Review of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) by Danm — 07 Aug 2009

Smart and sophisticated. This is a deep layered work, much like Joyce's Ulysses, and as I have only seen it twice I have yet to fully digest it, that said I know two things for sure 1) this movie is a water shed moment in the history film 2) this is the most culturally significant film since Birth of a Nation.

1) this film takes a bold new steep in genrabending and has carried it out flawlessly creating a new way to invision film making. The Coens brothers have made stumbling steps toward the dream that Sommers has realised, notably their adaptation of McCarthy's No Country, but where other directors have only fumbled at what might be, Sommers has created it as Wells did before him.

This is film at its best as it speaks to the human condition through multiple perspectives to better understand man and his place in the world. With Joe Sommers has done the seemingly imposable task of genrabending Syriana and Team America into the next citizen kane.

The layers of these two gernas intersect in so many ways that a life time could not uncover all the conections, no one man could ever complettly understand this film and it is therefore criticproof. There is no doubt that this film has raised the bar for what a movie can be, film studence every where should burn their colections and focus on the future.

GO JOE! 2) not since a birth of a nation have a people been forced to reconsile their future with their history by cinema. that is until now. Joe mutli perspectival aprouch raises so many questions what it means to be American every one who sees this film will be forced to examin there fundamental preconceptions.

This film has held up a mirior that we as a people can not look away from. what has been seen cannot be unseen, and we must now move forward as we did after the decoration of independents and the civil war and redefine ourselfs as a nation.

We must know once again who we are, and knowing is half the battle.