The Bang Bang Club (movie)

"All of the people that say that it's our job to sit there and watch people die"

The Bang Bang Club review by "The Guardian":

The screening of The Bang Bang Club at the Tribeca film festival gave additional pause for thought, coming as it did in the same week as the deaths of photojournalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros in Libya.

Based on the real-life experiences of four photojournalists covering the tribal violence between Inkatha and ANC supporters in the early 90s, writer/director Steven Silver admitted the tragedy had "cast a long shadow over the film". Indeed, it's hard to watch the dramatic conclusion and not be chilled by the similarity in which Hetherington and Hondros lost their lives.

Silver uses the backdrop of the conflict in South Africa to explore the relationships between the four men and the subjects they shoot. Frustratingly, though, while the film poses pertinent questions about when to put the camera down, it shies away from delving deeper into these moral dilemmas and the emotional strain faced by combat photographers. Instead we're introduced to a testosterone-fuelled world in which dodging bullets is just another way of getting kicks before the partying starts.

Much of this is down to the film's crisis of identity, attempting to mix in a more mainstream, action-adventure feel while sustaining the gravitas demanded by its subject matter. It falters on both accounts and, by focusing on the power of photography, the film feels more like a series of snapshots than a coherent narrative of a pivotal moment in South Africa's history.

Ryan Phillippe as Greg Marinovich and Taylor Kitsch as Kevin Carter are both charismatic leads – but rather than complement each other, their stories compete. Kitsch's performance as the gifted but self-destructive Carter is by far the most compelling, yet seems peripheral in an ensemble setup that never really allows room to scratch beneath the characters' surface machismo. There is undoubtedly a story here worth telling – made all the more poignant by the fact one of the Bang Bang Club members, João Silva, lost both his legs last year on assignment in Afghanistan. It's just a shame the accomplished cinematography isn't matched by a script that lets the true bravery and accomplishments of combat photojournalists shine through, as they deserve."