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The cascades of hyperbole emitted on behalf of "A Mighty Heart" and its Supernova star Angelina Jolie have moved a Slate amanuensis to our culture's descent to write about The Worst Celebrity Interview ever Done.
Of course that would be in print, as the absolute worst celebrity interview ever would have to be done by the fawningly senile Larry King, who tossed softballs the size of cotton candy to AJ during her condescending responses to his obsequious queries.
But Esquire, unread as it is, does perhaps have the worst interview in print, by a master of self-referential narcissism named Tom Junod. Check the link at the top for details.
1 comment :
I saw the movie already. The local Jewish Comm. Center gave a free "sneak peek" a couple weeks ago. Following is my capsule review.
Bad, but not as bad as Syriana. Similar to Syriana in that it's like being strapped to the dentist's chair, waiting form pain to be inflicted. People are gonna pay $10 for this? I doubt it.
Boring, hectic, and confusing. Lots of disorienting, dizzying shots of Karachi from moving cars. (Why did Winterbottom do this? Directors must be economical with footage, and this was so much screen time wasted on footage that told us nothing about the story.)
We know the story & the ending, so what's in it for the audience? My suggestion: I would only pay to see this if the movie told me something I didn't already know. I wanted to see a clear explication of the genesis of the crime, and some insight into the character of Danny Pearl & Mariane. Didn't get either.
It's blatantly obvious from the interviews that Branjie have been giving that their reason for making this was entirely political.
Mrs. Pearl & Angie were on Charlie Rose, who fawned on them as badly as Tom Junod did in Esquire. They talked about the necessity of dialogue" - with whom? Omar Saeed Sheikh?
In the movie, Mariane blames jihadism on poverty. But the jihadists who kidnapped Danny Pearl were from prosperous British backgrounds. No discussion of that.
Diversions from book: "the Captain" in the movie is shown as a torturer. As Mariane Pearl was very respectful of him in the book, this is a complete slander on him & his methods.
Nitpicks: Angie's wig doesn't vary one tendril in any part of the movie, from the wedding scenes, to the childbirth scene. Didn't Mariane Pearl comb her hair once in 5 years?
Omar Saeed Sheikh in the movie has a subcontinental accent. He was London-born & raised. He would have had a London accent. Winterbottom did this on purpose, I am sure: he just can't face the fact that terrorists can be bred in Britain.
The actor who played Danny had no chin & wasn't as attractive as the real guy.
Pluses: Jolie is good, until the end, when she has an unnerving screaming fit that goes on forever. I'm not giving anything away when I say that she screamed, "I want an Oscar!" And she'll probably get it, because this movie says everything that Hollywood wants to say about terrorism. Let's all just get together and sing, "Kumbaya," and all the beastly boys who do things like saw off Jewish reporters' heads will get A-levels in physics.
Yeah, right.
PS About the Charlie Rose interview, Mariane Pearl showed herself to be a Hollywoodified diva. She said that before Danny was killed she was against capital punishment, and then stated that she didn't think it would accomplish anything to execute his killers. She skipped over whether she had ever wanted to see her husband's killers hanged. But on 2 occasions after Danny's murder, she explicitly said she favored their execution:
Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3225829/
"But for her, religion isn’t dogma, and no amount of chanting nam-myoho-renge-kyo will alter the fact that Pearl remains ferociously, righteously angry.
As she sees it, there is still no justice for Danny.
There is the matter of Saeed, a charming, well-educated British-born Islamic militant whose specialty was kidnapping Westerners. It was he who was convicted of setting the trap for Danny, who was then investigating links between al Qaeda and the shoe bomber, Richard Reid.
Saeed was sentenced to death by hanging on July 15, 2002. His appeal has been postponed five times. This worries Pearl, because Saeed has been released from prison before, magically released without serving his sentence for convicted crimes.
She’s determined to see him hang."
Also see this:
http://www.theforgivenessproject.com/stories/mariane-pearl
"The death penalty is not a solution, and asking for it isn’t about revenge, but I believe that in this particular case the death penalty is justice; it is society punishing someone for murder. For Pakistan it is also a strong political statement against terrorism."
Eh, Mariane? Wha' happened? The righteously, ferociously angry woman who was determined to see her husband "hang" has now become a plaster diva, hobnobbing with Hollywood airheads. How sad.
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