r_dannelley Bang Bang Club is about as good as dramatic cinema could possible get. This is what cameras were made for. Certainly, we would not want to see the real thing, would we? No, that's why we hire actors, and watch what they do, second hand. The only difference between Bang Bang Club and the standard violent Hollywood trash that so many people enjoy subjecting themselves to, is that the Bang Bang Club is based on a relatively true story. We would think the people would love it! It is just what they want, and people do pay good money for trash art, so then why not real art? Viewers sure can get what they want here. Big Bang Club delivers close and personal cinematic reenactments of graphic, brute violence and bloodshed. Talk about getting your slasher movie kink fetish off! Imagine bullets, banging out of guns at close range, wetly thumping big bloody holes in actor's chests. Puddles of blood! Cruel slashings and human torchings that put Zombie faire to shame, because, all this really happened. We all love cinéma vérité, when it comes to raunchy violence don't we? Kudos to the director and crew for doing a great job of portraying some seriously viscous and direct violence on human beings. Perhaps the thing about this film that made it such a resounding box office flop is that this in-your-face experience has plot too! thus violating the third rule pornography. The fact that this movie brings the dirty, and controversial truth about our world, into our fantasy world, is probably the reason it went no where in the Box Office.

Kevin Lea Davies Kevin Carter's Pulitzer prize winning photograph is one of those images that gets burned into the back of your mind. It haunts you long after you see it. I saw this photo of the young Sudanese girl, about 10 years after it was taken, and it still fills me with sorrow. It makes you wonder what happened to the poor girl. It makes you question how the world can have both a massive obesity epidemic, and massive global starvation at the same time. It isn't something you can easily forget, and it's the type of image photo journalists spend an entire career searching for.In this multi-biography, director Steven Silver tells the story of four friends, all combat photographers in the mid 1990's before the fall of the Apartheid. They tell the story of the Zulu and their tribal warfare all the while photographing the constant death, starvation, and violence that surrounds them, all the while building their camaraderie and forming the Bang Bang Club.It's a very well written film and it brings up many issues. Most notably the hypocrisy of the situation, is that these journalists are living a life of comparative wealth and debauchery in this time of strife, and at the same time trying to make a name for themselves by taking photos focused on the very visceral suffering of others. Where the film really shines is in the background and the violence therein. I was quite impressed with the sheer number of extras for most of the fighting scenes. There are a lot of graphic sequences of course, but it's not the violence that makes the film. It's the exploitation of that violence that makes the film so interesting.There were a couple of issues I had with the movie. For example, 4 white guys with cameras strapped to their bodies standing in the middle of battles while dodging bullets is certainly unbelievable at times. Yelling "PRESS! PRESS!" doesn't keep you safe in a war-zone. The dialogue is believable for the most part, except when they are joking around in the middle of the battle scenes. I did enjoy Taylor Kitsch's torn and dark portrayal of his character Kevin Carter. Ryan Phillippe does well as prize winning photographer Greg Marinovich, but I thought he was perhaps too good looking to be believable. Compare him to the real Greg Marionovich during the end credits and you'll see what I mean.That being said, it's an excellent film and Steven Silver certainly has an eye for very personal story telling.7/10

juneebuggy This was a pretty good movie that should have been great. Somehow though it just missed capturing the real spirit of the combat photographers, so that I was left feeling kind of meh about the whole experience. Its been based on the true story of four photojournalists who put their lives on the line to capture the fall of apartheid in the late 1990's.I think the true character of the men just got overshadowed here by the horrors they were shooting and some random, thrown in love scenes. Ryan Phillippe's accent left something to be desired too. The cinematography is amazing though, violent and vibrant and really made me wonder how they got some of the shots they did. Carter's (Taylor Kitsch) photo of the vulture and the starving child ...Wow! That's not something I'm going to forget anytime soon. 07.13

knitpicker2k Just a Grandmother in the suburbs, but so glad I found this excellent movie offered free by my cable company. From what some of the other reviewers have said, it would be well worth my time to get the DVD (and a new TV)for some details I missed and the extras on the DVD. I'll be looking up the book too.And the music is awesome.I do agree the sex/romance content detracted somewhat from the credibility of the film: 2 of the women did not appear to have any other life or function than fawning over their men. But isn't that always the way?