prickled ears

Rating: 8/10 (6 April 2006)

What I really enjoyed about this movie was the dialog and repartee. Hollywood never seems to worry about dialog, so it was a joy to listen to these characters talk to each other. Two dialogs stick out: the one between the Sikh and the police, and the argument after the quiz. A lesser director would have left them out, together with the concentration on detail such as the protocol concerning police reaction. However, somewhere along the way, Lee lost his touch, and the last part and the ending were a disappointment. Besides the dialog, the acting was also brilliant. Denzel Washington is in a class of his own; the interrogations were masterly; and rarely has an actor laughed as well as he did after "sticking his shoe up the white man's ass". I even liked Jodie Foster (no whiny voice with pinched nose) ...
Racism: I have been surprised to hear people thinking there is reverse racism in the movie. Just because the hero is black and the corrupt people are white; usually the hero is white and the corrupt people are white. So it was one little change. Anyway, the character who came off worse was that loud-mouthed boy with his barbaric computer game.
Holocaust: As a German I am a bit sensitive about the Holocaust being used as a shorthand for a quick emotional sensation. Too many movies deal with the terrible moral choices people had to make at the time and with the aftermath of suffering in a way that is very superficial. I hope this is one of the last movies that does so. Titanic managed to get in a survivor who was over 100, so the last Holocaust survivor/evildoer in a movie may yet be to come (Evildoer: ca. 2020; victim ca. 2030: damn, that's longer than I thought!) There are plenty of other moral dilemmas and ways of suffering and getting corrupted in this world. Please use them instead. If you want to make a movie about the Holocaust, fine; if it is a cheap thrill, leave it out!