War Photographer
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Movie Reviews of War Photographer
Movie Review: The Ultimate Reality Documentary
Summary: 5 Stars
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Near the end of this powerful film, James Nachtwey, the photojournalist profiled in it states what might happen if people could see what he has:
"What you see [in war or conflict] is unmitigated pain, injustice, and misery. It has occurred to me that if everybody could be there just once to see for themselves what white phosphorus [used in bombs, artillary shells, and mortar shells] does to the face of a child or what unspeakable pain is caused by the impact of a single bullet or how a ragged piece of shrapnel can rip someone's leg off--if everybody could be there to see for themselves the fear and grief just one time, then they would understand that nothing is worth letting things get to the point where that happens to even one person, let alone thousands."
He continues by stating why the war photographer's work is so important:
"But everyone cannot be there and that is why photographers go there, to show them, to reach out and grab them and make them stop what they're doing and pay attention to what is going on--to create pictures powerful enough to...shake people out of their indifference."
This is what this documentary does. It reaches out and grabs you through Nachtwey's photographs enabling you the viewer to see what he sees. Besides seeing pictures and moving images of pain, injustice, and misery, the viewer also gets to see poverty, suffering, violence, brutality, and famine. You also get a glimpse of the danger Nachtwey is exposed to on each assignment.
Besides brief comments by Nachtwey, there are also comments made by others throughout the film. Specifically, there are comments given by Chief International Correspondent for CNN Christiane Amanpour, two foreign editors, a Reuters cameraman, and a screenwriter. Make sure the subtitles are turned on as all comments are not in English.
Locations we follow Nachtwey to include The Balkans, Kosovo; Jakarta, Indonesia; Ramallah, Pallestine; New York City; Hamburg, Germany; and Kawah Ijen, Indonesia.
Finally, the DVD itself (the one released in 2003) is perfect in picture and sound quality. It has some extras that I found to be very interesting.
In conclusion, this is a powerful film. Near the beginning of this Academy Award nominated documentary Nachtwey says,
"In a war, the normal codes of civilized behavior are suspended."
After viewing this film, you'll actually see that this is definitely true!!
(2001; 95 min; wide screen; 18 scenes)
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Movie Review: Pure Passion, Pure Heart and Purely amazing!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Coming from another photographer and world traveler, I find this DVD mesmerising, a learning experience and filled with REALITY. I have traveled all around the world and seen/documented many things, however never on the negative side aside from an ancient 500+ person-filled Chinese funeral that spanned over 5 days.
I was the only Westerner (from New Zealand) there amongst 500+ Chinese people. As a professional photographer & boyfriend of a member of one of the family members of the deceased, I was asked to photograph ALL of the funeral of their eldest great-grandfather's funeral. Aside from battling a language barrier (Mandarin vs. English) with most attendees, I was also battling a cultural change that I was not used to. When I stopped to let people be at peace during sad/tearful moments, my girlfriend's Auntie asked me to please keep shooting images. I was down on my hands and knees photographing intimate moments of tears from grown elder men. I learned much about myself during those 5 days. I learned the world is incredible open to you when you open your heart and passions; even to strangers as well as I learned. At the end, the family graciously accepted me into their family and thanked me profusely for doing such a fine job in documenting such sad and personal moments for each of them. As James has always been with the people he photographs, I was also accepted and the people wanted me to be there for there sadness. Anyone can photograph a joyous occasion like a wedding, but when you photograph deeply sad, miserable, and feelings of emptiness of strangers, you really learn a lot about yourself as well as life in general.
I can only imagine the library full of sad feelings/experiences that James has. After my experience photographing this very deeply cultural Chinese funeral, I now have a new level of respect for James.
This DVD is not only celebration of a great photographer, but is also a snapshot into the reality of human existence and is a snapshot into the heart a wordly, kind, gentle man who uses his camera to let the world know of other people's sufferings.
If James is ever here in New Zealand, I would love to personally meet him to shake his hand.
Go and buy the DVD!
John McElhiney
Aerial, Landscape and Commercial Photographer
Wellington, New Zealand
Movie Review: Artful (bullet) dodger
Summary: 5 Stars
I had never heard of Richard Nachtwey prior to this movie, but I'm pretty sure I had seen his work. His metier: stark, bleak, black-and-white images of suffering people from war-torn lands. This film is partly a self-documentary of his work, from the Balkans to Rwanda to Ramallah. Outfitted with miniature video cameras, Nachtwey allows us to see him (his right index finger at least) in the act of composing his famous photos. The effect of this self-photography is jarring at first, and one wonders whether Nachtwey is being self-indulgent in covering himself in this manner. But what soon becomes apparent is that he is so devoted to his work and to his subjects that he seems hardly to notice that he is being recorded. The film also records Nachtwey's relationship with his editors at the German magazine Stern, with other news people (including CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour) and his friends.
It is both fascinating and disquieting to watch Nachtwey at work. Seeing him confront a broken painting on the ground in Kosovo, one sees him trying different angles and compositions in an effort to tell his story. Then, he is literally in the faces of people enduring the most appalling grief. From the hysterical women awaiting a loved one's disinterment to a man grieving over a mass grave, Nachtwey comes within a few feet of his subjects. It is made clear that this is done with their consent, but the seeming sense of violation is palpable. Yet by capturing them at their moments of greatest anguish, Nachtwey's subjects allow him to portray the real the cost of war.
If there is a weakness to the film, it is that it fails to pierce the enigma that is Richard Nachtwey. Even his close friends don't seem to know what drives him to the most dangerous places on the planet. The closest we come is Nachtwey's own comment that by depicting war at its ugliest, he may dilute its appeal. Richard Nachtwey, soft-spoken man of very few words, speaks loudest through the silence of his photos, many of which scream with the agony of war and its dislocations. A fascinating film that can be watched several times.
The extras are spare but powerful -- interviews with Nachtway and director Christian Frei, along with short pictorials about the film's locales and some of its subjects.
Movie Review: A powerful film about an incredible photographer
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie, shot on video of varying quality, profiles James Nachtwey, an American photojounalist who specializes in war and other difficult issues around the world. Many of his pictures end up in Time Magazine and other international publications. About half of it was shot by two tiny video cams mounted on Nachtwey's Canon EOS film camera, which allows you to follow his field of view, as well as see him via the second cam mounted on a gooseneck, looking back at him. When there's action, there's a lot of shaky camera, a la Blair Witch Project. Nachtwey's made a name for himself since the early 80's by going to virtually every hot spot in the world: Beirut, South Africa, Rwanda, Kosovo, among others. But his pictures stand apart as artistic, literate, even elegant, despite the tragedy they illustrate. The horrors of Rwanda are detailed in a giant black-and-white picture book titled "Inferno". While there is no footage of Rwanda in the film, Nachtwey, who is a man of few words, described the wars and refugee crisis as "an express elevator to hell."
Most of the movie was shot in Kosovo, Indonesia and the West Bank. The most emotional parts are hearing from Nachtwey and his friends about how he copes with 20 years of photographing inhumanity. The educational parts (for photographers and media observers) is watching him work in both high sensitive and bullets-and-bombs situations.
Nachtwey comes across as a dispassionate observer of man's horrors perpetrated against his fellow man, yet passionate about what the photographic image can do.
If you're interested in visual history or photojournalism, you gotta see this movie.
Movie Review: the ethics and aesthetics of atrocities
Summary: 5 Stars
By many accounts James Nachtwey is the premier war photographer of our time. This powerful documentary of his life and work runs along three tracks. First, we learn from Nachtwey and his friends who are interviewed about his personal story, how and why he became a war photo-journalist, and what he is trying to accomplish in his work. We learn, for example, that this most famous of artists who makes a living by taking the "express elevator to hell" is, in fact, an introverted, retiring and even mysterious man. He reflects on to what extent he has benefitted from other people's misfortune. Second, the film makes a powerful statement on the horrific atrocities that he records in Kosovo, Rwanda, Jakarta, and the West Bank, whether war, urban poverty, or famine. One cannot watch this film without lamenting the stupefying dehumanization and depravity that takes place in so much of the world. Third, one is forced to consider the extraordinary, evocative power of images to capture and define reality in ways that text never can. In much of the film we see exactly what Nachtwey sees when he does his work, since he has a mini-camera attached to his own camera. It is not pleasant. For Nachtwey, twenty-five years in photojournalism has provided an extraordinary moral-aesthetic vocation. I count this as one of the best films I have ever watched.