Scathing Review For Julian Schnabel's 'Miral'
A review from the BFI's London Film Festival.
Live From The Asylum's Review:
http://livefromtheasylum.blogspot.com/2010/10/bfi-london-film-festival -miral.html
From that review:
... and Miral falls short.Doesn't seem particularly scathing to me. The reviewer found fault with it, true.
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probably cos it portrays israel in a negative light , just a humble opinion on how the reviewer saw it.
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That Defamation doc is indeed very interesting and was a real eye opener for me, I just could not believe that they brainwash children like this in Israel, it was scary.
To back up the claim of all this new found anti semitism they listed some cases at the ADL headquarters and it was just people complaining about how they could not get time off from work to celebrate their holidays and whatnot.
Here's a good documentary for you.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2533702461706761547#
It's called "Relentless".
"Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression... is our lives!" - Tyler Durden.
I just watched 40 minutes of this 60min doc and that was not time well spent. What was the purpose of this doc? To spread more hate and division? Haha, this was incredible.
I can just imagine how someone with ties to the region would react to this propaganda when a white male from Sweden like myself with no connection to the middle east whatsoever quite honestly got angry about the obfuscation and distortion of facts.
I have seen quite some one sided docs in my time but this one I could not even finish, it's like it was made by the clan.
According to the doc the arabs didn't want the jews there for no reason other than hate so they started a terror campaign that's lasted to this day and that's all there is.
Really?!
Nowhere did they mention Israeli terrorism before or after the 1948 "state" creation.
No let's not talk about Irgun and the Stern gang or any of the false flag terror Israel has inflicted, shown for example in the Lavon affair, or how Israel funded Hamas or all of the assassinations all over the world. No none of that's important, what's important is for everyone to know that the Palestinians hate jews and that's why there's a conflict.
I'm sorry man but if you think that that doc tells the whole truth then I recommend you start doing some reading my friend but if you're here to spread anger and hate, well, then I'm just sad for you and I hope you will find peace some day.
I agree wholeheartedly! This Relentless had me yelling at the screen by 15 minutes in. The bible is NOT a land deed, it is a belief system that has been the root of countless wars over interpretation of the details. Ancestral homeland...I believe that the Sioux would like to take back the Dakotas, or the Lenape Manhattan...but I'm sure that the people living there now would react about like the Arab world did. The state of Israel was created by powers in the US and Britain because they did not want hundreds of thousands of traumatized Europeans Jews moving into their own countries after WWII. (Truman papers 1948) The Palestinians and most of the Middle East was PROMISED autonomy over the region for their participation on the side of the Allies in WWI. And then with this Balfour paper, they completely reneged. There was complete peaceful co-existance until thousands upon thousands of European Jews started pouring into the territory pushing the native residents out. They have kept them captive reservation style ever since ripping away their ability for self sufficiency (see American Indian reservations from 1890 to 1970s)...Oh but the Jews are willing give back some of "their" land to the Palestinians (that's when I started yelling)...with few exceptions they will give up the un-arable, undesirable, without access to water bits of land, non contiguous, surrounded by high walls (see reservations) -- and if you try to do any home improvements or repairs to your house in East Jerusalem, they will tear it down and build condos for Israelis. Partner for Peace indeed. Without the financial and weapon assistance of the US, Israel would not have won the 6 day war. This documentary "relentless" is completely one sided...only shows the "good" things the Israelis put forth, none of the humiliation and viciousness toward the people who lived on this land for thousands of years. Both sides have bad actors for sure. But I think once Israel starts treating the Palestinians like THEY have a right to exist there with basic equal civil rights, and stop building barracaded settlements into the tiny sliver of land that they claim will be Palestinian someday, and of course SHARE the capital of Jerusalem between the THREE faiths that call it home, then peaceful co-existance may just have a chance.
I saw Miral yesterday, and found it to be fair-and relatively un-political, although it does show how some can become radicalized. For the most part I found it touching, and the work of Hind Husseini to be incredible. The woman was a saint.
I just could not believe that they brainwash children like this in Israel, it was scary.
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I have brought up three children in Israel and have four grandchildren as well. Please believe me - children are not brainwashed in Israel but they are brainwashed in Palestinian schools. You should remember that over 20% of our population are Arabs - Christian, Muslim, Druze, Bedouin - and they enjoy the same freedoms as the other 80%. We have Arab judges in the Israeli Supreme Court, many lower judges, Arab citizens can be found working and prospering in every aspect of our country (hospitals, education, social work, IT, the Arts etc). At long last the government is investing larger budgets in Arab state schools and two of these schools were in the top 10 schools of the whole country in 2010. More and more Arabs are volunteering for communal work (instead of the military) which allows them to apply for special scholarships for university places. Of course there are Muslim Arabs who also serve in the Israeli army but most prefer to do civilian work. Over 20% of Israeli students in the universities are Arabs. Nothing is perfect and much remains to be done in order to obtain equality for every citizen.
Mr. Schnabel and Ms. Jubreal have every right to make a film which is pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli. However to present it as being "a cry for co-existence" whilst ignoring historical contexts and events which took place is ridiculous. Yes, there has been violence against Palestinians but what about the Palestinian violence against Israelis. After the interim agreement was signed in 1994, the extremists instigated suicide bombings against civilian targets within our major cities. Apparently this is not mentioned in the film. Palestinians are treated badly but there is no reference to the fact that this was often the result of the fact that hundreds of Israelis (Muslims, Christians and Jews) were butchered in explosions. I lost a young neighbour at that time - blown up whilst shopping with her two girlfriends. She was the same age as one of my children and would be 38 now.
And how exactly can we reach co-existence when the two main Palestinian political parties (the ruling PLO in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza) do not only NOT speak to each other, but carry out murders and violence against each others members. The members of the West Bank government are considered traitors because they work together with Israel on many projects and there is cooperation in many fields like agriculture etc. President Abbas of the Palestinian West Bank has been told that he cannot visit Gaza because they cannot guarantee his safety!
And yet people call the Israeli Jews paranoid and don't understand why they are afraid!
His comments were in reference to the film "Defamation" - I would watch the film first before responding to him if I were you. No one's experiences are the same in life, but his comments are based upon what he saw in the film one which I highly recommend for all Jews, myself included - it might not be what you think it is.
RE: the film being pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli: have you seen the film? It's not a documentary - it's based on a true story sure, but it's not a doc. It's protaganist(s) are Arabs and it shows snippets of their lives. It does not tell the whole story, but it's not an article in a newspaper, nor a documentary. How often do we see the side of both the victims and the serial killers in horror films? It's a film, not a documentary.
It has a message, sure, but so did Munich.
""" You should remember that over 20% of our population are Arabs - Christian, Muslim, Druze, Bedouin - and they enjoy the same freedoms as the other 80% """
LMAO, now that is funny
Also please stop spreading lies. We all know that Palestinian schools get 1/3 of the funding that the jewish schools get.
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If you read the review, you can see that the negativity has nothing to do with the film's political view point toward Israel. In fact the reviewer actually refers to a place called "Palestine" throughout the review, which demonstrates that he is actually sympathetic towards the Arabs. Someone with sympathies leaning more towards the Israelies would never refer to the "disputed territories" in that manner.
The reviewer is quite specific about each of the reasons why he pans this film--the editing, the use of the actors, the piecemeal plot of trying to cover 47 years in 100 minutes, the cheesy music, the gratuitous appearances of two white big name actors, etc.
It's never "just a film."