Saturday, August 21, 2010
OPPORTUNITY LOSS
Today's film was
This documentary is riveting.
The main guy is Fidelis Cloer who sells armored vehicles.
He has to go where there is war and trouble.
The first "half" of the film is devoted to Iraq and the footage is fascinating in a scary way.
Cloer arrives in the early days when security is not an issue. And then it is.
This is all shot from his car, as he is stopped, as he begins to see how to contact customers.
I have never seen such extended "peaceful" Iraq scenes.
Then they show how it goes to hell.
Interspersed over the 7-8 years the doc makers followed Cloer, we see the research on building better vehicles and how it is done. Cloer's product is top of the line.
There is a lot of attention devoted to the security issue per se. How people fuck up despite the quality of their protection.
The doc people stay out of the way. Cloer tells his own story. There are no moral issues. He is a profiteer and gladly so but he is also in a competitive business and it is one of those things that someone has to do so it might as well be him. And he is devoted to the quality of what he does.
I loved the use of "flags" as in the image above to make points and tell us where we are. Not conventional. Very nicely done.
A fascinating guy.
Also, if you like big bangs, like most boys, there are plenty in this film.
I liked this a lot and would gladly see it again. It is only 70 minutes long. Easy. Enjoyable.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
