wired

In between my Munich postings, which have been precise and exacting but have struck some as obsessive, I’ve been suppressing a fear that I may sound like (and may be perceived as) George Grizzard‘s Senator Fred Van Ackerman character in Otto Preminger’s Advise and Consent (1962). If that were so I think I’d need to jump off a bridge as an act of atonement.

New York Times critic Manohla Dargis has explained better than anyone else why Brokeback Mountain and Heath Ledger’s hurtin’ cowboy are connecting all over: “It’s partly because [Ledger’s] character in Ang Lee’s romantic tragedy, Ennis Del Mar, represents a kind of impacted masculinity that a lot of us recognize: I don’t know a single straight woman who hasn’t been involved with a man as emotionally thwarted as Ennis, the man who can’t tell you how he feels because he may not honestly know. And because the film is, in many respects, about how difficult it is to live in a culture that punishes men who give the appearance of being too soft, too weak and too feminine, I imagine that a lot of men, gay and straight, recognize Ennis, too.”

Here’s a Reuters story by Dan Williams detailing a list of complaints made about Munich “by those with direct knowledge of the Israeli reprisal campaign.” Their beefs? Golda Meir wasn’t involved in the recruting of the team, the “hits” were more professionally coordinated and executed than depicted in the film, and nobody was on that much of a guilt trip. “Look, we all did mandatory military service, we all had combat experience, and we all accepted the necessity of hitting out at our enemies [because] Israel is a country at war,” says a former Israeli special forces officer who took part in a Mossad assassination in the 1980s. “So you go, you do the job, and you hope you’ll be back in time to eat breakfast with your kids and take them to school.”

King Kong nudged ahead of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on Friday, $8.4 million to $8.2 million. And yet on Wednesday Narnia was slightly ahead, $5 million to Kong‘s $4.9 million. Are we talking further monkey shortfalls or is Narnia merely deriving a holiday boost from out-of-school kids? Kong was “a gentle giant” and “strong but disappointing” after the first five days, but more vigorous earnings were expected to kick in once the holiday vacation commenced.

By what circuitous aesthetic strategy is Slate‘s David Edelstein’s claiming that Munich “is the most potent, the most vital, the best movie of the year“? It’s not that I disagree as much as Edelstein has made a decision to climb out to the tip of the the mainmast for the sake of climbing out to the tip of the mainmast. And yet there’s a graph halfway through his review that’s quite persuasive: “Is Munich an apology for Palestinian terrorists — for men and women who barbarously murder civilians? I don’t consider a movie that assigns motives more complicated than pure evil to constitute an apology. The Israeli government and many conservative and pro-Israeli commentators have lambasted the film for naivete, for implying that governments should never retaliate. But an expression of uncertainty and disgust is not the same as one of outright denunciation. What Munich does say — and what I find irrefutable — is that this shortsighted tit-for-tat can produce a kind of insanity, both individual and collective.” Right, right…but there’s still the way the second half of this self-important, heavy-handed thing is paced and over-states and makes you check your glow-in-the-dark watch every 15 or 20 minutes. Face it…that’s the nub of it.

MSNBC critic-commentator Erik Lundegaard is on the Kevin- Costner-is-back train…yes!…following my similar riff about eight or nine days ago. “Costner’s best work has an element of the rascal in it,” Lundegaard concludes. “[And] his roles this year — Denny Davies in The Upside of Anger and Beau Burroughs in Rumor Has It… — help underscore the point. In both he plays nice guy/rascals comfortably surrounded by women; in both he plays his age. But in the end Beau is a little dull because he’s too much nice guy and not enough rascal, while Denny is classic Costner: the not-smart man who wins smarter women through patience, persistence and frumpy charm.” I put it roughly the same way: “There’s no middle-aged actor around these days who seems quite as settled into himself…Costner is Mr. Anglo- Dangle Bojangles…the laid-back guy in loose shoes who can charm without trying but just as easily let the whole thing go if the vibe’s not right.” Lundegaard says “we need to see more of this. We need the Razzies to lay off already. Costner was never as great as people believed in 1990 nor as bad as people believed in 1997. But he’s always been good.”

Terrence Malick’s The New World (New Line, 12.25) is almost in theatres but enveloped in a deafening silence. I mean, except for the put-down quotes in the Rotten Tomatoes selection of reviews. Salon‘s Stephanie Zacaharek says Malick “may not care much for people, but he never met a tree he didn’t like.” (Somebody previously said this when The Thin Red Line came out, only they used “leaf” instead of “tree.”) She calls it “so much atmospheric tootle…his idea of using actors in a movie is straight out of ‘Where’s Waldo?'” The L.A. Weekly‘s Scott Foundas calls it “suffocating…a movie less interested in expanding the boundaries of narrative cinema than in forsaking them.” The hands-down funniest blurb is from Mike Clark’s USA Today review: “That sound you’re about to hear is the cracking of spines as Terrence Malick enthusiasts like me bend over backward trying to cut The New World a break.” Second prize goes to e-Film Critic’s Eric Childress: “Between the Smith-wanna-poke-a-hontas relationship, the seditious behavior back in Jamestown and the fear of the naturals that their kindness may be turned against them, a story as vast of The New World should serve as more than just a footnote in American history and a stain on the art of storytelling for all eternity.” And yet draggy-final-third and all, it’s still worth seeing…as I tried to explain in my own review: “[During] those first two thirds, The New World is a truly rare animal and movie like no other…a feast of intuitive wow-level naturalism that feels as fresh and vitally alive as newly-sprouted flora.”

Manohla Dargis’s New York Times review of The New World is probably the most sponge-like and respectful. She tries to fully absorb and relate what this generally fascinating (though finally unsatisfying) film does to you…not just its intentions and accom- plishments, but the dewy organic atmosphere of it. As well as pay oblique tribute to the legend of its shadowed, hidden-from-plain- sight creator, Terrence Malick. It’s a funny review because although she says admiring things about it, you’re not convinced she’s 100% on the boat. And yet she’s tried harder than most to really convey what this World feels, tastes and smells like…and what it all seems to mean.

Opening day and Munich‘s creme de la creme Rotten Tomatoes rating is still in the 50s….58%, to be exact. Which means that among the big guns it’s pretty much a split vote. Does this mean the Academy will respond more or less the same way? Wait a minute…why am I even asking this question? The current p.c. attitude is “poor Munich“…prematurely bashed, unfairly tarnished, etc., so why can’t I just get with the program? I really do agree with this view. Forget the big guns…forget all that crap. Just see it and don’t let that third-act sex scene mixed with a Munich-airport-massacre flashback influence you unduly… awww, there I go again.

Here’s a very thorough point-by-point piece by USA Today‘s Scott Bowles on Oscar likelies, tendency tips and possible wind-shif- tings…but I don’t know. Too much in the way of intelligent rational assessment has a way of sapping passion and draining color. Does Bowles loathe or cherish anyone or anything in this year’s race? Let’s hear a little of that “kill the umpire!” Bleacher Bum spirit. USA Today reporters can’t express their personal passions directly, of course, but the way for any reporter to get around this is to find smart-ass sources who echo his/her own views. Sorry, Scott….you’re a good hombre and and you quoted me and all…I haven’t had my coffee yet.

Reader/listener alert: I don’t think I can manage a fresh “Elsewhere Live” broadcast today. Tech problems, no speaker phone, continuing transit strike, stranded in Brooklyn, etc. It’s insane. I was going to talk about this and that but mainly run my interview with the great Werner Herzog so here it is. I’ll put up the MP3 file as a stand-alone link in Elsewhere Live either late tonight or tomorrow morning. (I may also run a portion of the q & a in transcript form.) Herzog’s Grizzly Man comes out on DVD on 12.26 via Lion’s Gate, and he has a live-action feature called Rescue Dawn, a non-Vietnam War jungle survivalist drama set in Laos in 1965, coming out in March ’06 (according to the IMDB). Partly inspired, suggested or at the very least echoed or hinted at by Herzog’s 1997 doc Little Dieter Needs to Fly, the film costars Christian Bale, Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies.

I believe what I believe about Munich‘s worthiness as a Best Picture contender, but I’m at least flexible enough to realize that the “poor Munich” thing has kicked in, and I’m adaptable enough to go with it. It has been beaten up by right-wing political types, and does deserve sympathy and understanding in the wake of this.