Tweet
NOT ENOUGH VOICES HEARD IN 'SCREAMERS'
By Jeffrey Westhoff - [email protected]
Northwest Herald, IL
Feb 10 2007
"Screamers" cannot decide if it wants to be a documentary about the
band System of a Down or what the band is about.
The four members of the hard rock group have grandparents who survived
the Armenian genocide of 1915. This tragedy, which was perpetrated by
the Turkish army at the beginning of World War I, is the band's cause.
"Screamers" wants carry this cause to a greater audience, and succeeds
at it intermittently. But it just as often turns into a concert film,
and watching the band screech the same song in America, England and
Germany doesn't illuminate the topic of genocide, no matter how angry
and politically charged the lyrics.
The band members, especially the articulate lead singer Serj Tanakian,
are right to be angry and political. To this day the Turkish government
denies the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians happened. While most
nations have pressured Turkey to admit to this travesty, the country
has two powerful enablers: the United States and the United Kingdom.
"Screamers" lays this information out, but it doesn't dig into it. It
is easy to say that America and Britain don't want to offend Turkey
because both have military bases in the country that has held strategic
importance since the Second World War. Naturally America currently
wants to remain allied with a country that borders Iraq and Iran.
But "Screamers" does not explain why the current Turkey's contemporary
leaders refuse to acknowledge an event that happened 90 years
ago. Maybe such a thing cannot be explained, but director Carla
Garapedian and her researchers should have tried harder to include
more Turkish voices.
Garapedian fails to follow up on many things, most notably the band's
pursuit of former U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. Seeking
a House bill that acknowledges the Armenian genocide, the band shows
up outside Hastert's Batavia office with a letter asking him to allow
a vote on the bill. Tanakian later corners Hastert in the U.S. Capitol.
But Garapedian never reveals Hastert's decision (which I assume was
negative, although my Internet search skills have failed me here).
"Screamers" could have used an update to see how System of a Down
will pursue the issue now that the Democrats control Congress.
"Screamers" also attempts an overview of modern genocide, showing
how the Armenian massacre prefigured the genocides in Nazi Germany,
Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. But as they tally the victims in
these genocides the filmmakers make an unconscionable error, stating
that 6 million died in the Holocaust. That oft-repeated statistic
refers only to the Jews murdered in the Holocaust. The total number
of people killed is estimated at 11 million, and most of those others
were gypsies, Serbs and Bosnians.
It is unforgivable for a film asking us to remember 1.5 million
victims of one genocide to overlook 5 million of another.
"Screamers"
2 stars Rated R for disturbing images of genocide and language Running
time: 1 hour, 21 minutes Directed by Carla Garapedian Starring System
of a Down, Dennis Hastert Opens today at Kerasotes Webster Place
Theatres, 1471 W. Webster St., Chicago
By Jeffrey Westhoff - [email protected]
Northwest Herald, IL
Feb 10 2007
"Screamers" cannot decide if it wants to be a documentary about the
band System of a Down or what the band is about.
The four members of the hard rock group have grandparents who survived
the Armenian genocide of 1915. This tragedy, which was perpetrated by
the Turkish army at the beginning of World War I, is the band's cause.
"Screamers" wants carry this cause to a greater audience, and succeeds
at it intermittently. But it just as often turns into a concert film,
and watching the band screech the same song in America, England and
Germany doesn't illuminate the topic of genocide, no matter how angry
and politically charged the lyrics.
The band members, especially the articulate lead singer Serj Tanakian,
are right to be angry and political. To this day the Turkish government
denies the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians happened. While most
nations have pressured Turkey to admit to this travesty, the country
has two powerful enablers: the United States and the United Kingdom.
"Screamers" lays this information out, but it doesn't dig into it. It
is easy to say that America and Britain don't want to offend Turkey
because both have military bases in the country that has held strategic
importance since the Second World War. Naturally America currently
wants to remain allied with a country that borders Iraq and Iran.
But "Screamers" does not explain why the current Turkey's contemporary
leaders refuse to acknowledge an event that happened 90 years
ago. Maybe such a thing cannot be explained, but director Carla
Garapedian and her researchers should have tried harder to include
more Turkish voices.
Garapedian fails to follow up on many things, most notably the band's
pursuit of former U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. Seeking
a House bill that acknowledges the Armenian genocide, the band shows
up outside Hastert's Batavia office with a letter asking him to allow
a vote on the bill. Tanakian later corners Hastert in the U.S. Capitol.
But Garapedian never reveals Hastert's decision (which I assume was
negative, although my Internet search skills have failed me here).
"Screamers" could have used an update to see how System of a Down
will pursue the issue now that the Democrats control Congress.
"Screamers" also attempts an overview of modern genocide, showing
how the Armenian massacre prefigured the genocides in Nazi Germany,
Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. But as they tally the victims in
these genocides the filmmakers make an unconscionable error, stating
that 6 million died in the Holocaust. That oft-repeated statistic
refers only to the Jews murdered in the Holocaust. The total number
of people killed is estimated at 11 million, and most of those others
were gypsies, Serbs and Bosnians.
It is unforgivable for a film asking us to remember 1.5 million
victims of one genocide to overlook 5 million of another.
"Screamers"
2 stars Rated R for disturbing images of genocide and language Running
time: 1 hour, 21 minutes Directed by Carla Garapedian Starring System
of a Down, Dennis Hastert Opens today at Kerasotes Webster Place
Theatres, 1471 W. Webster St., Chicago