Although it failed to ignite much interest when it debuted at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), we’re sensing South African filmmaker Steven Silver’s drama The Bang Bang Club will provide some level of moderate entertainment values. After all, it attempts to cover a subject that’s well worthy of note.
The Bang-Bang Club was a four-man clique of photojournalists who risked their lives covering the violence and atrocities in South Africa from 1990-1994, a period nearing the end of apartheid with various political factions rising to gain dominance. In addition to award-winning photographer Kevin Carter (played by Taylor Kitsch of Friday Night Lights notoriety), whose rise to fame and tragic death have been documented in an Academy-Award-nominated flick (The Death of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang Club), the group consisted of Greg Marinovich (Ryan Phillippe), Ken Oosterberoek (Neels Van Jaarsveld), and Joao Silva (Frank Rautenbach) who are all either dead or severely injured from their line of duty.
Based on the book of the same title written by Marinovich and Silva, the plotline alone is intriguing, though the somewhat laughable accents heard in this trailer are red flags. Judgment shall be reserved until April 22nd, when the film hits screens.
