FILM REVIEW
Review Scoring Chart - 10: Masterpiece; 9: Outstanding; 8: Very Good; 7: Good; 6: Above Average; 5: Average; 4: Below Average; 3: Bad; 2: Awful; 1: Reprehensible; 0: Non- Functional.
REBELLION
Dir: Mathieu Kassovitz
Stars: Mathieu Kassovitz, Iabe Lapacas, Malik Zidi, Alexandre Steiger, Daniel Martin
Running Time: 136mins [This article was first published on Flixist]
Although director Mathieu Kassovitz has had a hard time getting his Hollywood career off the ground, with such unloved productions as Babylon A.D. and Gothika under his belt, it must not be forgotten that his career began with urban drama La Haine, one of the most powerful films to come out of France in the nineties. As the title might suggest, La Haine (aka Hatred) had an angry moral streak running through it, which Kassovitz draws on again for Rebellion - or L'Ordre Et La Morale, aka Order and Morality, as is the much better French title.
Where La Haine was set in the urban jungle of a Paris housing project, Rebellion
takes to the jungle quite literally. Telling the story of a negotiator
desperately trying to peacefully resolve a hostage situation in the
overseas French territory of New Caledonia, Kassovitz (who stars as well
as directing) directs his righteous anger at those high up in the
political system and media who manipulated the situation for their gain
in the upcoming Presidential elections.
Make no mistake, Rebellion is a polemic. It is based on the
book by Philippe Legorjus (played by Kassovitz in the film), the man
sent to New Caledonia to negotiate with the rebels who have taken over
two gendarmerie stations, and the story is told exclusively from his
character's point of view. Thus, every politician is self-serving and
devious, every military man bloodthirsty and despotic. The film has a
point to make and does so in a heavily impassioned manner, but anyone
expecting a rounded examination of what turned into a needless massacre
should look elsewhere.
Layers of grey in might have obfuscated the message, but could also have given it just a little more credibility. Because of how those in charge are portrayed as fairly straightforward villains, it is easy to see why the situation engendered such generalising, but as with Michael Moore's films, there is always a lingering question about how the other side might have defended themselves.
Layers of grey in might have obfuscated the message, but could also have given it just a little more credibility. Because of how those in charge are portrayed as fairly straightforward villains, it is easy to see why the situation engendered such generalising, but as with Michael Moore's films, there is always a lingering question about how the other side might have defended themselves.
Regardless, this is powerful stuff and the captions that end the film
(informing us of the consequences of the massacre) certainly suggest
that Legorjus gave an accurate account of the sort of political
machinations that prevented him from doing his job and saving many
lives. As a film, Kassovitz heavily channels Apocalypse Now, making several direct references in a few of his shots.
From the jungle environments to the growling soundtrack, it is
steeped in the foreknowledge, courtesy of the story being told in
flashback, that atrocities are the inevitable outcome. Just as Coppola's
film emphasized how lost and alien its American soldiers felt in the
midst of a hostile Vietname jungle, Kassovitz gets a similar feeling of
dread from seeing a man so expert at establishing control over
situations gradually realising that everything has been out of his hands
all along and there is nothing he can do to prevent bloodshed. At the
moments when he is highest, seemingly only a step away from achieving
his goal, the audience are at their lowest, knowing that his fall to
Earth will be all the further.
As an actor, Kassovitz gives a compelling and naturalistic
performance. His Legorjus is a man with the upmost faith in the power of
dialogue to sort out any conflict, who discovers to his horror that it
is the people and situations outside the conflict who are the ones who
cannot be negotiated with and are the most responsible when solvable
problems descend into chaos. When he realises that he has no choice but
to turn his back on everything he believes in and the people he has made
promises to help, it is a heartbreaking moment. His face is as
implacable as ever, remaining absolutely calm no matter what latest
setback is thrown at him, but in his eyes we can see an existence that
has been profoundly cracked.
The bulk of the film consists of back-and-forth negotiations, with
Legorjus travelling between the rebel camp (where he talks to the leader
Alphonse Diannou, played by the enormously sympathetic actor Iabe
Lapacas) where the hostages are being held, the military outpost in New
Caledonia and the headquarters of his political masters back in France.
Violence occurs only sporadically and in short, stylised bursts. A
flashback to how one of the gendarmerie (police) stations was taken over
is done with Legorjus literally walking through the action as his
colleague tells him how it happened, an elegant storytelling decision
which gets around the messy cuts between time frames that usually come
with such material.
Rebellion is a terrific return to form for Kassovitz, his best
film in years and one that comes from his once again opening up the
same vein of bloody rage that produced La Haine. As an actor, he
gives a nuanced performance as a man who realises quite how little
control he really has. As a director, he contrasts the tropical beauty
of the New Caledonia surroundings with the murky politics circling like
vultures above the little island, waiting for new corpses to feed on.
While hardly a balanced representation of a true story, it is
compellingly told and a timely reminder both of what enormous talent
Kassovitz has at his fingertips and how badly Hollywood has wasted him. [ 8 ]
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