The Bang Bang Club (2010)
Average Rating: 5.9/10
Reviews Counted: 45
Fresh: 21 | Rotten: 24
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 5.6/10
Critic Reviews: 17
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 12
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 3,164
Movie Info
The Bang Bang Club is the true story of four young combat photographers bonded by friendship and their sense of purpose to tell the truth. They risk their lives and use their cameras to tell the world of the violence associated with the first free elections in post-Apartheid South Africa. Ryan Phillippe, Malin Akerman and Taylor Kitsch star in a film that explores the thrills, danger, and moral questions associated with exposing the truth. -- (C) tribeca
Apr 22, 2011 Limited
Aug 16, 2011
Tribeca
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Cast
-
Ryan Phillippe
Greg Marinovich -
Taylor Kitsch
Carter, Kevin Carter -
Malin Akerman
Robin Comley -
Frank Rautenbach
Ken Oosterbroek -
Neels VanJaarsveld
Joao Silva
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All Critics (45) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (21) | Rotten (24) | DVD (1)
A queasy mix of high-toned intentions and commercial compromises.
Top CriticSilver cut his teeth in documentaries and it shows in the skilled on-the-ground style of the camerawork. But visuals are only half the story and the plot doesn't keep up.
"The Bang Bang Club" divulges little insight into what keeps this dangerous brotherhood banging away around the world.
This is one of those relatively rare movies that gets better and smarter as it goes along...
Seldom does "The Bang Bang Club" show much interest in the big picture of South Africa.
The story has heat, even if the movie is more entranced with its subjects than in what they're trying to achieve.
full review at Movies for the Masses
This film is painstakingly detailed in its recreation of iconic events and images. It's also beautifully played by a superb cast, although the story is undermined by unnecessary sideplots.
Impressively directed, strikingly shot and superbly acted drama that tells an intriguing true story and asks some thought-provoking questions about the nature of journalism.
Silver offers no easy way out of his moral maze, just an unflinching look at conflict and its impact both on the perpetrators and those who watch.
The production is too glossy for the deadly serious and viscerally real subject matter in this photojournalist thriller.
It's definitely something worth seeking out, and a must-see if you have any interest in the ethics of modern reporting.
It's heavy stuff, but the director supplement's his film with enough fluff to keep it both entertaining and informative.
Silver's execution lacks elegance or great dramatic structure, but it works well enough to tell an urgent story that defined an era, and continues to define our times.
Silver's recreation of actual events has an almost tangible energy that recalls Paul Greengrass's work.
Thrilling stories; mediocre movie. It happens.
Some of the movie's moments have real power. But the bulk of it is complicated and unbalanced, spending too much time on certain issues and dodging others entirely.
The Bang Bang Club seems to imply that the real tragedy was how a group of talented, committed young men were broken by a dangerous professional environment -- a dubious conclusion for a dubious movie.
The film's politically minded and morally probing framework is marred by its portrayal of veritable frat boys goofing off.
This is a movie about a group of people who essentially exploit the suffering of others and eventually that takes their toll on them.
By focusing on the power of photography, the film feels more like a series of snapshots than a coherent narrative of a pivotal moment in South Africa's history.
There's room for more nuance in The Bang Bang Club, but there was enough to keep me engaged.
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Movie: ID: 770810669 Title: The Bang Bang Club Release Date: 2011-04-22 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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