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gdamerow
Reviews
Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files (2010)
Time for SyFy to do better: Review of FoF pilot: "Burning Rubber/Hyperjump"
This show is exhibit "A" when it comes to the pitfalls/temptations of producing what has come to be known as "reality TV."
While appearing to be the real, impartial and open minded judges of the paranormal, the show caves into the temptation to create artificial drama through the use of spooky music, bad infrared camera work, biased editing of their OWN footage, bad acting by their "investigators" and outright distortion of what they see and experience.
Since they quite skillfully and rationally explained what happened to the "ghost car" in the first half of the show, and clearly demonstrated that the simplest and best explanation was that the car simply and un- paranormally passed under a loose chain link fence, they then, halfway through the show realized that they had risked making the show look too skeptical.
It meant that in the second half they HAD to somehow keep those who believe in UFOs and the paranormal interested by concluding that what they saw in Arizona was something strange and, "unexplainable" when they saw "bright lights" and bright fast moving objects on the IR scope over the skies of Luke Air Force Base!
Come on people! Lift a finger to use your search engine! Look up "Luke AFB" and what do you discover? Luke AFB trains pilots to fly the F-16. Have you never seen an F-16 light up the night with shock diamonds from it's afterburner, execute a sudden reverse turn and move at Mach 1+ at low altitude?! True UFO investigators even the true believers ought to be insulted by such shoddy evaluation and reporting. (Oh yeah. I forgot this is, "reality TV!")
I think SyFy should do two things, First: Immediately apologize to/and or hire as consultants, the parents of the, "UFO balloon boy" to improve FoF's quality. (A sarcasm) Secondly (seriously) I will make a bold suggestion: Be truthful even when it may seem undramatic. The viewers will respect and love you for it.
Realize this: The guys over at Mythbusters may be a bit flamboyant and wacky but they do, in the end, allow the experiments and observations to fall or stand on their own, it is what makes such shows appealing.
Gunner Palace (2004)
Good film but viewers should have war (film) experience.
When the soldiers of "Gunner Palace" fall down laughing as a comrade explains to the filmmaker that the improvised armor on their Humvee, "Will probably slow down the shrapnel so that it stays in your body instead of going clean through. And that's about it!" Inexperienced film goers might be horrified. Yet this is a true aspect of life in the military.
Watch, "Heartbreak Ridge", "Blackhawk Down" or even "MASH", or see the Canadian Arrows air show team around a piano singing a silly song about a pilot's parachute catching fire and falling to his death and you will see that soldiers under stress make fun of the very things that may kill them. It is their way of dealing with situations that are greatly less than ideal which keeps them sane.
The subtlety of "Gunner Palace" may be missed by many. The constant use of the Armed Forces Radio voice-over, which continually drones on happily, and glibly about the success of the war while the soldiers experience the opposite is a huge key to the film's meaning. The official line that the soldier's government and commanders give them almost always contradicts their everyday experience. "I think it is a cluster F***, Sir," to quote Sgt. Highway (Clint Eastwood).
And that is a reality of war that "Gunner Palace" truthfully tells. Our soldiers deserve the best but any army that goes to war, goes to war with the supplies it has, not always the supplies it wishes it had. Past history reveals that some mistakes in war are more damaging than others and the consequences oftentimes highly dependent on the strange twists of circumstance. Time will tell if the mistakes in Iraq will prove fatal or not.
While some of the soldiers may come off as overbearing, Iraq is a combat zone and the movie portrays the US Army, not the Peace Corp. "The Army is a broad sword, not a scalpel." (Bruce Willis, "The Siege") No nineteen or twenty year old is going to be a philosopher king in a hostile situation.
Some may debate for a long time whether or not, "Gunner Palace" is anti or pro war. Although I believe them to be fairly clear, appreciation of the film is not dependent at all on the directors' political views. Despite its rough edged story line, "Gunner Palace" is a successful attempt to show the real lives of the everyday soldier in Iraq and the irony and senselessness that war can oftentimes bring.