The second and third acts, see, they're just not as arresting as that first twenty-minutes or so.
We get a fairly lengthy diversion in the direction of a Wisconsin high school, wherein a history teacher has decided to incorporate the workings of propaganda into her lessons. Plenty footage of students discussing the similarities between representations of The Hun ninety years ago and the representation of The Taliban in the Here and Now. Fairly depressing this section turns out to be, on account of the youngsters making statements along the lines of "Yes, it's so obvious that people can be manipulated into supporting an unjust war, unlike, say, the recent one in Iraq."
And lastly, in maybe the most interesting portion of War Is Sell, in so far as what's being discussed might be concerned, Neil Whitehead, a professor at The University Of Wisconsin, gives an extended yak regarding the similarities between portrayals of cannibals in the Colonialist era and Terrorists in the nowadays, coming to the not-that-terribly-groundbreaking conclusion that there is as much cannibal / terrorist in us as them.
Everything Whitehead says is fairly splendid, and on account of how long we have to listen to him, the interview is intercut with a world of news footage and documents, Whitehead himself being projected onto two television screens.
But when the credits roll and the white crosses the black for the last time, what a fella is left with is a sense that as a film, War Is Sell is just too fragmented, too visually conservative.
And wouldn't you know it, all of this, or most of it, is remedied by the inclusion of an "Alternative Remix Version" on disc 2 of the special edition DVD.
This cut of War Is Sell, hidden away in the special features, is by far the better film, the various elements interwoven, the acts bleeding through one another as one, rather than as separate chunks.
It makes a fella wonder why this isn't the "official" version, since it's superior in every damn way; the pacing, the structure, the flow of the affair is improved immeasurably.
And sayin to the ol' bastard on the shoulder, "See, this, this now is a fine motion-flick, right here, this remix affair. I can get behind it."
Also included in the bonus features are a series of deleted scenes and speeches and, perhaps best of all, a selection of propaganda material. Posters from WW1, WW2 and both Gulf Wars, newsreels and fifteen minutes of Why We Fight entitled "Divide And Conquer".
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
This review contains what might be known as a brilliant observation, if a fella were so inclined to quantify observations. Phillip finds himself nodding his noggin with great enthusiasm at the realization that many films expressing a dissenting opinion rely most heavily on the idea of skepticism, and yet don't themselves necessarily hold up under the fine standard of skepticism they're asking a fella to employ.
It's ironic, is what!
2 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Thank you Phillip! yeah, that right there is the central irony, maybe, in, if not all, then at least a large proportion of these typsea documentaries. Which is not to say i don't support the sentiments at least 97%, but still, you'd hope that folks take it upon themselves to examine the information afterwards. Most likely that's the point of the damn things. to get folks to think.