Critical Times

The director of a powerful film about the final days of Bobby Sands says he has not made a hero of the IRA prisoner, whose death in a 1981 hunger strike made him one of the most prominent symbols of opposition to British rule in Northern Ireland.

Hunger, the graphic, often brutal feature debut by British artist Steve McQueen, screened at the Cannes Film Festival late on Thursday (local time) and has impressed critics with its portrayal of the violence and horror of life in the notorious Maze prison.

Some predicted that the film would prove controversial because of what they saw as McQueen’s sympathetic treatment of Sands, played by Irish actor Michael Fassbender.

read more »

“System change not climate change” reads the cover of the December edition of NZ Marxist journal Unity. The contents amount to a comprehensive overview of the climate change threat — its physical workings, its political causes, measures to overcome it and action to take. For political grounding and stimulating ideas for action, this small booklet is indispensable.

read more »

Ken Loach’s new film The Wind That Shakes the Barley is a brilliant work that brings to life a crucial moment in Irish history — the signing of the treaty with England in 1921 that partitioned the country into the Irish Free State in the south, with “Northern Ireland” remaining under British rule, and the consequent civil war between supporters and opponents of the treaty. Through the experiences of a small group of working people and rank-and-file Irish Republican Army fighters, the film deals with both the brutality of the British occupation, and the key internal political struggles of the day.

Opening in County Cork in 1920, we see Damien O’Donovan (Murphy), a young doctor who is cynical about the prospect of independence for Ireland, preparing to leave to work in England.

read more »

Creating a stir among US environmentalists is the self-reinvention of former Vice President Al Gore – previously headed for political oblivion – as a powerful lecturer on climate change. Gore’s multimedia presentation is a hit on the US lecture circuit, drawing raves even from those who’d written him off for lacking the right stuff. That presentation is now the subject of this engrossing and often alarming documentary, in which Gore mounts a powerful challenge to those who argue that climate change is debatable, or at least not man-made.

read more »

Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage
By Heather Rogers
The New Press, 2005
288 pages, $39.95 (hb)

REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON

Three human-made objects are visible from outer space — the Great Wall of China, the pyramids, and another “towering monument to civilisation”, the Fresh Kills Landfill on the outskirts of New York City. A goodly slice of the 230 billion kilos of garbage that US households throw out each year has gone to this massive waste dump, writes Heather Rogers in The Hidden Life of Garbage.

read more »

Howard�s Australia: The Democratic Paradox
By: Michael Connors
Wednesday 19 April 2006

Prime Minister John Howard is history incarnate, but not in the sense of being the underwhelming expression of ordinary Australia. Howard has shifted the permanently unsettled but delicate balance of liberalism and democracy in Australia towards a system of majoritarian illiberalism. This will be his legacy.

read more »

Habib’s torture film ‘to aid other prisoners’
Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Mamdouh Habib has produced a home movie he claims shows how he was tortured in secret military prisons.

Mr Habib was detained in Pakistan in October 2001 and accused of taking part in terrorism activities.

After three years being moved between jails, including Guantanamo, he was freed by American authorities without charge.

read more »

Just when the executives of the world’s biggest fast food company were beginning to get over the damage done by the hit film Super Size Me, a new film and book about McDonald’s are about to dump a fresh bucket of ordure over the Golden Arches.

With Hollywood backing and a stellar cast, a film of Eric Schlosser’s best-selling book, Fast Food Nation is looming as a potent threat to the burger chain’s fragile reputation.

A fictionalised account of the book, subtitled The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, the movie refers to a company called Mickey’s and stars Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke and Avril Lavigne.

read more »

Water
Directed by Deepa Mehta
Starring Seema Biswas, Lisa Ray, John Abraham and Sarala
Dendy Films
Screening from April 13

REVIEW BY MARGARET ALLUM

“There are three options from which widows may choose, according to our texts. They may burn with their husbands [on the funeral pyre — known as sati, which is still practiced in some parts of India today], live lives of abstinence and piety; or, if the family agrees, marry their husband’s younger brother.” This is how a Hindu priest presents a widow with her remaining options in Water, the latest film from the Canada-based film-maker Deepa Mehta.

read more »

V for Vendetta
Directed by James McTeigue
Written & produced by Larry and Andy Wachowski
With Natalie Portman & Hugo Weaving

V for Vendetta
Created by Alan Moore and David Lloyd
Published by Vertigo Comics
1988, Washington

REVIEW BY ALISON DELLIT

“You would have liked [my father]”, Evey (Natalie Portman) explains to V (Hugo Weaving), early in the Wachowski brothers’ film V for Vendetta, “he used to say artists use lies to tell the truth while politicians use them to cover the truth up”. In this statement, V for Vendetta explains its reason for being. As they did in The Matrix, Andy and Larry Wachowski have produced a film that aims to reveal our world, while portraying a different one.

read more »

How to Assassinate John Howard
BY FIONA McGREGOR
Frank and Lili were boating on the harbour. They were so close to the foreshore they could see the pattern of lichen on the rocks. Looking up at Kirribilli Point, Frank reflected, “We could probably reach him with a hand grenade from here.

read more »

Critical Times has come across some excellent local musicians & people in the entertainment industry – here we profile azur : the crooked none. We asked Evan and Pei a few questions. The four members of the band are Evan, 29, Bass/vocals, Rob, 24, Guitar/vocals, Pei, 25, Violin, and Peter, 32, Drums. read more »