The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, very good.
Television Feature length documentaries
- Thread starter Pogue Mahone
- Start date
Watched The Two Escobars the other night. Great movie and I'll be recommending it to anyone I know with an interest in fuzzball.
Sirius - Watched it tonight. One for the tin foil hat brigade. Although the Atacama humanoid part was interesting.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1741225/
A documentary about what is wrong with the world and how we can fix it by the director of Ace Ventura and Bruce Almighty. Not half as terrible as it sounds.
A documentary about what is wrong with the world and how we can fix it by the director of Ace Ventura and Bruce Almighty. Not half as terrible as it sounds.
Just watched The King of Kong. What a truly bizarre world and so many snakes over a game of Donkey Kong. Decent watch surprisingly.
I watched that movie a couple years ago...couldn't sleep, it was on at 3 in the morning. I didn't get any sleep that night, I was too fascinated
Yeah it's a great documentary, the best writing team in the world couldn't have come up with a better character than Billy Mitchell.
The bit where he comes into the arcade at the end with his wife to try to intimidate Steve when he was playing only to blank him completely. Strange cat!!
I also started to watch a docu on Tesla bet fell asleep halfway through it. It was really interesting but they had some guy narrating it pretending to be Tesla talking in the first person. I never established if they were just making this text up or was it from his diaries but it was really annoying.
Crumb...good, honest, shocking.
I can't believe how much shit this guy gets and how everyone supports the other guy. It's as if people don't get that the world is an infinitely more interesting place knowing the likes of Billy Mitchell are out there. I'm not saying we should like him, as he is a wanker, but we should certainly treasure him. The Steve Oube's (sp?) of this world are ten a penny. It's easy to be a nice guy if you come from a semi decent part of the world. But to evolve into Billy Mitchell is quite an achievement.
People are fascinated by and celebrate gangsters etc, when really there is nothing we should enjoy about these people. But Billy Mitchell is harmless and therefore people should enjoy the fact he exists.
You know it's gonna be good when Robert is the least weird of the three brothers. Massive fan of his. Love this documentary.
30 for 30: Broke.
Interesting subject matter but purely interview based.
Obyknovennyy fashizm (Common Fascism/Triumph Over Violence)
A strangely personal, subjective take on fascism from Russian director (and narrator) Mikhail Romm using footage from the Nazi archives. Some of the social commentary is completely bizarre and a bit of propaganda creeps in but that just adds an element of entertainment to an otherwise informative and interesting documentary.
A strangely personal, subjective take on fascism from Russian director (and narrator) Mikhail Romm using footage from the Nazi archives. Some of the social commentary is completely bizarre and a bit of propaganda creeps in but that just adds an element of entertainment to an otherwise informative and interesting documentary.
^ nice pic 
Seems to be a must watch.
Senna - 2010
Never had much interest in Formula One racing but this documentary on Brazilian Ayrton Senna certainly brought it to life. Great look at his racing career, religiously driven personality and rivalry with Alain Proust. You're given loads of actual footage, interviews with Senna, and a host of commentary by other racers of the time, international journalists, and F 1 officials and whatnot. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
The White Diamond - 2004
Another great work in the vast filmography of Werner Herzog chronicling the efforts of an English aeronautical engineer building and piloting his homemade miniature zeppelin around the massiveKaieteur Falls in Guyana, South America and above the forest canopy in order to better study these areas from unique angles. A bit of extra added drama is from the fact that a famous photographer had died in an accident from this same English engineer's previous mini zeppelin in Indonesia, so this chap must fight some past demons, all the meanwhile of course, with Werner's existentialist German accented narrations haunting the scene. Some unbelievable photography of the Falls and the Swifts that fly amongst the falling water patterns and the mysterious giant, unexplored cave behind the falls. Fantastic soundtrack as well. Left me with an overwhelming desire to visit the place.
The Last Gladiator - 2012
A look at the career of Montreal Canadiens' enforcer Chris Knuckles Nilan. Being an NHL enforcer has to be one the most unique, most brutal and most difficult jobs of any professional athlete. Basically paid bare knuckle fighters in their own sort of Hockey martial art form. Not only does fighting break out spontaneously, but it's got its strategic game changing points of intimidation, pay back, and giving your team a spark. Though often the teams most popular players, the downside is that these "goons" often are psychologically beaten and end up with mental problems, drug and alcoholic abuse, depression, brain damage and early death. Interesting stuff, but the documentary does seem to skip a lot Nilan's horrific heroin and other drug abuse.
Never had much interest in Formula One racing but this documentary on Brazilian Ayrton Senna certainly brought it to life. Great look at his racing career, religiously driven personality and rivalry with Alain Proust. You're given loads of actual footage, interviews with Senna, and a host of commentary by other racers of the time, international journalists, and F 1 officials and whatnot. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
The White Diamond - 2004
Another great work in the vast filmography of Werner Herzog chronicling the efforts of an English aeronautical engineer building and piloting his homemade miniature zeppelin around the massiveKaieteur Falls in Guyana, South America and above the forest canopy in order to better study these areas from unique angles. A bit of extra added drama is from the fact that a famous photographer had died in an accident from this same English engineer's previous mini zeppelin in Indonesia, so this chap must fight some past demons, all the meanwhile of course, with Werner's existentialist German accented narrations haunting the scene. Some unbelievable photography of the Falls and the Swifts that fly amongst the falling water patterns and the mysterious giant, unexplored cave behind the falls. Fantastic soundtrack as well. Left me with an overwhelming desire to visit the place.
The Last Gladiator - 2012
A look at the career of Montreal Canadiens' enforcer Chris Knuckles Nilan. Being an NHL enforcer has to be one the most unique, most brutal and most difficult jobs of any professional athlete. Basically paid bare knuckle fighters in their own sort of Hockey martial art form. Not only does fighting break out spontaneously, but it's got its strategic game changing points of intimidation, pay back, and giving your team a spark. Though often the teams most popular players, the downside is that these "goons" often are psychologically beaten and end up with mental problems, drug and alcoholic abuse, depression, brain damage and early death. Interesting stuff, but the documentary does seem to skip a lot Nilan's horrific heroin and other drug abuse.
It's hard to go wrong with Errol Morris. The Fog of War, The Thin Blue Line, Gates of Heaven, and Tabloid are all top notch.
Other docs off the top of my head: Project Grizzly, Marwencol, Lemmy (although it features some incredibly annoying talking heads - Metallica, Dave Grohl, Dave Navarro), Anvil!
I watched Skatopia: 88 Acres of Anarchy the other day. It's about a wasteland skatepark, Skatopia, in Ohio. It's pretty good, though the founder and owner does little to come off as a good guy. He's a bit of a scumbag. There's lots of good footage of totally mental skateboarding separating all the interviews too, so it's a good watch if you're into skateboarding. These kids are mental, speed skating around huge bowls with hardly in flat, plenty of bails with no pads or helmets. There's some clips of pro skaters (Bam Margera, Tony Hawk, few others) who are saying there's no way they could skate some of the ramps. A good watch, and there's more to it than just skateboarding. Alot of it is just about how much of a twat the owner is to his kid and his missus, even his friends and employees. Everyone who hangs out there seems to really like smashing stuff and setting things on fire as well, so yeah, plenty of non-skateboarding stuff.
Anvil - The Story of Anvil is a brilliant music documentary about a metal band that looked destined to make it big, but somehow didn't. One of the best music docs I've seen.
Metallica's Some Kind of Monster is great too. Real Life Spinal Tap. Hilarious. Those boys are just fecking mental. I don't think it's supposed to be funny, but it certainly is. Ulrich and Hetfield are total fannies
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
Quite an interesting insight into a horrible event.
Quite an interesting insight into a horrible event.
Has anyone seen A Band Called Death? It's showing at the Melbourne Film Festival and I think I'll go see it. Elena and Mistaken for Strangers also look interesting and are on.
Hoop Dreams - Now that is a fecking documentary. Fantastic.
Aye, watched is a while ago and was really moved by it. Some totally normal people in an abnormal situation, and how they tried to portray the two kids at the start failed for them at the end because of how things worked out. A must watch for any sport fan especially.
Wow, great documentary, Marwencol. Very profound on so many levels. You've just got to wonder if this guy's extremely authentic and personal art will be jeopardized after being discovered by the NYC artsy fartsy crowd and ensuing art crowd fame. I would imagine so.
Yeah, it's great. I grew up an Isiah Thomas fan and I lived very near Cabrini Green when I was in Chicago. Everything you need to know about America, you'll find in that film
It's a mini-series, but Cosmos is probably my favorite documentary series of all time. Carl Sagan was a great communicator and speaker.
They are doing an updated version with Neil DeGrasse Tyson next spring.
They are doing an updated version with Neil DeGrasse Tyson next spring.
Watched the first hour or so. Left off at the point where the one kid's dad came back and bought crack at the same court his son was training on. I'm going to watch the rest tonight
Edit: Just finished watching it. fecking incredible. I was reluctant to watch it because I'm not too fond of basketball, but it is so much more then a documentary about kids playing basketball. That scene with William watching Arthur is the stands win the city title was heartbreaking.
I've read a little about Gates and it seems the general consensus is that he would have been something special if not for his injury.
Anybody recommend me another film by the director of Hoop Dreams? Notice he has a few credits, a number of his films seem to have been well received, and his episode for the 30 for 30 series was good as well
Friend of mine recommended it. Did you see it?
Awesome series... Sagan just knows how to introduce you to such a vast array of scientific fields and stories.
Can't wait to see it glossed up by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, though. New trailer for that was just released:
Seeing it next Tuesday.
Just finished watching Armadillo which doesn't seem to have gotten a mention here yet. It's a Danish subtitles film following a small platoon in Afghanistan during their first tour. It's an amazing piece of work somewhere between a classic war film and the truth. The soundtrack and some of the shots would have you think you are watching a movie rather than a doc. There's a little controversy about it too with one of the raids being very gruesome. Anyone with any interest in this type of subject needs to see this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armadillo_(film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armadillo_(film)
This is good stuff:
Pilger's stuff is always worth a watch.
Pilger's stuff is always worth a watch.
Good call De Selby, enjoyed that.
Just watched one about the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings called White Light/Black Rain with interviews with 14 of the survivors and a few of the Americans involved. It's very strange to see people speak so bluntly about such a nightmarish scenario. It doesn't really attempt to offer any new insight into the effects of the bombings, it just presents the unique perspectives of some of those involved and does so without any real agenda (partly as it was made for HBO by a Japanese film crew).
Just watched one about the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings called White Light/Black Rain with interviews with 14 of the survivors and a few of the Americans involved. It's very strange to see people speak so bluntly about such a nightmarish scenario. It doesn't really attempt to offer any new insight into the effects of the bombings, it just presents the unique perspectives of some of those involved and does so without any real agenda (partly as it was made for HBO by a Japanese film crew).
A woman talking about her brother's eyes and skin falling off, another woman talking about seeing her mother's body turning into ash along with her sister, and there is barely a hint of emotion when they speak of it...it makes you wonder about the years of pain it must've taken to get to that point. One man talks about how in the immediate aftermath of the explosion he rushed to give two people the water they were desperately screaming out for, and that water was what killed them. They were so dehydrated and they drunk the water so quickly that their bodies just gave out. The interviews were accompanied with the usual horrifying photos and videos with some particularly harrowing videos of some of the interviewees, but there was some beautiful Japanese art and comics depicting the bomb and the immediate aftermath.
Some quotes I thought were worth pulling out:
There were some images I took a screenshot of but decided they're perhaps too brutal to show on their own, but in a strange way the most horrifying thing shown was perhaps the clips of an episode of This is Your Life with Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto. It just seemed absurdly insensitive. There were American propaganda short films dotted about the documentary that look bad but this to me seemed infinitely worse because it was presented as them doing something nice for the Japanese people, yet Ralph Edwards displayed a startling lack of empathy towards them. It might've looked worse than it was so I'm going to watch the full version some other time:
Some quotes I thought were worth pulling out:
There were some images I took a screenshot of but decided they're perhaps too brutal to show on their own, but in a strange way the most horrifying thing shown was perhaps the clips of an episode of This is Your Life with Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto. It just seemed absurdly insensitive. There were American propaganda short films dotted about the documentary that look bad but this to me seemed infinitely worse because it was presented as them doing something nice for the Japanese people, yet Ralph Edwards displayed a startling lack of empathy towards them. It might've looked worse than it was so I'm going to watch the full version some other time:
Interesting.
Ive been ploughing through these recently as there are loads I havent seen on Netflix. The most memorable one was Zeitgeist, I was late to the party with this one. I thought the bit about the origins of religion at the start was excellent, fascinating stuff. The second two parts I thought were less compelling though not necessarily less interesting, the 9/11 conspiracy stuff certainly gives you food for thought without being really convincing, the final chapter on finance I thought was OK but has been done better elsewhere, such as Aaron Russo's From Freedom To Fascism. Tho it did offer some new insights.
Other recent highlights:
DMT: The Spirit Molecule. I really enjoyed this, it made me want to take acid or mushrooms again, but alas I fear I am a bit too old for that, or at least I cant imagine being able to find anyone to do it with.
Anonymous: We Are Legion. Amazing. The first thing I did when it was finished was check out 4Chan. But I found it a bit too chaotic, I prefer it here. Not quite as hedonistic but enough for me, with a bit more structure.
Other recent highlights:
DMT: The Spirit Molecule. I really enjoyed this, it made me want to take acid or mushrooms again, but alas I fear I am a bit too old for that, or at least I cant imagine being able to find anyone to do it with.
Anonymous: We Are Legion. Amazing. The first thing I did when it was finished was check out 4Chan. But I found it a bit too chaotic, I prefer it here. Not quite as hedonistic but enough for me, with a bit more structure.
Woodstock - great music, great document of the time. The split screen was a nice touch and the editing was superb.
Watched this the other night. very interesting
Robert McNamara is a fascinating person. We watched Fog of War, or excerpts, in an intro international relations class. The Cuban Missile Crisis, Bay of Pigs offer great insight into decision making of the JFK administration.
Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures - Pretty general stuff, no major insights.
Stop Making Sense - Not really a fan of 80's new wave stuff but I liked a few of the tracks in this, very creative concert.
Stop Making Sense - Not really a fan of 80's new wave stuff but I liked a few of the tracks in this, very creative concert.