DVD Round Up
By: Kevin Filipski |
Wednesday May 23, 2007 |
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From the Nazis to Al Franken-with The Da Vinci Code, Jackson Pollock, movie composers and Diebold voting machines thrown in for good measure-this roundup of current docs on DVD show that no subject is off-limits, however serious or frivolous. |
| In alphabetical order: Al Franken: God Spoke (Docurama) - This look at comedian Al Franken during the 2004 presidential campaign-stumping for Kerry, beginning his radio show on the liberal Air America network, and attending the Republican and Democratic conventions-is as breezy and entertaining as The War Room, the Bill Clinton campaign doc also made by Chris Hegedus (only here she swaps the famed D.A. Pennebaker for her current directing partner, Nick Doob). There are no great insights, but neither are there any dull stretches: Franken's dry wit is ever-present (he gets all the good lines of course), and-except for Kerry's crushing defeat-triumphs over his ideological enemies. It's hagiographic, to be sure, but for the future senatorial candidate from Minnesota, could it have been otherwise? Extras: deleted scenes. Forgiving Dr. Mengele (First Run) - This is the remarkable story of Eva Mozes Kor-one of the very few "Mengele twins" to survive the Nazis' heinous experimentation-and her unpopular public decision to forgive the Nazis. Directors Bob Hercules and Cheri Pugh show her meeting with both former camp guards and other survivors who don't feel that her forgiveness is appropriate-some even disagree vehemently. Whatever your own thoughts, Forgiving Dr. Mengele is an indescribably moving demonstration of human compassion trumping its counterpart, inhuman evil. Extras: interview with co-director Bob Hercules. Hacking Democracy (Docurama) - Still another documentary taking exception to recent election results, Simon Ardizzone and Russell Michaels' Hacking Democracy follows the efforts of non-partisan Bev Harris and others to unmask such voting-machine bigwigs as the infamous Diebold for shabby efforts to secure election results. By showing how easy it is to hack into machine files to change the results, Ardizzone and Michaels' film provides a necessary wake-up call, which-based on the lack of urgency from Congress and the media-will undoubtedly again go unheeded. Extras: deleted scenes, interviews. The Hollywood Sound (Kultur) - Some of our best composers wrote music for Hollywood films from the 1930s to the '50s, the period covered by The Hollywood Sound, hosted by conductor John Mauceri, who also leads the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in excerpts from many fine musical moments alongside clips from Gone with the Wind (composed by Max Steiner), The Adventures of Robin Hood (Erich Korngold), Bride of Frankenstein (Franz Waxman), Laura (David Raskin) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Alfred Newman). The Hollywood Sound proves that they neither make 'em nor compose 'em like they used to. No extras. Secrets of the Code (Sony) - The Da Vinci Code is such a worldwide phenomenon that even documentaries eloquently refuting Dan Brown's cleverly silly fiction-and Ron Howard's horrendous movie version-are being heard from. Secrets of the Code, which enlists Susan Sarandon as narrator, includes interviews with dozens of scholars, biblical and otherwise, who all say that Dan Brown is-get this-wrong. It's monumentally foolish to get upset over Brown's book, but since Code is such a cash cow, even contrarians like Dan Burstein (whose book this doc is based on) want a piece of the action. Alex Vendler's stunning photography-better than Howard's movie-gives Secrets director Jonathan Stack ample opportunities for location shooting far beyond what most doc makers dream of. No extras. Verdict on Auschwitz (First Run) - This monumental 1993 documentary about the 1963-65 trials in Frankfurt of guards and others related to the murdering of thousand of Jews at Auschwitz is divided into three parts: "The Investigation," "The Trial" and "The Verdict." Directors Rolf Bickel and Dietrich Wagner use transcriptions from witnesses, the trial's audio recordings, archival footage and photos, and new interviews with witnesses to create a lasting testament to the brutality of the Nazis and the exacting of revenge for the survivors and the victims' families, however belatedly small. No extras. Who the #### Is Jackson Pollock (New Line) - Teri Horton is a hoot: she lives in a trailer park, has a truck driver's mouth, bought a $5 painting at a thrift shop that may be a genuine multi-million dollar Jackson Pollock painting. Her attempts to authenticate the work in the enclosed art world (which brooks no outsiders, particularly those with trailer-trashy attitudes) are the heart of this funny, lighthearted journey through a world most of us couldn't dream up. Writer-director Harry Moses doesn't have a lot of material, so we keep hearing variations on mantras like "It's genuine" or "It's a fake," but the colorful characters (alongside Horton are Pollock experts, art dealers, private detectives, even scientists, all of whom have an agenda) keep things moving even through arid stretches. No extras. |
