Film Recommendation--"The Way Home"

Welcome flyboy804 and thank you for the heads up about this film.

Hey, flyboy - Welcome!

Always looking for good foreign and independent films to watch -- it might show up on cable like Sundance but my list is building up enough to start another subscription of NetFlix.

Here's the Metacritic direct link to the page:

http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/wayhome

I believe the film is Korea's submission to the Academy in consideration of the Oscar

Welcome Flyboy :-)

Welcome, flyboy!
Reading the reviews was interesting. Lightwizard, are you familiar with The Onion? Its review was just nasty.
It definitely looks like a film I would love. I've started to watch more indie films like The Cruise, Mindwalk, Basquiat, Smoke Signals, etc. They seem to have a way of telling a story that is clear and intelligent, without the over-use of special effects or star-based plots.
Has anyone seen Bowling for Columbine? I haven't seen any other Michael Moore films, but I really enjoyed this one. I just wish his obvious bias didn't cause him to misuse facts. Some of his comparisons were irrelevant and weakened an otherwise important message.

As far as Michael Moore is concerned, misusing lies would be a bigger problem. If his conclusion based on facts is not to your liking, I would say he was editorializing (which is what this kind of film does) and one can draw their own conclusion.

Here's a site with statistics on children killed by firearms -- much worse than any adminstration wants anyone to know:

http://www.commondreams.org/pressreleases/Oct98/101298a.htm

Hi, Dianne. Your points are well taken. There is one very significant explanation for the frequent superiority of the "indies". While the makers would of course want to make money, it is not nearly as important to them as the bottom line is to the major producers. As for Michael Moore's twisting facts, he has frequently been criticized for this. He is too good a film maker not to be aware of this, but has presumedly weighed the plusses and minusses, and concluded that he best gets his point accross to more people with his current methods. This twisting was equally present in his first, and I believe best, major film, "Roger and Me", which was a put down of General Motors. Also, the "Onion" is a satirical youth oriented paper, started by college students. I don't take anythging in the paper seriously.

Welcome home, flyboy. Have yet to see this film that evokes such fascinating and strong emotions from you. But I think I will.

Moore is an independent filmmaker who is truly independent. If he takes occasions to exaggerate in putting a point across, that's freedom of speech. If one thinks anyone is convinced by this to take a certain course, I could see someone on the fence going over to his side but I can equally see someone pointing out the exaggeration to fortify their side. I don't see where he goes that far overboard that it distorts any of the facts -- he's pressing for one one to reach his conclusions. One doesn't have to do that if they don't want to (and there are many that until someone shoots at them won't change their mind and maybe not even then!) Curiously, the right wing has by-and-large left the film alone -- could it be they really don't care to encourage anyone to see it for fear they will see truth in the conclusions?

There are two cable channels now offering independent film fare, independent Film Channel and Sundance. Great evidence that Indies are here to stay.

Maybe flyboy will create a discussion on the best Indies?

LW, your points about Michael Moore and Bowling For Columbine are well taken. Perhaps if I had been familiar with his work, I wouldn't have been surprised at his willingness to reach so far in order to make certain comparisons, such as the bombing of Kosovo on the same day of the Columbine shootings. For the most part, it was extraordinarily effective and the few weak points certainly didn't take away from my enjoyment or appreciation of the film.

I thought his premise was fascinating--that the number of killings in the US isn't so much the number of guns, violent video games or rock stars like Marilyn Manson, but rather the fear and resulting reactionary response that is a sickness in our society. His comparison of the number of shootings in Canada, a nation with as many guns per capita as the US, was very telling. (It made me think about moving to Canada.)

It is a film that I would highly recommend. I will definitely be renting his other films.

Hi, Diane -- Moore does makes some very powerful suggestions but then he isn't in the mind of those who use guns to kill. The Kosovo comparison is something that came up in his creative process and to make a suggestion about the mentality present in our society towards using weapons to solve problems. I think that is one reason he won at Cannes and should be up for a documentary Oscar this year. I saw another Indie this week entitled "Floating," a coming of age drama that had some unique viewpoints and left itself open to interpretation. Here's to Indies!