Adam Curtis’ “Bitter Lake”: A Review
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Adam Curtis’ “Bitter Lake”: A Review
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Re: Adam Curtis’ “Bitter Lake”: A Review
#2> Curtis draws a conclusion without a narrative trajectory; he leaves multifarious discordant happenings to interplay...
I think Curtis does this on purpose. Whenever I watch a Curtis doco, I feel I'm being told a compelling story. However, if you ask me afterwards what it was about, I will stumble to explain what it was about. I think Curtis is trying to show the viewer the complexity of the world and how difficult it is to actually get a grasp on reality and that there are no good guys and bad guys and that we're all the good guys and bad guys and that most of what we "believe" to be true is a simplification (a caricature) of reality.
Re: Adam Curtis’ “Bitter Lake”: A Review
#3Overall it's an interesting review, but saying that 99% of Afghanis want Sharia Law and citing an unsourced claim in a blog post is poor writing and undermines the author's credibility, which is unfortunate.
Edit: The cited blog actually does cite a research poll, my mistake! https://www.unz.com/isteve/why-the-taliban-won-sharia-is-dem...
Re: Adam Curtis’ “Bitter Lake”: A Review
#4Overall it's an interesting review, but saying that 99% of Afghanis want Sharia Law and citing an unsourced claim in a blog post is poor writing and undermines the author's credibility, which is unfortunate. Edit: The cited blog actually does cite a research poll, my mistake! https://www.unz.com/isteve/why-the-taliban-won-sharia-is-dem...
We all know Sharia-law is all about love and compassion, no problem there...
Re: Adam Curtis’ “Bitter Lake”: A Review
#5I used to be quite an Adam Curtis fan until I realized his work is basically the narrative fallacy gone wild.
I still recommend Century Of The Self as a great piece of documentary filmmaking.
Re: Adam Curtis’ “Bitter Lake”: A Review
#6I used to be quite an Adam Curtis fan until I realized his work is basically the narrative fallacy gone wild. I still recommend Century Of The Self as a great piece of documentary filmmaking.
Please don't let a rush to "fallacy" prevent you from building your own critique.
Re: Adam Curtis’ “Bitter Lake”: A Review
#7I used to be quite an Adam Curtis fan until I realized his work is basically the narrative fallacy gone wild. I still recommend Century Of The Self as a great piece of documentary filmmaking.
Best way to describe it I’ve found is this phrase:
It’s filled with rich material but when I reach for it, my hand closes on air.
Re: Adam Curtis’ “Bitter Lake”: A Review
#8> Curtis draws a conclusion without a narrative trajectory; he leaves multifarious discordant happenings to interplay... I think Curtis does this on purpose. Whenever I watch a Curtis doco, I feel I'm being told a compelling story. However, if you ask me afterwards what it was about, I will stumble to explain what it was about. I think Curtis is trying to show the viewer the complexity of the world and how difficult…
Agreed on nearly all points except the following.
>there are no good guys and bad guys
I don't think that's what he is implying. He is leaving it up to our interpretation but the absence of a position does not mean he is saying that there are no good or bad guys. From what I gathered, he's not saying anything at all.
Big fan of his work regardless.
Re: Adam Curtis’ “Bitter Lake”: A Review
#9I genuinely like Curtis' work, and Bitter Lake is peppered with interesting stuff and fantastic stock footage. But the dialogue in his recent films has been predictable:
*But the old systems had never gone away.
And then one person realised there was a vacuum at the heart of it all.
But they had forgotten to program the computers with the one thing that really mattered.
And then...." etc.
I honestly can't tell if it's meta-parody. And that's why I'll keep watching.
Re: Adam Curtis’ “Bitter Lake”: A Review
#10> Curtis draws a conclusion without a narrative trajectory; he leaves multifarious discordant happenings to interplay... I think Curtis does this on purpose. Whenever I watch a Curtis doco, I feel I'm being told a compelling story. However, if you ask me afterwards what it was about, I will stumble to explain what it was about. I think Curtis is trying to show the viewer the complexity of the world and how difficult…
Agreed. It's a point he makes over and over again: the world is complex and any alleged narrative is just a simplification we make to help ourselves understand the complexity or influence others.
"Good guys" and "bad guys" are just a part of this narrative we create. People are a product of their past, which is also complex, but good and bad are powerful models we are programmed since childhood to apply to the world.