Variety
Club's entertainment value suffers at the expense of trying to capture the events as they happened -- an ill-advised endeavor, considering everything.
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The Bang Bang Club
The true story of Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalists who risked their lives to report on the violence and brutality associated with the first free elections in post-Apartheid South Africa. Stars Ryan Phillippe (Flags of our Fathers).
In 1994, four combat photographers - Greg Marinovich (Phillippe), Joao Silva (Neels Van Jaarsveld), Kevin Carter (Taylor Kitsch), and Ken Oosterbroek (Frank Rautenbach) - bonded by their sense of purpose to report the truth, exposed the bloody, final days of white rule in South Africa to the international community. The period of extreme violence came at a heavy price as the group's dedication, and willingness to push the limits of journalistic ethics, brought about personal tragedy. Based on the book written by two of the photographers involved.
Less2010Rating: R16, contains violence, offensive language & content that may disturb107 minsCanada, South Africa
DramaTrue Story & Biography
- Director:
- Steven Silver (feature debut)
- Writer:
- Steven Silver
- Cast:
- Ryan PhillippeMalin AkermanTaylor KitschFrank RautenbachNeels Van JaarsveldAshley MulheronRussel Savadier
The Bang Bang Club | Reviews
49%49 reviewsRotten Tomatoes® Score
All reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
The New York Times
Why, then, do we care not one bit when Pulitzers are won and bullets unsuccessfully dodged? The answer lies partly in Mr. Silver's refusal to elucidate the racial politics or engage with the world outside the film's incoherently chaotic bubble.
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Roger Ebert
This question, which will instinctively occur to many viewers, is never quite dealt with in the film. The photographers sometimes drive into the middle of violent situations, hold up a camera, and say "press!" - as if that will solve everything.
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Los Angeles Times
Writer-director Steven Silver (with an able assist from cinematographer Miroslaw Baszak) captures this brutal time - which led to the country's first free, multiracial elections in 1994 and the end of apartheid - in vivid, often bold, but never overpowering strokes.
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Hollywood Reporter
When all is said and done, their Pulitzer-winning photographs prove more potent than this well-intended but frustratingly generic picture.
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A.V. Club
Silver means to get across the adrenaline rush of lives lived in dangerous extremes, but winds up trivializing their accomplishments and making them seem like men of hearty appetites, but little intellectual depth.
Full reviewThe Bang Bang Club | Release Details
The Bang Bang Club is available to stream in New Zealand now on Google Play and Apple TV and Beamafilm.