Hunting Karadzic

clipped from www.iht.com The Associated Press Top war crimes suspect arrested in Serbia Published: July 21, 2008 BELGRADE, Serbia: Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, accused architect of massacres making him one of the world's top war crimes fugitives, was arrested Monday evening in a raid that ended a near 13-year manhunt, the country's president and the U.N. tribunal said.

This is old news indeed. But I've been moving between places before I got settled and decided to have my own say about Karadzic.

The modern war in Balkan hit me back in 1991 when I was in Germany and was asked to be aware of possible delays on my way back to Indonesia due to a recent war over the Balkans. That was 1991 and the world was in the middle of the Gulf War (almost in the middle, I guess), so being a high school student who has just finished a student exchange trip around Germany and feasted on Europe's charms, that sentence just didn't make any sense to me. Not until a few years afterwards during my freshmen years at the university when I was taking international relations blah and had to do a paper on Serbian-Bosnian War that ended in 1995.

My interest to war has always been movie-bound. The "Band of Brothers" was amazing, while "The Black Hawk Down" and "Hotel Rwanda" was mesmerizing. Although I found "Welcome to Sarajevo" as so so, I think "The Hunting Party" was a smart movie. The latter brought my memories to early 90s when the modern Balkan war just begun. Especially when the news on Karadzic arrest hit the media.

The timing between the production and release of "The Hunting Party" and the arrest of Karadzic was not that far. Can it be a coincidence? I guess I've been reading too many spy novels and watching too many movies

If you've seen "The Hunting Party", you'd also recognize the plot, which revealed (by a UN officer who was interviewed by Richard Gere and Terence Howard as the lead actors) that the war criminal was somehow not captured because there was some sort of deal between the CIA (or NATO or whatever) and the war criminal himself. This is rather interesting if we pay attention to recent news on Karadzic claims about his deal with Richard Holbrooke, an American diplomat who brokered the Dayton Accords that ended the Serbia-Bosnian war.

I don't know, which one is real. Richard Gere and Terence Howard in "The Hunting Party" or Richard Holbrooke and Radovan Karadzic in "Dayton Accords" and "Bosnian War"..

clipped from www.presstv.ir

Karadzic: I had a deal with Holbrooke Fri, 01 Aug 2008 02:00:15

Karadzic (L), Holbrooke (R) Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic appears at the UN's Yugoslav war crimes tribunal for the first time, charged with genocide.

Indy's Back!

If you're into history, archeology, whips and daring acts (despite the CG).. let's count the days..

Having been counting many days before Harrison Ford's come back in Indiana Jones and the Alien Skulls (oops.. I mean "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"), despite the must-have elements of Indy's swashbuckling adventure i.e. bugs, snakes, crawlees, luck factor and deep secrets plus secret codes, the whole thing was kinda embarrassing and disappointing. I didn't complain about Ford's age and performance. Actually, he performed well and Kate Blanchett should make her accent coach happy. There has been enough going on in Hollywood on Mayan culture and the intervention of so-called alien culture (see: the latest sequel of "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" (2007))

One pretty interesting fact though..the "skull reading" scene in Indy's Crystal Skull reminds me a lot of Haruki Murakami's "Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World" (it's a novel, not a movie). Interesting, ey?

More reviews about Indy's coming back in 2008:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/film/
indiana_jones_and_the_kingdom_of_the_crystal_skull_spielberg

Screen Wide, Screen Bright

Spiderman 3
I don't quite understand what's so big about "darkness" here. Well, I guess I'm just too old. However, the "PG 13" rating suits well. If you are into parenting.. only if..


Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Quite amusing, but a bit too dragging towards the middle to end. I lost it when the two contending pirate groups went into battle. What is it that they're after anyways? Anybody?


3 Hari Untuk Selamanya
I'd be Lisa Simpson sucking thumbs saying "suck.. suck.. suck.." (big time)..
Coming of age with weed and sex? Is it THAT big??? I wonder, if you keep smoking pot every other hour, would you be able to arrive safe and sound at the other end of your destination.. which is say.. around 1,000 kilometres from your point of departure?


Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Enuff said. Should stay as a graphic novel if comic book is too short.


Ocean's 13
Eye Candy! Too bad the hotel is a only a computer-generated image..
Otherwise, it would both a structural and architectural achievement.. (is it?) I think the helipad is cool. Although Damon's extended nose is a bit too much.


Transformers
Yay! Another "military industrial complex" setting?
Despite the ancient "alien invasion" gendre, the computer-generated graphics is way cool. The movie itself is paradoxical here and there. Bad guys takes the shape of military "mecha" aka machines, while the good guys is the working class of the America culture: Camaro and the big truck. The good guys are the civilians. To spoil the whole thing, it's the military who's in control.. (AGAIN??)


Taxi 4
Well, the French should really learn about making jokes.. This is a drop dead boring comedy-wanna be..


Die Hard 4
Probably most awaiting movie of 2007.. A few words only.. if you were 60, would you jump from the hot tail of an F-22 Raptor down 5-7 floors to a highway rubbles? (or ramming your sedan into a hovering Chopper 25 meters above the ground?)
Again, the computer blah blah is compelling.



Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Aha.. they're all young adults now.. Don't like the hanging ending.
Very much like the political undercurrent where the Minister of Wizardry is trying to control subjects at school and school itself. Really like the "Pink is the New Black" thingy.. I think it's awesome.


Anyways, I'm very much looking for "Ratatouille".. the gray rat with pink nose called "Remy".. should be furry..

novemburr!

As I heard the sound of feet tapping the ground, I though it was "THX" cinema effect checking cinema sound system. Not! A bunch of grey furballs on some giant chunk of ice. They tap dance, sing, swim and they rock!

Meet Robin Williams wears moustache on his cheek and Hugh Jackman without "Wolverine" costume. Don't mistake Elijah Wood for Josh Groban here.

"Happy Feet"'s presence on the Internet is far more interesting compared to standard movie-length cartoon and animation (which usually only contains wallpaper and trailers). Its "download" area has anything from "growth chart" to "stickers", even a dedicated page for web masters! A nouvel way to advertise a movie and trigger creativity for young web fanatics (as young as 8 years old!)

I wonder what kind of moral is this animation movie going to promote. I like "Over the Hedge" quite a lot because I believe it has honest portrayal of today's human life style. Which is destructive.

The Commander is back! Need not to say more *winks*
For those who do not wish to go through all Fleming's novel series to know more about "the guy who drinks, but not to excess", drop by at the movie's official site. It looks dark and has standard features (wallpapers and trailers), but I like the Aston Martin wallpaper and their "Dossier" page. For preview lovers, try to walk through the "Yarborough" blog feature, although it's not interactive, you can track the blog back to May 2006, when movie filming process took place.

A PSP game ala "cloak and dagger" will drive the interest of gamers (perhaps).

I wonder whether it was Daniel Craig himself who wrote the blog. BTW, who's "Yarborough"? BTW, who was Craig in "Munich"? the Hitler?

For those who reside in Indonesia, start bonding with Bond on November 15 (which is tomorrow?)

Au contraire to the "burr", it's melting hot here on the equator..

=========================
"Happy Feet" and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and copyrights of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. 2006"
http://www2.warnerbros.com/happyfeet/

"Casino Royale" belongs to © 2006 Sony Pictures Digital Inc. All Rights Reserved
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/casinoroyale/site/

90s

Ha! Remember these? I was a TV series translator back in mid 90s.

There were around 20 people who work in shift to translate English-speaking TV series into "Bahasa Indonesia".

"Melrose Place" was a huge hit in mid 90s after "Beverly Hill 90210" became #1 in global TV ratings in early 90s (or was it mid 90s.. I forgot).

So, the TV station where I work bought the series and got it translated.

Wonder how those movie subtitle appear on your TV screen? It was done manually.. hell yes!

A movie so-called "subtitler" has to finish a 30 mins situation comedy or other short movie in one day work (eight hours), and a 60 mins movie or series should be done in two days work (16 hours). Different movie genres are divided to those 20 subtitler in my line of work.

Each person has his/her own specialty. A friend of mine was really into drama, a couple of others have perfect ear and listening abilities plus some experience of living in an English speaking country; so movies without written script from the distributor fell into their lap. Another friend was a son of a NAVY commander or so and it made all war movies his daily bread.

Our supervisor made sure that each person got to translate different genre of movies to improve translation skills. In mid 90s, when "MP" aka "Melrose Place" globalized, everybody lined up to translate it. Simply because they loved it.

As for me, who was more into "X-Files" (remember.. spooky Mulder with sexy lips :> ), "MP" was a nightmare.. A full 120 minutes of bad dream since I had to translate two continuing episodes at once.

Guess how long did it take me to translate those 120 minutes of "chick series"? Freaking 2 weeks!!!! W#$(%*#@(_^*@%

The "two weeks labor" somehow paid off as the day after my episodes were aired, everybody at college started to befriends me and phisically notice my existence..

Silly nineties!



==================
Photo courtesy of Google.com

cabbage patch dance

ha ha ha.. hilarious movie!
I like most of the "spaceship scenes", while the rest is standard family drama.

"politik tai kucing"

Begitu kata Herman Lantang, sahabat Soe Hok Gie ketika senat mahasiswa tidak menjadi sesuatu seperti harapan Soe Hok Gie serta kawan-kawannya yang lebih memilih menikmati film dan naik gunung; bukan serta-merta mengidentifikasi dirinya dalam organisasi mahasiswa tertentu di dalam kampus. Dalam jurnal hariannya yang kemudian dibukukan dan dicetak oleh LP3ES "Catatan Seorang Demonstran", Hok Gie juga menulis bahwa politik itu kotor.

Riza berkuliah di Institut Kesenian Jakarta. Yang dia pelajari adalah film. Yang Riza pahami adalah film punya banyak peran dan kebisaan. Pasti Riza juga tahu betul ada begitu banyak tantangan untuk mewujudkan film yang bisa memotret jaman dengan benar. Perlu sekitar 3,5 tahun hingga akhirnya "Gie" muncul di ruangan dingin bioskop.

Hera Diani dari "The Jakarta Post" menulis bahwa film ini kurang fokus sehingga tidak menang di Cannes. Dari sudut pandang yang serius, saya bisa menerima.

Tapi banyak sudut pandang lain yang memaafkan Riza.

"Gie" adalah film. Ketika film "Gie" ditonton, anak muda Indonesia jaman Internet bisa tahu, pada kurun waktu akhir 50-an sampai 60-an ada anak muda yang tanpa Internet, sudah berdialog dengan Marx, Lenin, Tagore dan lain-lain lewat buku. Anak muda yang demikian lurus dan memegang teguh prinsip keadilan dan kemanusiaan. Sesuatu yang berani mengingat waktu itu dia hidup dalam jaman yang serba tidak jelas.

Ada proses editing yang bagus. Ada sinematografi yang cantik. Meski Riza pasti lebih bisa bermusik lebih baik. Volume musik latar yang terlalu besar di beberapa bagian menenggelamkan narasi. Riza memang "melukis" Soe Hok Gie dan tidak membuat film tentang Soe Hok Gie. Riza berupaya menampilkan hidup Hok Gie secukupnya saat itu. Kalau dibilang tidak fokus, boleh jadi. Dialog yang terlalu diplomatis, boleh jadi.

Selama sekitar 2,5 jam penonton yang sebagian besar anak muda 20-30-an tahun duduk di kursi dan menonton. Okupansi gedung seratus persen saat nonton hemat hari Senin. Pemasaran dan upaya "branding" film terbukti berhasil. Buku terbit dulu. "Soundtrack" beredar dulu. "Talk show" tayang dulu..

Mengutip Arief Budiman yang berbisik di samping peti mati Hok Gie, "..kamu tidak sendirian lagi."


Image courtesy of http://www.milesfilms.com/gie/

synergize

I spent my last evening in the southern most city of Timor Island with Redford and Streisand. Sydney Pollack was the man behind the reel.

Why the movie became a legendary one? Would you call it a romantic movie the way IMDB categorize it? I'd call it something with a political undercurrent. What went wrong between Hubbell and Katie? Was it politics? Was strong individualistic characters or plain egoism? Was the love between them was not strong enough? Sure, that's what the script wanted it. A movie is an escapism, but at the same time, it observes and grows out of its own time. Most movies are timeless. To remind the future that reality is cyclical? (Well, I know fashion is cyclical) Does history moves in cycle? Karma? This is not philosophy 101.

I guess, if you put Hubbell and Katie together as Asians (prefer not to change their names into "Asian names" as "Asian" does mean "Indonesian" or "Vietnam", there are more than a dozen countries in it that cannot be represented by just one name) and not typical Americans, the result would be different. The famous value: compromise.

Don't we compromise everything here in Asia? Harmony. At any cost.

I remember a good friend of mine has once said that compromising means one side tends to back off and let the other side wins. But if you synergized two differing parties, you would have the best of both sides. Is it enough?

What about balancing? Finding the right tune? What about fate?

I'd say nothing glues anything that stops trying.


Image courtesy of http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/images_movie/waywewere.JPG

the "not-so" incredibles

set in the 1950s with art deco architecture and futuristic imagination of the year 2000, "the incredibles" (pixar, 2004) falls into one of those superhero genre, pretty spicy with a dash of family values and dollops of "slash-boom-bangs".

i went to see the movie only because friends of mine said, "fantastic imagination!"; "good quality movie." for a good one hour I was waiting for those comments to really happen. zilch! oh well, animation movies might have lost its grip for those who's been in real life for way too long. IMHO, with "escape from reality" as its main feature, "the incredibles" becomes "the not-so incredibles".

pixar is expected to make their wildest imagination happen, because it's their "raison d'etre". nevertheless, behind the swashbuckling adventures, "the incredibles" left a lot to ponder..

• 50% of the viewers in the theatre where i went were children to adolescents


• 99% of those young viewers laughed and cheered when the bad guys' hovercrafts collided (i dunno what pixar named those hostile flying saucers with spinning blades on its side)


• 99% of the viewers giggled when ednamode (one of the hero) was describing that "superhero capes is bad"; complete with graphic description of grimacing superheroes as they and their capes got sucked by tornado, jet turbines, etc


• 99% of the young viewers applauded when the elementary-school-aged dash (one of the hero) successfully dodged bullets coming out from the automatic weapons of his pursuers


• 99% of the viewers were ecstatic when they saw that trees were cut and rocks fell down during the hot pursuit of bad guys vs the incredibles

human sufferings, chronic poverty, violence, killings and man-made disasters is part of my work. i haven't watched the tv for a year or so for delaying the effect that my work might have on my sensitivity to humanism. (this is a personal rationale to "not having a tv set ) but really, i was appalled at the heavy dose of violence in "the incredibles", that turns into "the not-so incredibles" in front of my eyes.

on the other hand, sure life is hard and hostile. delaying the exposure to daily life harshness out there might be irrelevant, as eventually, children will become adults who later on have to deal with god knows what's out there. behind the veil of loving family that works amazingly as a caring team, there lies a good portion of antagonism.

life is like a coin? it has two sides of everything?

however, having seen the movie still left some bitter taste in my mouth.
i still can't believe that pixar even gave power to jack-jack (the family's baby).

indian delirium

it all begins when i was told that there are beaus inside
anyways i started to watch. and paid a pretty good attention and let my mind spins.
swept into the indian delirium.
of colossal production
of mass coreography
of colorful saris
and shahrukh khan in yellow and magenta..

(to be continued)

only the dead have seen the end of war*

Finally, I made the time to watch Black Hawk Down. Initially, I expected a war movie, but it turned out to be (well, for me it is) a half docu-war movie with a humanitarian and political undercurrents.

Scene #1
The first scene has a thick "gladiator-like" musical background. Is it a Ridley Scott trademark? Dunno..

A gripping first scene. Truck loaded with food aid (rice) in a distribution point somewhere in Mogadishu. Chaos. Crowd. People were all over the place - they were practically attacked the truck. Logistic workers (presumably) were throwing the rice bags out of the truck. Men and women were fighting for the rice. Rice bags were grabbed, tugged, torn away. Rice spilled on dusty earth. A perfect chaotic rice distribution. There were no stamps, no coupons, no queue, no beneficiaries (IDPs** list).

An armed car - a pick up vehicle with a machine gun on it, came up and emptied live bullets to the crowd. The civilians. While yelling, that the rice belonged to General Aidid --- the ruling regime leader.

A total chaos.


Scene #2
A US Somalia Operation Base asked for a backup to the UN in an UN-Safe zone, where the Pakistani and Malaysian soldiers were housed. UN tanks strolled out of the safe haven to extract trapped US soldiers in a planned 30 minutes operation that revolved into a full 24 hours urban war.

That scene struck me because as far as I know, in most cases, the big, gigantic and bureaucratic UN has been described as incapable and feeble.

Black Hawk Down was:

>> About a very absorbing movie due to its proximity to my professional life (no, I'm not somebody who wears uniform).

>> About working colleagues, who has a big chance of experiencing (be that in the past, present and future) such hellish, anarchic and frenzied situation in any conflict hot spots in my part of the world.

>> About a situation and condition so liquid, which makes security (both personnel and situation) very hard to be determined nor guaranteed; while on the other hand, humanitarian actions must be sustained.

>> About to what extent should a situation is considered as secure? From whose point of view? Are there any exact measures to assess security?

>> About soldiers who were trained and paid to die and to stay alive at their best under any circumstances.

>> About soldiers, who were flown into and thrown out to some foreign land and areas they have never heard before and were ordered to stay alive and to prepare to die at the same time.

>> About people who were not part of the war, had never been in a war; were unable to any extent understand reasons behind a war and reasons for people to go to war.

>> About the person next to you.

>> About one's inability to choose and to expect, who will be shot at and inability to provide any assistance whatsoever.

>> About whether military and war are that bad?

>> About the chance of peaceful negotiation in time of war.

>> About whether war is totally unavoidable?

>> About the cost of a nation's pride.

>> About considering our present atmosphere, whether we are ready and brave enough to stand such situation?


The first urban war that the US has gone into took place almost 10 years ago. When I was barely a freshman at my university, trying to understand the term of "international affairs".

Where were you on October 3, 1993?


la brioche doreé,
blok m plaza,
sat, 02/03/02 (original)
sat, 14/12/02 (revised)

* plato
** IDPs: internally displaced persons.
people who are forced to leave their hometown to seek refuge in another area within one's national border.
***movie poster found in google.com.
site of origin: http://www.cartelia.net/fotos/b/blackhawkderribado.jpg

memento (2000) - US Independent Movie

image source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209144/


Combined details: (http://us.imdb.com/Details?0209144):

Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Writing credits: Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan (story)

Produced by:
Christopher Ball (II) .... co-executive producer (as Chris J. Ball), Elaine Dysinger .... co-producer, Aaron Ryder .... executive producer, Emma Thomas .... associate producer, Jennifer Todd (III) .... producer, Suzanne Todd .... producer, William Tyrer .... co-executive producer

Cast:
Guy Pearce (Leonard Shelby), Carrie-Anne Moss (Natalie), Joe Pantoliano (Officer John Edward 'Teddy' Gammel aka John G)

Production Companies:
I Remember Productions, Llc; Newmarket Capital Group; Team Todd

Distributors:
Columbia TriStar Home Video [us], ECT [no], Helkon Filmverleih GmbH [de] (Germany), New World Films Internacional, S.A. [es] (Spain), Newmarket Film Group, Pathé Pictures [uk], Summit Entertainment (non-USA), UGC-Fox Distribution (UFD) [fr] (France)

MPAA: Rated R for violence, language and some drug content.
Runtime: 113
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Black and White / Color
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
Certification: Australia:MA / Brazil:16 / Finland:K-15 / France:U / Germany:16 / Hong Kong:IIB / Mexico:C / Netherlands:16 / New Zealand:R16 / Norway:15 / Singapore:PG (censored version) / Spain:13 / Sweden:15 / Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) / Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) / UK:15 / USA:R


Guy Pearce - the actor from the land downunder dubbed as the future Russel Crowe won an Oscar for his performance in this psycho-drama flick.

A husband with non-existent memory hunts down the killer of his wife through polaroid shots, scribbled notes on papers and notes tattooed on his body.

Memento (latin): memory (n, v. English)

Captured thoughts
>> Backward way of seeing things. Opening scene was a rewinded scene. Leading man suffers from short-term memory loss. Kinda reminded me of some part in "One Thousand Years of Solitude" where Buendia put notes on things in the house when the whole village suffer from Amnesia -- when he put notes on things in the motel. Use his body to tattoo sentences on it, which functions as notepad. He believes that notes can be trusted.

>> Despite the inability to remember new things, the leading man likes to remember his wife - who was murdered by someone. The leading role can't make new memory. He revived his memory by remembering the feelings he has for his wife, the touches. Story backs down every scene, per location taken. Not in "rewind" mode, but in nomral mode. The tattooed notes has different fonts. It's written backwards.

>> He said that one of his client esperiences "anterial-grade memory loss" or short-term memory loss. His client -Sammy Jankis- can't remember anything he just did. Even instinctively.

>> On the back of his thumb is written "remember sammy jankis". This handwriting seems to be Pearce's reference in his course of actions along the movie. Pearce is a claim investigator and Jankis was his client. It was in an insurance-claim case of "short-term memory loss". Jankis' wife tried to claim an insurance, based on the ground that Jankis' condition is physical and ergo, entitled to insurance money. After a series of tests, conclusion was made that his condition is psychological instead of physical. In this case which was aimed at testing his ability to avoid picking up a certain object instinctively, Jankis failed to do so. He kept picking up an electrocuted object instinctively, while he was supposed not to do that instinctively as well. The insurance declined the clain, saying that they don't cover mental illness.

>> In the case of Pearce as the leading man, he said that "habits and routine makes my life possible" and "conditioning. acting on instinct". He believes that in his habits and routines saved him from the catasthrope of short-term memory loss, as well as his ability to act on instinct. In relation to Jankis' case, his former client was not able to do so.

>> Each broken scene is full color and seemed to be connected by a black and white scene, where Pearce would kept talking on the phone and stating his conclusions on things that has just happened.

>> Memory vs instinct. It was a common revenge drama story. But was it? What if you can't feel time? IMHO, I concluded "Memento" as a psycho-drama story with a revolutionized story telling.

>> People might have different interpretation, appreciation as well as conclusion. The movie itself should probably left to film students to be carefully reviewed and analyze. While to us as a larger audience, it's a "memento", a memory, a souvenir of our daily life. Most of the time we let our daily routines and habits roll just like that. Passing us by, leaving us behind. We take our memory for granted - a total granted. Something that has been, is and will always be there for us. If only we are willing and would like, we could have stopped for a brief reflection of a nanosecond period and we might pick up a few things we have left behind. Things which, perhaps, may improve ourselves or help ourselves to see and sift things through and further on, help ourselves in our course of life.

>> The most interesting element of the movie was the backward story telling. Glad the movie wasn't set in "rewind mode", but setting it in a reverse order per scene taken has nailed most of the audience on their seats and kept them wondering about "what happened before" instead of regular "what happened next".

>> I might say that reverse ordered "Memento" has a revolutionized way of putting story into a movie. The question is, would you watch a movie that seems to test your so-called "random access memory" or would you rather watch regular "normal mode" flicks? IMHO, it's a subjective taste and choice. For me, it's like choosing to read "One Thousand Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez or "Rainbow Six" by Tom Clancy

>> There are some odd scene though. It might be because of my poor observation or the movie has probably affected my short-term memory as well. Or probably the scenes were made to be like that in purpose. Only the director knows. It was when Pearce seemed to have remembered a gun, which he took control after he whacked Dodd. He remembered that the gun belongs to Dodd and convinced himself that a guy like him wouldn't carry a gun around. Au contraire, he couldn't remember that he hit Carrie Ann-Moss himself. Moss left the premise, stayed in the car while Pearce was desperately searching for pens, so that he could write things. But Moss has hidden all pens before leaving the premise. After staying in the car for a while, under the watchful eyes of Pearce, Moss entered the premise again, saying that Dood has beaten her! Pearce completely unaware of that as he soothed her. All these was set in full color, which means it is set in present time and Pearce should remember what is he doing. But hey, it's just me ;)