Uwe Boll's Darfur

[Otter]

So I'm sure many of you know of Uwe Boll, perhaps most famous as an adapter of vigeogames to the silver screen. Perhaps even more famous for the terrible quality of his films.

 

So imagine my surprise after last night, when I got a chance to meet him, and see his latest film 'Darfur' in a preview screening - and actually thought the film was good. A good Uwe Boll film. Starring Kristina Lohken, Matt Frewer, Billy Zane, and Edward Furlong. W. T. F.

 

I know, right? This is Uwe Boll. When I first heard he was making a film about Darfur, I cringed at the thousands of ways Uwe could make this exploitative, indulgent, or flat out ignorant.

 

I wouldn't say I was pleasantly surprised, however. The film is hard to watch. It is graphic in the representation of the violence taking place, yet so amazingly reserved. There is no pornographic indulgence of the violence, it's all just in your face and painfully realistic.

 

Perhaps Uwe has discovered a better method, at least as pertains to his track record. Darfur is, for the most part, unscripted - the victims of the massacre were all portrayed by real Sudanese refugees - the stories they tell in the film are their own, and true. The headline actors are all fantastic in their roles, with only Billy Zane's eyebrows standing out as something corny.

 

The story is almost comparable to The Seven Samurai, or The Magnificent Seven, yet also pointing out the utter hopelessness of a single stand against a government sanctioned murder spree.

 

My largest criticism of the film is twofold; the cinematography drove me nuts. Aside from being overly shaky (I think we're past the point in the history of cinema where we have to ACCENTUATE shakiness to get the point) most of the shots are closeups or extreme closeups. Hardly ever do we get a wideshot to establish the scene. This is probably due, in some small way, to the oimprovisational nature of the film, but it was a headache. Additionally, and again, probably due to the improvising, there were some bad cuts here and there, with characters never standing in the same place, etc.

 

Overall, though, see this film if you want to have your mind blown. Not only is it a proven documentation of what is really happening in Africa right now, but it's an Uwe Boll movie that isn't terrible. In fact, I quite liked it, even if it did depress the living sh*t out of me.

 

One of the best parts of the screening was the amount of walk-outs - a lot of people were expecting something schlockey that they could laugh at, but got slapped in the face with brutality instead.

 

Some behind the scenes footage:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[arsenal_fan]

I've seen many of Uwe Boll films, not because i like his films, in fact i watch them because i find them so hilariously bad. But Stoic, while still a sub average film, was actually much better and more interesting than his other self indulgent c rap like Postal and Alone in the Dark.

 

Uwe Boll is a jerk, but when asked about views on recent film and what he thought were good films in the past 10 years, he actually suprised me in what he knew. He said he admired films on unique subjects like Boogie Nights, which is one of my most favourite films.

 

I will defintley try and see this film, although i doubt i will be able to find a theatre which has this film lol!

[Andy...]

Otter, you should have challenged him to a boxing match.

[TenaciousD.]

Thats the film with the spelling mistake in the trailer?

 

 

Didn't look terrible to be honest.

 

But I think a lot of people will have a hard time watching it and being un-biased without trying to rip it apart purely because Uwe Boll directed.

[Osric]

A good Uwe Boll film? That's like an Amish hacker, it doesn't exist.

 

Just kidding, this actually looks good.