Black and White in Color/The Sky Above, The Mud Below

Rating:
Summary: I always regretted...
Review: ...that Jean-Jacques Annaud switched genre after his first two features : this one and "Coup de Tete / Hothead". The best 2 movies I ever saw exposing the sheer stupidity necessary for revelling in patriotism and sport's cheerleading, and, as well, the devious manipulation used by those pretending to be in charge so to enforce and utilize that stupidity for their own benefit and/or glory. And, although he made other fine movies, I'm just sorry he didn't go on trashing with the same glee : politics, charity businesses, television, religions, or any scam which could not flourish if more people were able to understand that slogans are only used to smother the brain and prevent them from thinking by themselves. Like someone put it : walking in step doesn't require a brain, only a spinal cord is needed.

Rating:
Summary: RACIST FARCE
Review: Another best Foreign Film Oscar© winner, 1976's BLACK AND WHITE IN COLOR (Home Vision Entertainment) is a farce on racism and political chauvinism that's set in South Africa during World War I. When a group of inept French colonials learn their country is at war with Germany, they -- in a fit of idiotic patriotism -- decide to attack their German neighbors who reside up river, touching off a series of unfortunate events (as Lemony Snicket might say). A great extra is the documentary THE SKY ABOVE, THE MUD BELOW. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: RACIST FARCE
Review: Another best Foreign Film Oscar© winner, 1976's BLACK AND WHITE IN COLOR (Home Vision Entertainment) is a farce on racism and political chauvinism that's set in South Africa during World War I. When a group of inept French colonials learn their country is at war with Germany, they -- in a fit of idiotic patriotism -- decide to attack their German neighbors who reside up river, touching off a series of unfortunate events (as Lemony Snicket might say). A great extra is the documentary THE SKY ABOVE, THE MUD BELOW. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: the folly of war
Review: I first saw this on the big screen when I was a university student. It starts by showing that the French colonists totally misunderstand not only the local language but also the local culture and their relationship to the local people. Then the movie depicts the facical nature of some of the proselytizing. When the news comes of the war and the colonists decide to attack their erstwhile colleague, the German who buys/bought supplies from them, they turn to a young man and ask him to be their military leader. After they get him to agree, they are shocked that he seems to respect the local tribesmen as much as he does them, his white countrymen. After the news comes that the war is over, the young French commander and the young German commander walk along together, talking of their previous lives -- and the viewer realizes that they are in effect the same person, the young man thrust forward into the folly of war by his unthinking countrymen. In order to better understand the theater of war, a potential viewer might wish to look at some maps of the political boundaries in Africa before The Great War. This setting for this movie is equatorial region of the continent of Africa, not the country of South Africa.

Rating:
Summary: Africa and the Colonialists!
Review: This is a great black comedy about the blinders that Europeans wore while living in Africa during World War I. 6 months or so after the outbreak of World War I some French never-do-wells discover that their country is at war with the Germans. As proof of their patriotism they(with the help of uncomprehending African colonials who receive about one day's 'military training') decide to attack a German outpost across the river. What follows is a rout.
The other movie, The Sky Above, The Mud Below is also an enjoyable 'travelogue' of New Guinea over 40 years ago. It won an Academy Award for Best Documentary. What is surprising is that there is some male full frontal nudity in the movie. Evidently when showing the 'natives' it was permissible in those days.