The Rauch Brothers made this animation that follows a story told by 86-year-old World War II veteran Joseph Robertson who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. It concerns his memory of killing a single German soldier.
Tag Archives: war
Yellow Cake: Animation About Cause, Effect and 9/11
Nick Cross has made an animation seems to be mainly about 9/11. I’ve read quite a bit of nonsense around the web about this cartoon. Animation blogs that should know better do their best to avoid the brutal politics of the film even though those politics are its entire reason for existing. In fact, I find that most of the animation world on the web is shockingly conservative, embarrassingly non-diverse, and mind-numbingly infatuated with Walt Disney. In this creepy little film the fat cats need the little cakes that the bakers make in their village. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what kind of tiny animal the bakers are supposed to be. Little featherless tweety-birds maybe. Anyway, the fat cats take all the cakes under threat of annihilation and sell them in their city. When the bakers can’t stand the slavery anymore they blow up a house full of fat cats. Then the fat cats become extremely security-conscious and attack the bakers with bombs and slaughter them all. The end.
That’s my description of the film.
I like people who are nasty and drive their anger through their work. This film is off-balance and awkward. It’s unpleasant and crude. Why are the titles off-center? I do respect its attitude and its simple perspective on the reality behind the events of 9/11, but nevertheless it annoys me. Why do animators persist in trying to reproduce the quality of animation from the 1930s? I’d prefer less cute flip-floppiness from the animator. Give me the politics. Leave out the throat lozenge.
Horror Movie: The Road to Moloch
Here’s a horror movie about some U.S. soldiers in Iraq who face an ancient evil in a cave.
This is very mature subject matter with extreme violence and mature language. Not for young viewers.
This is not a very good film. That’s why I posted it. The filmmaking interests me because of its complete lack of vision. It tries to replicate to perfection other films that the director has seen. The director wants to be a professional and get hired somewhere. It shows in his work. Sorry, sir, but you put it out there and I’m calling it like I see it. The problem here is that the film is not frightening. It’s slick and well-shot, like television or feature films, but it spends all its energy that way. You don’t scare people by being professional. You don’t scare them by being violent. You scare them by showing them that you – director – are a little bit off.
That’s how you scare an audience. Not with professionalism. Try again and make it real this time.
U.S. Defense Secretary Doesn’t Understand Free Press
Yesterday, an Associated Press photograph by Julie Jacobson of a mortally wounded U.S. marine sparked intense controversy when the picture was released for printing in newspapers. U.S. Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, attacked the decision by Associated Press as an “unconscionable departure” from the restraint that most journalists have shown in covering the military since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. He went on to say in a letter to Associated Press:
Why your organization would purposely defy the family’s wishes knowing full well that it will lead to yet more anguish is beyond me. Your lack of compassion and common sense in choosing to put this image of their maimed and stricken child on the front page of multiple newspapers is appalling.
This public official clearly does not understand the function of a free press. He is a holdover from the Bush administration which was the most repressive in the history of the United States, going so far as to prevent any photographs of the caskets of our war dead. Journalists have been ’embedded’ with U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001. Most of their photos stay well clear of the true nature of war. In fact, the majority of the journalism practiced in the theater of war since 2001 has been pathetically weak, looking as if it were all passed through some secretive military approval process before being published. Most of what passes for journalism really looks like nothing more than a military recruiting program. We see pictures of soldiers walking around, eating, firing howitzers, driving Humvees, or firing their weapons over a wall. We see very little of what war actually is. It is dead people. It is people blown apart. Bleeding. Screaming. Burning. Dead soldiers. Dead civilians. Dead children.
Secretary Gates has no business attacking journalists for doing their jobs correctly. The subject of war is death. A photographer who takes pictures of soldiers walking around or shooting or eating in the mess hall is not taking pictures of war. War is death. You can only photograph war by photographing the dead, dying and injured. No other photographs count.
The soldiers are very brave and do an incredible job. But they are employees of the federal government and work for the people of the United States. We have a right to see photographs of the true nature of our soldiers’ work. We have the right to see our soldiers when they are alive and when they are dying. It is truth. It is reality. Photojournalists are there to capture reality. Not what we wish would happen. Not what we imagine happens. They are there to photograph what really happens.
Why does Secretary Gates not object to photographs of dead enemy soldiers? Why doesn’t he object to photos of injured earthquake victims? For some reason, photographs of dead or dying U.S. soldiers are off-limits. Why would the primary outcome of war be off-limits to a free society that owes a great deal of its freedom and strength to a free press?
Associated Press did the right thing. They did what journalists do. They reported what they saw.
