MovieChat Forums > Bolshoi Babylon (2015) Discussion > Documentaries are never "bad"

Documentaries are never "bad"

posted 8 years ago by tedge-2
4 replies | jump to latest

A documentary is a true story told by someone with a point of view. I have never understood how a documentary could ever be judged a "bad film". There is nothing bad about the truth, and surely every storyteller's version of what's true is interesting and has value.

You don't have to like a documentary. Feel free to despise it for all sorts of personal reasons, but you can't thumbsdown it or 1star it or less-than-six-on-a-scale-of-one-to-ten it. Documentaries are in a special category. Someone has said, "this really happened, and this is my take on it!" You don't get to whine about how it failed to enthrall you. That's YOUR problem, not mine.

I have read some negative reviews of this film. They're all the same: "I would've done this differently"; "That person should've had more/less screen time"; "They should've emphasized/de-emphasized that bit!" It's a docueffingmentary, you idiots! How dare you hold it up to the same standards that you judge a work of fiction?!

You don't have to rate EVERYTHING you see. Sometimes, it's ok to not express your opinion. I submit that anyone who publicly denounces a documentary needs to SHUT THE...uh...front door!

[–] DreamsAgain 8 years ago

I enjoyed this Documentary. It's not every day that we (the viewers) get to peer into the world of ANY of the institutions in Russia, or the former Soviet Union.
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[–] DreamsAgain 8 years ago

PS: By the way, for those who watched it...
Update:
The girlfriend (Angelina) of PAVEL, has left PAVEL now. They are no longer together.
Angelina stood by Pavel's side during the court sessions, but then she left him later on.

And as far as PAVEL goes: His sentence got reduced to 5-1/2 years for good behavior.

Also, Sergei Filin left the Bolshoi Theater around 2013-ish.
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[–] gymdandy 8 years ago

I agree with the critics-all you get is innuendo in the documentary which makes it almost pointless. What was the truth about Fillin's supposed pay-to play atmosphere? Fillin brought up a good point-he never promoted his wife, she's was still in the corps de ballet, so why would he favor other dancers? Plus, many of the dancers state that there is a pathological mistrust of management in Russia and Fillin crossed over from dancer to management and he was hated. He brought in new dancers and the dancers didn't like this. This is done at any ballet company! How many Russian dancers are in the ballet company in your city-passing over American dancers? The Pennsylvania Ballet in Philly has several Russian dancers.

We see Fiilin villified again at the end of the documentary by that creepy new director who says he hates Fiilin simply because he had the gall to leave the last ballet company where they both worked together.

Fillin should come to the US, we have plenty of ballet companies. If he gets out of line, he will be shamed on social media, we don't throw acid in people's faces.

[–] Minstrelo 8 years ago

What in Moloch's name are you talking about, sir?