The Bang Bang Club

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Audience Member For a topic that important how can you get the writing and acting so bad. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Audience Member The movie is not the best of the world, but the real story behind these journalists deserves a watch. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review ari s This movie has an above average movie inside of it. Although a pretty cast it's an un convincing Ryan phillippe and Malin Ackermans South African chemistry, accent and dialogue. But surprisingly Taylor kitsch is on point as the affable, likable falling apart photographer of the bunch who starts out with so much optimism and positivity and with each bang bang visit he becomes haunted by what they are doing. Eventually he succumbs to his dreams, loss of friends and that he feels responsible for profiting off taking photos and not helping instead. Overall great subject matter to think about and time in history for how we generated the news. It's a film I probably wouldn't recommend wasting your time on but the subject matter is a conversation starter and there's enough action and kitsch antics to drum out the bad parts. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Kevin Carter's Pulitzer prize winning photograph is one of those images that gets burned into the back of your mind. It haunts you long after you see it. I saw this photo of the young Sudanese girl, about 10 years after it was taken, and it still fills me with sorrow. It makes you wonder what happened to the poor girl. It makes you question how the world can have both a massive obesity epidemic, and massive global starvation at the same time. It isn't something you can easily forget, and it's the type of image photo journalists spend an entire career searching for. In this multi-biography, director Steven Silver tells the story of four friends, all combat photographers in the mid 1990's before the fall of the Apartheid. They tell the story of the Zulu and their tribal warfare all the while photographing the constant death, starvation, and violence that surrounds them, all the while building their camaraderie and forming the Bang Bang Club. It's a very well written film and it brings up many issues. Most notably the hypocrisy of the situation, is that these journalists are living a life of comparative wealth and debauchery in this time of strife, and at the same time trying to make a name for themselves by taking photos focused on the very visceral suffering of others. Where the film really shines is in the background and the violence therein. I was quite impressed with the sheer number of extras for most of the fighting scenes. There are a lot of graphic sequences of course, but it's not the violence that makes the film. It's the exploitation of that violence that makes the film so interesting. There were a couple of issues I had with the movie. For example, 4 white guys with cameras strapped to their bodies standing in the middle of battles while dodging bullets is certainly unbelievable at times. Yelling "PRESS! PRESS!" doesn't keep you safe in a war-zone. The dialogue is believable for the most part, except when they are joking around in the middle of the battle scenes. I did enjoy Taylor Kitsch's torn and dark portrayal of his character Kevin Carter. Ryan Phillippe does well as prize winning photographer Greg Marinovich, but I thought he was perhaps too good looking to be believable. Compare him to the real Greg Marionovich during the end credits and you'll see what I mean. That being said, it's an excellent film and Steven Silver certainly has an eye for very personal story telling. 3/5 Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Audience Member Intense realistic docudrama! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member This feels like a real TV movie in the worst sense. What could be a really interesting subject (the ethics of photojournalism, potential civil war in pre-1994 South Africa) is ignored in favour of the clichéd depiction of the photographer as rock star. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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