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Film & TV on DVD - John Doe News & Reviews

Greetings Film Fiends and welcome to John Doe's Film Blog. 30 years of dedicated celluloid obsession has meant that I have seen a few films. Drawing attention to some of the lesser discussed gems that I love. Cult classics, obscure curios and quality genre pictures. This blogs purpose is to translate some of my passion for these films and with luck, inspire you the reader to go check em out.

Documentaries - Film & TV on DVD

The White Planet - A FilmInk Review

September 10th 2007 00:00

The White Planet (Le Planete Blanche)

John Doe freelancers for the Australian movie magazine Filmink and this review appears in the latest issue and has just been published online at filmink.com.au. Hope you enjoy it.

Original French Poster

Rating: G
Time: 86 Minutes
Country: France
Director: Jean Lemire, Thierry Piantanida and Thierry Ragobert
Cast: Jean-Louise Etienne
Distributor: Madman Cinema
Worth: $8.00
Released: September 6th

In this era of increasing environmental awareness many documentaries like An Inconvenient Truth and A Crude Awakening make there point with cold facts and frightening statistical probabilities.

The White Planet is a new documentary about the eco-cycle of the Arctic Circle which instead opts to make its plea for help through intimate images of the native wildlife and splendid landscapes of ice and snow.

In a traditional Attenborough style we track migrations, feeding habits and the rituals taken by individual species in order to survive in the harsh and unforgiving terrain.

The stars of the show are the Polar bears whose habitat is dwindling at a startling rate. Astounding footage of a mother nursing her new born cubs while sheltered beneath the ice is a highlight.

The daring camera work also captures up close and personal shots that observe the other land dwellers including massive herds of Elk on the move, lone Wolves hunting and Buffalo vying for dominance.

Unique footage of the elusive creatures existing in the freezing oceans beneath the glaciers conjures a sense of wonder. Walrus, seals and whales frolic in a sea littered with a myriad of glowing, abnormally shaped companions and food sources.

The cinematography is of a typically high standard for this type of venture, the pictures communicate the majority of the information. The narration providing the just enough detail to compliment what we are witnessing onscreen.

Documentaries like this are an essential window into the geographically isolated and desolate parts of Earth that few of us will ever see first hand. Refreshing in its lack of agenda, The White Planet highlights the importance of preserving this critical component of our world.

A clip from the film The White Planet

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This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006)- Trailer Included

March 6th 2007 00:00

This Film Is Not Yet Rated

Have not found and Australian release date for this, but it is available on DVD from the U.S.A.

US DVD Cover-Unreleased in Australia

Director: Kirby Dick
Starring: Jack Valenti, Allison Anders, Darren Aronofsky, Atom Egoyan, John Waters, Kevin Smith, Matt Stone, Maria Bello, Will H Hays
Genre: Documentary

“I don't care if you call it AO for Adults Only, or Chopped Liver or Father Goose. Your movie will still have the stigma of being in a category that's going to be inhabited by the very worst of pictures” – Jack Valenti

Did you know that the members names on the US MPAA censorship board are secret? Me neither. Supposedly to protect them from outside influences and pressure, yet they meet with studio heads and marketing departments as part of their job description.

Award winning Documentary filmmaker Kirby Dick (Twist, Derrida) turns his sites on exposing the names of those who inflict their own morality on the cinema world and control what we see.

Hiring a private investigator to track em down, this informative and hilarious documentary illustrates the flawed system and exposes the hypocritical morality that governs it.

For 38 years one man, Jack Valenti was head of the Motion Picture Association of America. In that time he and his lackeys have taken it upon themselves to judge what is unsuitable for the obviously immature and fragile masses. (Read censorship boards opinion of the viewing public)

Rating films according to content, movies that receive a G, PG and R Rating can get mass distribution, TV advertising and all the other hoopla that goes with. The dreaded NC-17 classification dooms challenging cinema to limited release, zero exposure and even less studio attention than the latest release from Pauly Shore. Meanwhile, the MPAA maintains that ratings have no effect on box office or exposure.

The basic guidelines they follow are completely backwards. Fantasy violence without any repercussions or blood is suitable for children (Eg Pierce Brosnan James Bonds). While films that show the seriousness and ugliness of hurting others is deemed adult content. Death without consequence get a PG rating while realistic, heartfelt depictions of violence that essentially shows it as a bad thing, get hit with an R or NC 17. (Depending how much money the producers have invested in the film)

There is nothing more offensive than pleasurable sex in the board’s eyes. Even though for thousands of years children saw their parents mating in tribes and knew it was just part of natural life like eating or sleeping. Instead, adopting a puritanical view stigmatises it into something forbidden, mysterious and enticing, to be hidden away and not discussed.

Revelling in its subject This Film is Not Yet Rated is interested in educating about the state of the industry. The nepotism and rampant nihilism of having the same people who own the Picture studios also monopolize 90% of all mass media including newspapers and TV. It’s about controlling the flow of information, conglomerates too powerful to bring down because of the governments reliance on their product for brainwashing the average schmoe.

And that’s what it comes down to, brainwashing. War is heroic, patriotic and a male bonding experience (See Top Gun PG) and objectifying woman and men is all sex is about (See Coyote Ugly PG).

A Brief History of Censorship

Before the 1930’s in the US there was an idyllic time where filmmakers did not have to worry about censorship, or opening numbers. Violence and sexuality were used to tell a story and not judged out of context.

Then the release of the controversial family film Tarzan and his Mate (1934) featuring a butt naked Jane frolicking with the Lord of the apes and the barbaric murder of natives. So confrontational at the time it is often credited as the straw that broke the camels, or is that the chimps back.

Enter Will H Hays, instigator of the now notorious Hayes Code of conduct for film. Plaguing the golden age of cinema, the strict code was ignorant to sexuality (Eg: Elia Kazan’s Streetcar named Desire) and opposed to violence that hurt.

Operating with blinders to the real world, this was an effort to keep movies as purely escapist entertainment with no bearing on the real world or the murderous wars that were happening at the time.

For a brief period in the late 1960’s and early 70’s cinema was freed by the sexual revolution and the Directors control over the industry. Then, the return of the dark ages with the system that runs still to this day.

John Doe says:
Self serving, close minded, corporate fed fascists take it upon themselves to dictate what gets seen by the public, it’s wrong. How dare one small, anonymous group decide that parents aren’t responsible for how children act and instead make it the medias job. But they do maintain they are unbiased and impartial.

This Film is Not Yet Rated is about naming names, putting a face to the mysterious few that protect us from the evils of voyeurism.

The investigative filmmakers get great joy out of not just observing the situation but putting themselves right in the maelstrom by submitting their film for approval. We get to go through the process and learn there is nothing more threatening and damaging to the general public than real life.

The Jack Valenti method seems to be: create a cartoon bubble for children and force adults to live in it. The truth or alternate perspectives to the mainstream are often restricted, documentaries on the Iraq war are rated R, while the bullshit, flag waving rewrites of history like Pearl Harbour are PG.

Now to be objective for a moment, ratings can come in handy if they are actually designed to help, rather than promote ignorance. The way it works is the less understanding and life experience you have, the more suitable you are to glamorized violence and airbrushed, idealised sex, retarding the culture. Making killing look easy and fun, without any strings is for your kids, while non superficial fucking and genuine loving are intolerable. (My only use of the F word this review which deems it a PG)

Can you tell this riled up JD’s sense of civil outrage?

The doco offers more than just laughs at the warped logic of a destructive nation that is sexually repressed, over run with meaningless killing and a green god called money.

The US DVD
Transfer: Widescreen/Dolby Digital 2.0
Extras: Commentary, Filmmaker Q&A plus Deleted Scenes and trailer.

Check out the trailer here

Below you can giggle at the ratings definitions for each classification in the US. (G,PG,R, NC-17)

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Posted By: JohnDoe - Category: Documentaries

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Fuck (2005) – Documentary Trailer Included

February 19th 2007 08:34

MATURE CONTENT

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Cocaine Cowboys (2006) - Trailer included

February 15th 2007 11:08

Cocaine Cowboys
Unreleased in Australian cinemas yet, this one has already come out on DVD in the USA. You can order it from Amazon.com

[ Click here to read more ]

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Posted By: JohnDoe - Category: Documentaries

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