In this movie, the background action of the almost forgotten bloody conflicts between Zulu and Xhosa prior to the abolition of Apartheid is far more interesting the the primary story of a group of white photographers with film star attitudes covering it. To sum it up, they look gorgeous, they dodge bullets, they make love to their foxy photo editor and they drink. Judging from the portraits of the actual photographers of the original Bang Bang Club, this might have even been surprisingly truthful. We seem to have a movie where stroppy young Hollywood actors (Ryan Philippe!) play real-life guys pretending to be Hollywood badasses.
As a (former) photojournalist, this was partially a movie about my former dreams. Taking the picture that summarizes a conflict so well that it can bring it to the world's attention-kinda thing.
On the other hand, I had a stack of issues with the movie. Driving into an angry and armed crowd shouting "We're press!" -- really bad idea at any place and any time. Same for a group of photojournalists staying closely together so that they can exchange witty banter (good for the film) but will end up bringing nearly identical photographs (bad for the photographer). And if you're planning to photograph a dead child during a wake in the middle of the night, you might consider bringing a flash to go with your F4 in order to spare your coy photoeditor girlfriend having to shove a lightbulb right up the dead boy's nose. When you the unknown rookie photographer brings your first great photograph to a newspaper, you won't be handed an envelope stuffed with money. Stuff like that.
As a (former) photojournalist, this was partially a movie about my former dreams. Taking the picture that summarizes a conflict so well that it can bring it to the world's attention-kinda thing.
On the other hand, I had a stack of issues with the movie. Driving into an angry and armed crowd shouting "We're press!" -- really bad idea at any place and any time. Same for a group of photojournalists staying closely together so that they can exchange witty banter (good for the film) but will end up bringing nearly identical photographs (bad for the photographer). And if you're planning to photograph a dead child during a wake in the middle of the night, you might consider bringing a flash to go with your F4 in order to spare your coy photoeditor girlfriend having to shove a lightbulb right up the dead boy's nose. When you the unknown rookie photographer brings your first great photograph to a newspaper, you won't be handed an envelope stuffed with money. Stuff like that.