall
of Saigon was celebrated and former North Vietnamese war correspondent
Tran Van Thuy journeys into his own mind and recalls the spirits of millions
of Vietnamese who did not survive the war. Through his story and that
of four other Vietnamese, the film goes back to the day of enlistment
of the young men in 1968 to give us a glimpse into the life of the Vietcong
soldier.
Unlike the bloodthirsty villains in the Hollywood movies, they are seen
to be romantic, jovial, even poetic but at the same time fiercely loyal
and dedicated to the task.
There are four main characters in the film, whose stories start with
their enlistment into the army.
May is a happy-go-lucky jovial character. Manh is a underage soldier
who lied about his age to be enlisted into the army. Van is a romantic
who sings love songs with his trusty guitar and writes poetry while making
his way through the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Lam is a spy who infiltrates the
south and marries a daughter of a South Vietnamese colonel.
Vinh is the war correspondent who is always at the core of the action.
His historical black and white footage is used extensively in the film.
"This film is about finding out what our parents went through during
the war," said Binh. "What happened during the war and how they
feel."
There is very little war footage in the film, but there is a lot of jungle
scenery as well as touch of romance built into the story.
The message that tends to come through is that the Vietnamese people
would have loved to lead normal lives, but constant aerial bombing by
the enemy made this impossible. Yet, US soldiers or even their aircraft
are hardly visible in the film.
"This is not really a war film. Yes, it is about war, but it is
about people," explained Foo.
"Most Hollywood movies have been from the point of view of the Americans
or the South Vietnamese. This is from the North Vietnamese point of view
and this is about their life during the war," he added.
Binh argues that this film is an anti-war production. "War is not
good; every time war happens both sides lost something. We don’t
want war to happen anywhere," he said.
While the production crew included both Singaporeans and Vietnamese,
as well as a Malaysian cinematographer, the cast is almost entirely Vietnamese.
The main characters are graduates of Vietnamese media training schools
and universities.
There is a lot at stake in Song of the Stork for the infant film industries
of both countries, who are making a pitch to become centers of Asian filmmaking.
Binh says that working with directors from other countries allows one
to learn a lot from each other, while Foo reckons that due to Singapore’s
small domestic market — of only four million people — it is
important that Singaporean filmmakers go for co-productions like this
one with other Asian countries, targeted at international audiences.
"I think co-production is the way to go for independent film producers,
especially from Singapore, where we have limited landscape, less stories.
But Asia itself has huge potential and I’ll be looking in that direction,"
said Foo.
Movie poster graphic courtesy of www.megamedia.com
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Scorsese’s
Gangs of New York: A whitewash of epic proportions
By Lee Sustar
Jan. 11— The events of the first week of July 1863 — from the
Civil War Battle of Gettysburg to the New York City draft riots just days
later — are among the most decisive days in US history.
This explosive combination of slavery, war, racism, immigration and class
should be the ideal subject for an epic film, and director Martin Scorsese
should have the talent and experience to pull it off.
Unfortunately, Scorsese’s ultra-hyped Gangs of New York is a failure.
Worse, it reinforces reactionary myths about the Civil War and even revives
terrible racist stereotypes from the dustbin of Hollywood history.
Leaving aside the movie’s many historical distortions, the plot
is an utterly predictable revenge tale in which a young Irish Catholic
named Amsterdam (played by Titanic star Leonardo DiCaprio) is determined
to bring down the murderer of his father, Priest Vallon (played by Liam
Neeson).
For all its spectacle and technical prowess, the film is two-dimensional,
with even important characters left undeveloped. Cameron Diaz, who plays
Amsterdam’s love interest Jenny Everdeane, suddenly morphs from a
hard-edged pickpocket and prostitute into a self-sacrificing defender
of her fellow Irish Catholics.
The only character who makes this film watchable is the murderer —
Bill "The Butcher" Cutting, gang leader of the Protestant "native
Americans", who terrorizes Irish Catholic immigrants into submission
as they pour into New York City’s old Five Points neighborhood.
Brilliantly played by Daniel Day-Lewis, Bill the Butcher captures the
essence of the immigrant-bashing, racist, America-First politics that
you can still hear today in a Trent Lott speech. Bill spits vicious insults
at the Irish, Catholics and Blacks — anyone who doesn’t fit
his ideal Protestant America. Yet like immigrant-bashers throughout US
history, Bill doesn’t let his hatred for Irish Catholics get in the
way of making money off their backs.
Bill’s closest collaborator is the head of the Democratic Party
machine, William "Boss" Tweed (played by Jim Broadbent in the
only other standout performance). Tweed shares Bill the Butcher’s
contempt for the Irish — only he sees political advantage in herding
them off the boat and into the voting booth.
Unfortunately, these performances are overwhelmed by the sheer bloat
of the 165-minute film. And the film’s historical insights are lost
in what is at best confusion and at worst an apology for racism.
The film accurately portrays the mass attacks on government offices and
mansions, as workers and the poor showed their outrage at the fact that
the wealthy could purchase exemption from the draft. Yet the systematic
lynching of Blacks during the riot is seen as a tragic sideshow —
even though of the 110 people who died in the riot, the vast majority
were African Americans.
Nor is there anything to suggest the fact that powerful New York Democratic
businessmen supported the South and stirred up popular hatred of Blacks
— but that 25,000 New Yorkers volunteered to fight for the North
anyway.
This omissions might have been tolerable had Black characters been added
to the film — former slaves or abolitionists, for example —
who could have highlighted the contradictions of a race riot breaking
out in a Northern city amid the Civil War. But African Americans in Gangs
of New York have few lines and barely register as characters.
Little better is Scorsese’s stereotypical portrayal of the Chinese
as silent, inscrutable Orientals. (There were only a handful of Chinese
in 1860s New York, but Scorsese depicts a large community).
Overall, the film comes dangerously close to endorsing the argument made
by some of its characters — that Irish Catholics, and whites generally,
were being drafted to fight and die in a war in which they had no stake.
For a more accurate — as well as more entertaining and inspiring
— film about the Civil War era, rent a copy of Glory, the powerful
1989 movie about Black troops in the Union Army. And for a portrayal of
the bitter experiences of Irish immigrant workers in the late 1800s, get
the 1970 film The Molly Maguires on video. Those interested in the history
behind the events in Gangs of New York can pick up Iver Bernstein’s
book, The New York City Draft Riots.
Of course, a popular Hollywood film can’t be expected to be historically
accurate. The problem is that the movie focuses on historical detail while
mostly ignoring the forces that shaped that history. And for its pretensions
to be an epic, Gangs of New York just doesn’t make it as entertainment,
either.
Source: CounterPunch
Movie still courtesy of www.gangsognewyork.com
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Chumbawumba
to perform at DC anti-war rally on Jan. 18
New York, New York, Jan. 9— UK band Chumbawamba will debut its new
anti-war song "Jacob’s Ladder (Not In My Name)" in a rare
live US performance in an appropriate venue -- a massive anti-war rally
on Sat., Jan. 18 in Washington, DC. The band will fly to the US specifically
for this purpose, with a stop in New York City to discuss their appearance
at the rally.
The performance will be their first in the US in four years. As the Bush
administration gears up for war against Iraq — a bombardment that
will kill mostly innocent women and children — artists and musicians
are taking a more prominent role in giving voice to antiwar sentiments
throughout the world.
Chumbawamba is the first group to release an anti-war song — around
this war, the so-called "war on terrorism" — in the United
States. The song has begun getting airplay at KFOG-FM in San Francisco,
and was debuted on legendary radio host Bob Fass’ radio show "Radio
UnNameable" on WBAI-FM in New York City. It was also played by DJ
Vin Scelsa on his popular show "Idiot’s Delight" on WFUV-FM,
also broadcast in NYC.
The song was reviewed as "Track of the Week" by the UK’s
Guardian newspaper. "It’s a damn near perfect little pop song,
and serves to remind you how shockingly little musicians have had to say
about the most pressing issue of the day." The avante garde British
band lambastes George W. Bush’s war against Iraq as an attempt to
distract attention from the US domestic crisis. The band changed the words
of their song "Jacob’s Ladder" from their latest album
Readymades to oppose Bush’s push for war.
"Jacob’s Ladder (Not In My Name)" expresses fury and revulsion
at the blatant lies being broadcast to create a climate for war. It is
a sweet and breakbeat reminder that the oil and arms industries must not
be given carte blanche to cause murder and mayhem in search of profit.
Chumbawamba’s harmonies swell with anger at the willingness to sacrifice
innocent civilians for oil and power.
Readymades, offers some new fare, using breakbeats and folk samples in
an ambient mix of melody and ferocious politics.
Chumbawamba’s songs are full of harmony and quiet but angry reflection,
with focus on political and social justice issues -- too often overlooked
and untouched by musicians today. The band is best known in the United
States for their hit "Tubthumping."
"Jacob’s Ladder (Not In My Name)" is being released to
radio stations in the United States and has been offered free for download
to fans and anti-war organizations worldwide. Chumbawamba continues to
put forth its message of a different world without war, not ruled by corporations.
The band condemns Prime Minister Tony Blair’s attempt to back up
George W. Bush’s every move -- their "special relationship"
where one side does all the giving. "Jacob’s Ladder (Not In
My Name)" refuses to accept George W. Bush’s warmongering as
a "war against terror" but instead exposes the terror of war.
Source: B-GIRL/MEDIA
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