Four American soldiers combine to liberate a missing shipment of gold in the chaos of Iraq after the first Gulf War.
This is a bold, even brazen attempt to get to grips with the complexities and hypocrisies of the US intervention in Iraq in the early 90s. David O Russell’s stinging film marries anarchic black comedy, action adventure tropes, and cutting edge technique. Plus a big dose of star power.
Do the mercenary motivations of George Clooney and his Desert Stormers function as a metaphor for wider political imperatives? How could they not? Certainly there is nothing reassuring about the Americans’ racist attitudes to the Iraqis. This was the most vivid portrait of the new theatre of war Hollywood had produced to that point: impersonal, high-tech, highly mediated and little understood. It’s a high point in Russell’s erratic but always ambitious career, which went on to include Silver Linings Playbook, The Fighter and American Hustle.
The screening on Sunday Aug 23 will conclude with a free screening of Werner Herzog’s 54-minute documentary Lessons of Darkness (1992)
Some kind weird masterpiece, a screw-loose war picture that sends action and humor crashing head-on into each other and spinning off into political anger
Roger Ebert
It remains the most caustic anti-war movie of this generation.
David Edelstein, The New York Times
Russell not only has designed an action-adventure laced with incendiary humor but a movie that wants to explore race, politics, war, the media and U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East. In large measure, he pulls it off with breathtaking aplomb.
Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter
Media Partner
David O Russell
George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, Spike Jonze
USA
1999
English
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Credits
Producer
Charles Roven, Paul Junger Witt, Edward L. McDonnell
Screenwriter
David O. Russell, John Ridley
Cinematography
Newton Thomas Sigel
Editor
Robert K. Lambert
Original Music
Carter Burwell
Production Design
Catherine Hardwicke
90s, Baby!
Ten years. 11 weeks. 90 films from the 1990s. This summer, 90’s Baby! takes a deep dive into a defining decade of cinema.
Unforgiven
Bill Munny (Clint Eastwood) is face down in pig shit when we first see him. He's a bad farmer, but has a natural facility for killing people – a vocation to which he returns in a quest that combines both profit and justice. Or so he chooses to believe.
Malcolm X
In an indelible role, Denzel Washington give us a layered, compassionate, conflicted man who finds the strength in Islam to transcend his demons and confront the inequity and racism in America head-on. Along with Do the Right Thing, this is Spike Lee's greatest film.
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
A bona fide classic and arguably the greatest Canadian film of the 90s, Girard's dazzling deconstruction of the biopic gives us the mercurial pianist Glenn Gould as Picasso might have rendered him, a cubist portrait combining multimedia vignettes.
Dazed and Confused
The last day of high school in May, 1976: seniors debate party politics while next term's freshmen run the gauntlet of brutal initiation rites, barely comforted by the knowledge that they'll wield the stick one day.
Short Cuts
Altman's adaptation of Raymond Carver short stories, Short Cuts weaves between 8 or 9 overlapping storylines and 22 characters. it's a teeming, caustic and compassionate human comedy; a singularly astringent, often cynical view of America and Americana.
Three Colours: Blue
The first of Kieslowski's acclaimed Three Colours Trilogy, inspired by the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity and the French flag, the Tricolour. Blue stars Juliette Binoche as a young woman grieving her husband and child.
Schindler's List
One of the most acclaimed films of the 90s, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark is the story of a German industrialist whose conscience is stirred to save his Jewish workers from the camps.
Free event.
Three Colours: Red
Irène Jacob plays Valentine, a runway model living in Geneva, who crosses paths with a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who's a bit of an eavesdropper. Initially repelled, she becomes intrigued by this man, as do we... Kieslowski's sublime adieu.
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Four Weddings begins with an onslaught of fucks. It's the first signal that this rom-com will break from tradition, despite the ritualized structural conceit described in the title. The witty screenplay is by Richard Curtis — it's still his best.
The Lion King
With its beautifully drawn East African setting, its humour, pathos, and engaging characters, as well as its stirring songs, The Lion King stands as the pinnacle of traditional Disney family entertainment.
Image: © Disney, 1994
To Die For
Buck Henry (The Graduate) wrote this acidic black comedy about a ruthless weather girl on the make (Nicole Kidman in her breakout role). A young Joaquin Phoenix is the dim teen she seduces on her way to achieving stardom.