karenr

DamNation really surprised me - very fascinating, very compelling, and I didn't go in already converted. An excellent film - hats off to Travis Rummel and Ben Knight and also to Yvon Chouinard. The film is a real eye-opener. It avoids didactic, but makes you feel the power and importance of rivers to America. Who knew we have 70,000 dams in the US, most doing nothing useful at this point? I want everyone to see this film - it is really good, really exciting and really important. It is hard to make fish truly sympathetic, they are cold, scaly and expressionless. But this film has me convinced that anything able to swim 900 miles deserve our support, and the removal of a few dams doing nothing useful at this point.

I saw this movie at a screening and, sacrilege oh sacrilege, I liked it better than Crow I. Finally someone has made a movie where the female characters are as strong as the men, not just whimpering decorations. I found Shelly in Crow I depressing insipid and saccharine. Here, Jodi Lyn O'keefe plays this totally strong girl that Eric Mabius loves for her fighting spirit. It actually works - you feel there is something unique and beautiful between these two that should be allowed to live on. I was oddly touched at the end when they get back together. (I admit it - I cried). It's just kind of beautiful. You wish there could be more of this in the world. There is plenty of action and violence - but finally the girls are doing their fare share. Some of the violence is raw - but where it belongs - in the rape scenes. Hollywood normally whitewashes violence against women - tries to make it sexy- but no one is pussyfooting around here. It's gross. No soft-focus, no slo-mo: the rape scene is just plain brutal. Who knows maybe this is a girls movie, a feminist film that rocks. Eric Mabius is wonderful as the Crow. 8/10