Wonderful Film!




A documentary like none I've ever seen...this film a must-see for lovers of cinema.

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it looks awesome

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Wow, I was just there again this past weekend. We went to Salvation Mountain, the Tanks, Slab City and then Bombay Beach.
The place is fascinating, the film looks fascinating too.

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Actually...during the Q&A at the screening I attended, the director said that the movie so moved and touched a husband & wife (with some cash to spare) that they have decided to "sponsor" Benny by sending him to the best doctors, who immediately cut his medication regiment down to almost nothing. Supposedly he is doing much better now.

That you describe the movie as "pointless" probably just means you missed the point.

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Uh...no?

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I guess that Blues Doctor and his incredible lack of sensitivity, combined with the fact that few people have seen this film, has contributed to the unbelievable low rating on IMDB. I watched this movie with my mouth wide open, hardly daring to draw a breath. A transcendental documentary that I would place ion my top ten movies of all time. It really is that good.

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I wouldn't go as far to say transcendental.. it's a cool film especially if you like music videos. parts of it were choreographed which takes the realism away from the true character's hardships in the desert - but I still really enjoyed it.

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I thought that the choreography heightened the realism.

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Well, that's not realism, it's quite the opposite actually. Realism would be Benny looking tired and lonely after taking a handful of medication.

The choreography may add to your imagination and add to what you'd like to think the children are imagining..

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Or what the director would like us to think. In any documentary, events are selected by the director and presented in such a way as to elicit a certain response from us. Sometimes a fiction can give us a deeper insight into humanity than any fly-on-the-wall documentary. Personally, I loved the way that the participants were thanked in the credits and were presented as players in their own movie.

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I agree that fiction can give us a clearer insight into human hardships, especially if it's either difficult to film the actual hardship, or the subject matter isn't very good in front of the camera. For example, in the case of the documentary Dreams of a Life - a fantastic film - they produced it as a docu-drama as the main subject had died. It worked very well and even though the script was under the discretion of the director, you assumed it all to be true and it made it easy for the viewer to build up a picture of the subject.

But it doesn't work every time. I think it's a little bit different in Bombay Beach in that the subjects are being choreographed by the director to play out her vision of events, not what has happened to them or will happen in the future. It doesn't allow us to get to know the real characters any better or understand their real hardships. Of course it is great for them to experience being in a movie and I am glad they were thanked in the credits, it wouldn't be right not to thank them.

I don't think it was wrong for the director to choose this style, every film should be told in the way the director wants to but you have to be conscientious of the fact that what you are seeing isn't reality and could even be the complete opposite of how the subjects were actually feeling themselves.

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You're right.
Though I did like the film, I feel at the same time cheated. Yes callous and so staged.

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callously disregards real human suffering and destitution


it does anything but. what you wanted, apparently, is some hard hitting 60 minutes piece. well phoque off and go make THAT documentary yourself

The poor 6 year-old boy, Benny, is overmedicated and bereft of adequate medical care. His future is sealed: he will end up in jail or a mental institution, his life-span cut short.


wow, you must have a phd in sociology or something cause NO ONE watching this caught that AT ALL. moron.

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Very little substance. Great cinematography but that's about it. I don't watch documentries for that kind of stuff though. I want a sense of realness or authenticity. I didn't feel I was getting that here.

I'm nitpicking here but there was one part that during a visit with the old man very early in the film where they play a Bob Dylan song that sounds country instead of just playing a real country song. For some weird reason I didn't like that. How do I put this. it made me feel the director was out of touch. That part clearly calls for an old country and western song and she chooses Dylan like some out of touch big city art film student. The whole soundtrack felt out of touch if I'm being honest.

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Very little substance. Great cinematography but that's about it.

I have to disagree. There was substance, though very tragic. Bombay Beach captured the bleak and downtrodden existence of the area.

I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

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My problem with it was that it took the position of being an observatory rather than a commentary. It was about showing us what was happeneing, and allowing us to draw our own conclusions about the people and the situations they are in, all of which is fine excpet that the choreographed/staged segments completely cut the legs of that approach.

It chose not - on the whole - to give us a lead into what to feel for who, where our sympathies should lie etc. through the way it depicts that actual events, and I respect that, but it seemed then to be attemtping to manipulate us with this other approach which is dischordant with the overall tone of the film, and that jarred. I didn't like the feeling that I was being somehow mislead about the 'realities' that it was ostensibly giving us.

Well filmed, although rather dark at times when it didn't need to be. But a bit confused about what it wanted to be, or maybe unable to do what it wanted consistently.

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Yes it's a fantastic documentary, so unique and special! These wonderful people need help and I would love to volunteer to help them with just about anything straight away cause it's not like the US Government or the state of California would do *beep* to help these people. Does anyone know how or where one can get in contact with them?

Many americans hates these kinds of documentaries of course cause it shows that USA is just like a third world country in so many ways just like for example Winters Bone did. If you're not rich or well educated your totally *beep* in that country. They will treat you like crap and don't care the slightest bit who you are or where you come from but of course if you're non-White things will be ten times harder in the most racist country in the world.

It's just me, myself and as low taxes as possible in that country. They're too stupid to understand that if you pay zero in taxes you have to pay for Everything yourself and if you have nothing you have to choose what to pay for, either food or medication or school or booze and crack.

Amazing, absolutely brilliant music by the geniuses of Beirut aswell!!!

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