Bill Maher: Victory Begins At Home

Victory Begins At Home is the last of the Bill Maher DVDs I currently own.  The DVD presents his one man show which was apparently conceived to go hand in hand with his book When You Ride Alone Bin Laden Rides With You.  Several of the propaganda posters from the book are used as backdrops for sections of his show.  I love these WWII style posters.  I actually have some real WWII propaganda posters in the collection somewhere and I have a couple of the spoof ones in magnet form on the refrigerator.  I do not currently have a copy of Maher’s book with his posters, but I should shortly as I just ordered one on eBay from Armadillo Books.  I also love and collect armadillos, so I figured it was a sign and smacked that “Buy It Now” button.

Victory Begins At Home tackles the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the politics around these issues.  It also touches on other topics, but this is the centerpiece of the show.  I tend to agree with Maher on most political issues, so his humor is often preaching to the crowd.  He says something and I agree, so it’s funny.  He makes a point about how Bush sold the war and I find myself agreeing and ready to laugh along.  I’m not sure how the humor would translate with someone who actually liked Bush and thought that he did the right thing taking us to war in Iraq.

Maher also takes his jabs at religion, but he still seems more tolerant of religion than he does on Real Time.  He spends more time on pedophile priests than on actual religious doctrine and beliefs here.  He does make a point however to discuss the differences between Muslim extremists and Christian extremists. 

I definitely recommend checking this one out, and be sure to watch the bonus feature which contains a Q&A with the audience.  I don’t know if it was the editing on this segment or what, but I was actually very disappointed in that several times Bill seemed to take a lesson from the politicians and sidestep 95% of the question.

Victory Begins At Home gets a 9 1/2 on the Night Flight scale and is probably my favorite of the three DVDs of Maher’s that I have reviewed.  I hope Big Lots gets another batch of HBO Specials this fall.

The Hurt Locker

My original plan was to buy The Hurt Locker and watch it the night before the Oscars.  When I went out to Wal-Mart to buy it that Saturday night they were sold out.  It was restocked after that, but I retreated to my old policy of not buying a DVD at full price and I also figured I would pick it up on Blu-ray instead.  Then my daughter started talking about wanting to see it.  They had watched it in her ROTC class and she really liked it.  Now she wanted to see it again.  I still just wanted to see it to try to keep up with the most recent best picture winners at the Oscars.  So last week we were at Best Buy and they had the DVD of The Hurt Locker for only $12.  I figured I could splurge that much for the DVD, and if I later picked it up on Blu-ray, I could pass the DVD on to my daughter.

I popped The Hurt Locker in and had very high expectations for it.  For the most part I felt it was a very good movie.  I’m not sure it fulfilled my expectations, but they may have been set too high.  I guess the big question for me was should it have won Best Picture?  Probably.  I enjoyed Avatar more, but so much of Avatar’s story was rehashed from other films.  One of my favorite films of last year was Inglorious Basterds, but I’m not sure it had the gravitas to really take the statue.  What I have seen of Up I have liked, but I’m not sure the academy is actually ready to name an animated film as Best Picture just yet.  So basing my decision solely on the nominated films I actually saw last year, yes, The Hurt Locker probably should have won. 

I will also stand behind the decision to name Kathryn Bigelow as best director.  The directing in the film is amazing.  The scenes with the bombs are very tense even though we know that Jeremy Renner’s character is not going to get blown up in the first half of the movie.  Even more amazing is the continued tension between the members of the squad.  I kept expecting that moment where they all become bast buddies and Renner’s character lets them in on what makes him work the way he does and gives a speech on how he is doing this to help them to become better soldiers or something to this extent.  That scene never comes.  We get a little insight into the way Renner’s Sgt. FC Will James’ mind works, but there is no epiphany moment where Will becomes more human with his team.  The enlightenment we get as an audience is mostly organic.  This is the product of good writing, great acting, and outstanding directing.

I did get a personal moment of joy in discovering that the psychiatrist, Colonel John Cambridge, was played by the brother of Showtime’s Dexter, Christian Camargo.  The thought of the ice truck killer being the calming voice for troubled soldier Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) just amused me tremendously.  Carmago did a great job in a fairly minor role.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also praise Anthony Mackie as Sgt. JT Sanborn.  His character was in many ways the most complex as he wasn’t the “wild man” or the innocent about to go off his rocker.  Mackie is a professional.  He wants to get the job done and go home safe, but he also wants to know that he has what it takes to put on the suit and take out the bombs just like Will. 

The Hurt Locker doesn’t really preach either side of the war in Iraq.  It simply shows us the men that are out there taking care of the most difficult task I could imagine on the field of combat.  I give the film 4 stars.