<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">A few more comments...<DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On Oct 22, 2007, at 10:01 PM, <<A href="mailto:rwdavisjr@ca.rr.com">rwdavisjr@ca.rr.com</A>> wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Hiragino Maru Gothic Pro" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Hiragino Maru Gothic Pro">This feeling, however, was dispelled in the final hour when the film launched into sappily elegiac music and cheesy dissolves to (unjustly) executed comrades as some of the more sympathetic characters escaped the group's mountain camp.</FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>Yes, agreed. I forgot to mention in the last message that the music became rather dissatisfying in the second half of the film. The score is credited to Jim O'Rourke of Sonic Youth, and many times during the last hour I was (1) baffled by the seemingly arbitrary or inappropriate choices to key certain bits of music to particular scenes, and (2) surprised to hear music of, shall we say, pedestrian sentiment, from a former member of Sonic Youth. To be fair, he likely just composed the music without seeing the film, and somebody else scored it, or else the intention was to create some sort of emotional dissonance. Given that it's Wakamatsu at the helm, I suppose neither possibility can be ruled out. Finally, I just tuned out the score and tried to focus on the treatment of the violence.</DIV><DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"> <BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px"><FONT face="Hiragino Maru Gothic Pro" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Hiragino Maru Gothic Pro">how is the acting in these reenactments?</FONT></P> </BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Personally, I thought it was a bit over the top, but I assumed this was intended to establish a certain sense of distance on the part of the audience. I don't think we are expected to really feel any deep sense of emotional sympathy for the protagonists of this film.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>M</DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>