© 2011 Genevieve Long Belmaker. All rights of the content on this site reserved.
Book and Movie Reviews
The Forever War (by Dexter Filkins) masterfully paints a picture of a complex Iraq, full of duality. It is a persistent, underlying dichotomy that Filkins describes as the “two conversations” always taking place.
There are so few moments in the movie where it's possible to relate to Zuckerberg that halfway through you start to feel like you're watching The Elephant Man. It's both painful and fascinating—like watching a train wreck, except that almost everyone in this story ends up extremely wealthy.
Most of the photographs in the book are simple in composition, but very rich and complex in their subject matter.
There are many surprising elements to Junger's book, but one of the greatest is the gritty, tangible way he depicts the soldiers. He captures their eccentricities, strengths, and weaknesses as human beings as no other account of war in Afghanistan has done.
The message that comes through the images isn't a linear communication of the progression of gradual renewed stability and restoration of the character of the city and its people. Instead, what is conveyed is a subtle thread of a people so spirited and unique that even America’s most destructive modern natural disaster could not break them.
Paul McDonough's photograph, titled "Woman With Hat." (Courtesy of Umbrage)
Mario Tama. All rights reserved.
Mario Tama. All rights reserved.
The footage in Fixer is often jarring, both physically and psychologically, but it gets a stark message across: Afghanistan is not the “good war”—something Parenti has no qualms about expressing.
Christian Parenti (Courtesy of Ian Olds/HBO )
