MovieChat Forums > Haschisch (2003) Discussion > Somewhat frustrating

Somewhat frustrating

posted 19 years ago by notime4sanity
2 replies | jump to latest

Sadly, a pretty disappointing film. To me it seemed the filmmakers spent too much time sampling the product. Overly long, pointless landscape shots and mindless stoned musings by the locals could have been replaced with a little more hard information. It's unfortunate really because it seems like a good film was right there for the making, but the filmmakers either didn't have the ability or were too high to execute the task at hand. Because it is the only documentary on the subject (at least that I know of), I'd still recommend it to those who have an interest, but be prepared for quite a few moments of tedium.

"I think you're the opposite of paranoid. I think you go around with the insane delusion that people like you."

[–] notime4sanity 19 years ago

"We're no longer called Sonic Death Monkey. We're on the verge of becoming Kathleen Turner Overdrive, but just for tonight, we are Barry Jive and his Uptown Five"

[–] billumberg 12 years ago

Yes, I know I am responding to a seven year old post, but it's the only one, so there it is...

I respectfully disagree. I thought the film did a great job of capturing the pace of agrarian life in the global south, which often is monotonous and slow with little to talk about. The footage was obviously limited to a few days at one homestead, but that sort of small-scale approach worked for me. More hard facts would have just bored me. Anyway, when talking about a transnational underground economy monitored by notoriously corrupt Mediterranean governments, those "facts" also would have ended up being wildly inaccurate.

Also, I don't really see what "sampling the product" has to do with anything. It's not like the camera was bouncing all over the place with poor light settings, etc. It was a minimalist low-budget documentary, to be sure, but I thought it was competently made. Likewise with the locals' "stoned musings"- I took it more as farmers sitting around shooting the *beep* and showing off a bit for the guests.