by mue 26 » Sat Feb 09, 2013 12:40 am
Watched Black Gold yesterday. I quite enjoyed it. It was just a good ol fashioned Hollywood epic, nothing more nothing less. It's true that it could have been more I guess, what with the plot based around the beginning of the 1930's arabian oil boom, and the religious and cultural tensions mixed up in all that, it could have delivered a unique and currently relevant story. It fails to really exploit it's interesting subject matter, however, and what we end up left with is essentially a Hollywood Arabian based fairy tail, rife with all kinds of exotic Orientalist trappings. I still found it an enjoyable old fashioned epic nonetheless. The cast are alright, Banderas as the unscrupulous Emir Nesib, is, quite frankly awful, but Mark Strong as the backward and religiously fanatic but more or less honorable Sultan Amar is great, the main protagonist Auda's actor is decent enough, and Freida PInto as the princess daughter of Nesib is...Freida PInto. The conclusion of the protagonist coming to realisation that he must find a middle path between greedy Nesib and the backwards Amar, is entirely predictable of course, but I found it even more depressing when it actually came round, and the film just ends with a segment showing off Auda clad in a western suite (for the first time in the movie) dealing with chattering American oil tycoons. I don't know, it just seemed a bit empty. Still, I can think of worse ways to kill time than watching this movie, it has a good budget and some fun battle scenes at the very least.
Also watched True Grit again today. Liked it just as much as the first time. One of my favourite Coen brothers films for sure.
Last edited by
mue 26 on Sat Feb 09, 2013 12:44 am, edited 1 time in total.