five favorite documentaries
May 28th, 2008 by jeremy
- Lost in LaMancha. The director of two of my favorite movies, Brazil and Twelve Monkeys started to film a retelling of Don Quixote starring Johnny Depp. Shortly after filming began, financing started to fall through, audio was ruined by a NATO airbase, and flash floods destroyed many of the films sets. Then finally the actor playing Don Quixote was hurt and collected an insurance settlement of $15 million, putting the film out of business. The documentary shows how all of this ahppens, and it’s fascinating to see the movie slowy fall apart around the director.
- The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara. This movie by Errol Morris, who directed some of the best documentaries I’ve seen including Mr. Death and Fast, Cheap and Out of Control. He also directed the Apple commercials that featured people talking about switching to Macs in front of a plain white background. This documentary includes interviews and archival footage about McNamaras life and what he did from 1961-1968. He talks about the mistakes he made, and what good and bad he believes came out of his actions during the Vietnam war. The main part of the movie is McNamara discussing the twelve lessons he learned.
- Empathize with your enemy.
- Rationality will not save us.
- There’s something beyond one’s self.
- Maximize efficiency.
- Proportionality should be a guideline in war.
- Get the data.
- Belief and seeing are both often wrong.
- Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning.
- In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.
- Never say never.
- You can’t change human nature.
- Hoop Dreams. This follows two young inner-city kids from Chicago that both want to grow up to be professional basketball players. It shows how their lives change over five years, and what these changes do to their dream of playing basketball. They deal with drugs family problems, school issues and participating in various basketball camps. It’s depressing at times, but always interesting.
- March of the Penguins. This one probably made it on the list because I had such a great time watching it with Sid. It follows penguins in Antartica as they travel across the continent to their nesting area, then make it back to the sea.
- The War Room. It tracks Bill Clinton’s 1992 Presidential campaign, but mostly focuses on James Carville and George Stephanopoulos as the try and get their candidate elected. It’s a great way to to see how a campaign is run and how they have to react to different problems that come up has he is running.
More lists of five here.
I actually just made a list of documentaries I want to see. Hoop Dreams is on it. I forgot about Penguins, I’ll have to add it. (Haven’t seen it.) And I’ll check out these others.
Here’s my list:
1. King of Kong - one of the funniest movies I’ve seen this year. Buy it, you’ll want to keep it, and lend it to people you know.
2. New York Doll - my worlds collide: rock music and the LDS church. Rather trippy.
3. I Have Never Forgotten You - about Simon Wiesenthal. If you can handle holocaust stories, it’s a good one.
4. God Grew Tired of Us - about a few of the Lost Boys of Sudan who come to America. Really interesting. It’s funny to see them learning about modern conveniences. They don’t know what the packet of butter is on the plane, etc.
5. Before the Music Dies - not really in my top 5, but worth watching if you’re a music fan. Made by music fans about the current state of the music industry. Some great funny moments featuring Erykah Badu.
Oh no, your list makes me wish I’d thought about this more. King of Kong was one of my favorite movies of last year, I can’t believe I forgot it! And I really enjoyed New York Doll, it was depressing and fascinating. Every Mormon interested in music (actually, anyone interested in music) should see it. I’ll have to watch your other choices, they sound great.
Ugh, I now need to rethink this post. My real list would probably replace the War Room with King of Kong, and New York Doll would definitely be up in my top ten.