Wanna be and professional critics need to get over themselves

Rating: 10/10 (10 May 2005)

I think too many of us are missing the forest for the trees (or are trying to audition for film critic of the year--maybe both). The movie confronted humanity without apologies or excuses, and that was the beauty of it. It was very unhollywood-like and I am very happy it was produced. The technical aspects of the movie should have been secondary to the story. Trying to cover a broad sample of the American backdrop to tell the stories together in a meaningful way is a challenge. I don't think the time-line was intended to be taken literally. It jumped forward and backward as needed to cover the events that were pertinent to the story Haggis wanted to tell. There was no spare time to have casual conversations, long character development and still keep the pace of the story.
It's a set of trade-offs: develop the characters vs. tell a sharp story, spoon-feed vs. let the audience fill in the blanks,etc. You can't have everything in 2 hours or less. Under those constraints I think the technical and stylistic effort was pretty good.
For me personally, as a 30 something, successful, middle class African American man born and raised in southern California, I felt Don Cheadle's and Terrance Howard's characters in my soul. It was the kind of acting, in a major motion picture, from African American men that I have been waiting for for most of my adult life. I had tears in my eyes and the only other movie that I've seen in 20 years that had that kind of effect on me was Pay It Forward (despite the over-exposure and over-acting of that kid Haley Osment). Two movies in 20 Years--Platoon didn't do it, Grand Canyon didn't do it, Ray didn't do it (but it came close), Man on Fire didn't do it. None of the Indie even came close. Maybe it was the first time that I felt the characters. Maybe for some of you other posters this was the first time you had to try to identify with a complex 3 dimensional that didn't look like you or seem to live your life. Me? It stuck to me long after I left the theater. In fact, I took my wife back to see it on Mother's day. I called my Mother and Father on the way to the theater and they were out...at the movie theater watching the movie. They loved it by the way...And they are almost 70.
And oh yeah! Please don't try to tear me down as uninformed (though I am sure you will, judging from some of the other posts)...I have two Master of Science Degrees (Computer Science and Information Security) as does my father (Computer Science and MBA). This is my first movie post, ever. Enjoy!