Posted: 08/12/2011

The Bang Bang Club

(2010)

by Joe Sanders

Available August 16, 2011 on Blu-ray and DVD from Entertainment One.

Coming off a career of documentary filmmaking, director Steven Silver offers his first feature film with The Bang Bang Club, a story about photojournalists documenting the violent fall of the Apartheid government to Nelson Mandela’s ANC party. The film is based on the memoir of two of the main characters, Greg Marinovich and João Silva. Silver, who adapted the book for the screen, began his career in the South African film industry, so it’s understandable what drew him to this project, and his passion and his desire to capture these events accurately and respectfully is something that really comes across in the final film.

Greg Marinovich (Ryan Phillippe) begins the film as an amateur photojournalist. After an impressive first day, he begins working as a freelance photographer for a local newspaper. Marinovich’s naiveté borders on the arrogant at times as he insists on going wherever he wants, and photographing whatever he feels like. Had this been fiction, it might be harder to believe that a character would be so blatantly stupid in these moments, but within the scope of a docudrama, the character’s actions are believable as I believe the real Marinovich probably behaved the same way.

It’s genuinely fascinating to be thrown into this movie with very little exposition as to what is going on. The audience then is able to see this conflict more or less through Marinovich’s eyes, or rather his camera, which allows us to be disturbed and surprised by this setting at every turn. It’s a fantastic way to allow the audience to connect emotionally to the people in this conflict, as well as Marinovich and the other members of the Bang Bang Club (the name the media gave the group of photographers when their pictures began making an impact worldwide). Thematically, it’s fascinating to think about the act of photojournalism, and these guys documenting these terrible events at an instinctive level and never being able to interfere. It makes for a unique and amazing storytelling device.

The four actors playing the members of the Bang Bang Club are terrific. Even Ryan Phillippe, who I’m typically not a fan of, offers a realistic and compelling performance, but all of the characters are well defined and the relationships that are created between these four men is a real pleasure to watch.

Silver’s inexperience with this type of filmmaking does show through at a few brief moments. Throughout the film there are some awkward jumps forward in time, with nothing to orient the audience as to how far forward we’ve gone or what’s happened with the characters. These moments are few and far between, but they did pull me out of the movie when the occurred. Although, perhaps it was necessary; to show these events and then jump forward in order to efficiently tell the story they wanted to tell. It’s the chaotic beauty of non-fiction narratives that they don’t fit into a standard three act structure. This may be annoying or off-putting to viewers, but I think in this case specifically it’s a real testament to the cast and crew’s commitment to staying faithful to the story.

It has to be said that the film creates a fantastic inevitability basically from its first scene. Some might call it predictability and write the film off, but I thoroughly enjoy a good unavoidable conflict. This setting with these characters lights a fuse in the beginning of the film and creates a lot of good tension as we build up to the climax. The difference is that, if the film were predictable, we could figure out what the circumstances of this pivotal moment will be, and I for one didn’t see anything coming.

It’s difficult to say whether or not buyers of The Bang Bang Club should go ahead and spring for the Blu-ray and its superior video quality. It is a movie about photography, and there are some nice visuals throughout (probably not enough for a film about photography, but they’re there). I think personally I was just underwhelmed by the visuals of the setting because it’s South Africa and there’s a lot of desert, dirt roads, rundown buildings, and debris, so if that sounds appealing to you, then you won’t be disappointed by the HD version of the film.

Special Features include a feature length commentary by director Steven Silver, a making of featurette, deleted scenes, and an interview with the cast and crew.

Joe Sanders is a playwright and college instructor in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He has a Master’s degree in playwriting and a Bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Western Michigan University, where he currently teaches Thought and Writing.

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