{"id":6776,"date":"2015-09-12T14:54:51","date_gmt":"2015-09-12T21:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/BigJimIndustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=6776"},"modified":"2015-09-13T15:19:43","modified_gmt":"2015-09-13T22:19:43","slug":"beasts-of-no-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2015\/09\/12\/beasts-of-no-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"Beasts of No Nation, ‘A stunning cross between \u201cPeter Pan\u201d and \u201cApocalypse Now\u201d’"},"content":{"rendered":"

from The Economist<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Netflix’s first theatrical release deserves to be watched at the cinema<\/h1>\n

by N.B. | VENICE<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

CARY FUKUNAGA\u2019s \u201cBeasts of No Nation\u201d is the most controversial film in competition at this year\u2019s Venice Film Festival, but not because of its subject matter. The controversial part is that it is being distributed by Netflix, making this the first time that the internet-streaming service has put its name to a theatrically released film. But it\u2019s the phrase \u201ctheatrically released\u201d which is the problem.<\/p>\n

In March, Netflix announced that it would be offering \u201cBeasts of No Nation\u201d online to its subscribers on the very day (October 16th) that the film was going into cinemas. Exhibitors\u2014that is, cinema owners\u2014were not pleased. Four American chains announced that they wouldn\u2019t be showing \u201cBeasts of No Nation\u201d at all, their argument being that, if cinemas are to survive, they must be allowed exclusive access to new films for several weeks before they are available elsewhere. If Netflix wouldn\u2019t go along with this practice, they said, then its film deserved to be boycotted. The fact that the Venice Festival went on to select \u201cBeasts of No Nation\u201d as one of its competition entries must have felt like a kick in the teeth. People everywhere are opting to watch movies on laptops rather than in cinemas. If the world\u2019s oldest film festival won\u2019t discourage them, then who will?<\/p>\n

A more pertinent question is whether festivals have an obligation to support exhibitors at all. Venice\u2019s Biennale is officially designated a \u201cMostra Internazionale D\u2019Arte Cinematografica\u201d, which suggests that its remit is to celebrate films rather than the buildings where they are shown. If a film ends up being viewed on a screen that\u2019s 15 inches wide rather than 50 feet wide, then so be it. \u201cExhibitors have got to wake up and smell the coffee,\u201d as one publicist said to me in Venice. \u201cThings are changing and they\u2019re not about to change back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story gets more complicated when you see the film itself. To put it mildly, \u201cBeasts of No Nation\u201d is quite something. Adapted from Uzodinma Iweala\u2019s novel, it is an immersive fable about a boy in an unnamed African country whose family is executed in front of him during a civil war. Fleeing into the jungle, he is adopted by a charismatic commandant (Idris Elba), and brainwashed into becoming a guerrilla fighter. There are times when he enjoys the summer-camp cameraderie he shares with his fellow child-soldiers. But he also has to machete innocent strangers, submit to sexual abuse and drug use, and watch while his new friends are gunned down. The horrors of war have rarely been catalogued more horrifically.<\/p>\n

[ click to continue reading at The Economist<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from The Economist Netflix’s first theatrical release deserves to be watched at the cinema by N.B. | VENICE CARY FUKUNAGA\u2019s \u201cBeasts of No Nation\u201d is the most controversial film in competition at this year\u2019s Venice Film Festival, but not because of its subject matter. The controversial part is that it is being distributed by Netflix, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}