12 Angry Russians

Well, I haven't written anything in several months. I'm not really too sure what to write about so I'll let my fingers do all the work.

Earlier this week, I watched a wonderful Russian film called 12. It's a dark comedy loosely based on the 1957 Sidney Lumet film 12 Angry Men. In this Russian version, a Chechen youth is being charged with the murder of his Russian officer foster father, who is also his uncle. It's up to a jury of twelve Russian men, filled with clashing opinions and backgrounds to reach a just verdict. The film mostly takes place in a public school gymnasium where the jurors are held until a verdict is reached. Parallel to this, the film shows the Chechen boy's flashbacks from what I believe was the Second Chechen War, an absolutely devastating occurrence for anyone to have gone through.

Director Nikita Mikhalkov painted a picture that most of the world never gets to see. The media is constantly portraying the entire Chechen population as barbaric and homicidal. Any war that we see today is a war between governments and not a war between peoples. I believe that this is the message this film was trying to get across. Another is that, when someone is facing a charge of any crime, it is up to that person's net worth and/or their ethnicity to save them from facing imprisonment. This is true even in our own country. There is nothing more corrupt than a judicial system and nothing more ignorant, arrogant and prejudiced as a jury of "your peers".

I also watched another film called The Education of Charlie Banks. I purchased this movie because it was cheap and didn't realize until I got home that the film was directed by Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst. I have to say that his directorial talent definitely reconciles his lack of talent in music. Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Ritter are the two main characters. Jesse plays Charlie Banks, an Ivy League student, attending Brown University to meets up with childhood tough guy legend, Mick (played by Jason Ritter), when he shows up unexpectedly in his dorm and decides to stay a while.

The film is set mostly in the mid-70s. Although I feel the film is lacking in some areas on which I cannot point my finger, I feel the cast gave a fairly realistic performance and that this film is worth watching just to see that Fred Durst can do something somewhat productive.

Well, I think that's all. I'll try to think of something else to write soon.