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War Dance
R1 - America - Think Film Review written by and copyright: James Teitelbaum (26th April 2008). |
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The Film
 Uganda, as we all know, is not a very happy place at the moment. A rebel army led by one Jospeh Kony has been terrorizing the northern part of the country for over twenty years. Kony's rebel army finds new recruits by kidnapping children and raising them - through terror and violent coercion - to participate in Kony's crusades agains the legitimate government of Uganda. None of this background information is provided for us in "War Dance", a 2006 documentary that was Oscar-nominated last year. Presuming the viewer's foreknowledge of the central African strife, War Dance tells the story of a group of children living in the Patongo refugee camp. Kony's men have killed their families and driven the survivors from their homes. The refugee children make music in order to heal their emotional wounds and to find some quantum of solace in their miserable and tragic lives. Focusing on three of the kids, the story unfolds over about a month, during which time two music educators come to the refugee camp in order to help mold the little performers into something close to presentability. While this is going on, the three main children speak to the camera, telling their horrific stories. Each of these poor tykes have seen more violence, and experienced more trauma in their short existence than anyone ought to have to deal with in a lifetime. They have seen their parents eviscerated, they have been made to kill, and they have been made to hide out in the wilderness for weeks, in fear of being taken captive by rebels. The actual political struggle going on in Uganda is not covered much: rebels are seen as evil bogeymen, monsters who steal children away at night, forced to join an army of darkness. We don't know what the rebels are rebelling against, and we do not get an explanation as to why their army - which is hundreds of thousands of members strong - have resorted to such cruelty in their desire to effect a change in their motherland. We only know that they are evil, that they have traumatized these kind kids, and that they have shattered lives. We do get to meet one rebel, who consents to speak with one of the children on camera. He is a quiet and soft-spoken young man who tries to explain his motivations. Neither he nor the filmmakers provide any background information about his cause, and not being much of a speaker, he is unconvincing. When the time for the big national music competition arrives, the kids are taken by bus to Kampala City. The kids only win one of the nine categories, but Dominic (who plays the xylophone and is sort of the star of the documentary), gets a special award for musicianship. The children of Patongo have still made a respectable showing, gaining honor and respect for their backwoods region of Uganda (the northern part), and for their camp in general. Most of the contestants in the festival are from the (relatively) more urbane southern Uganda, and more importantly these southerners are representing schools that are not located within refugee camps. Aside from perhaps the Patongo xylophone lad, none of the kids are exactly virtuoso players, but that is hardly the point: the music that they play is what gives their darkened hearts hope. While in Kampala City, the children are able to see wonders that they would never have seen living in the bush: a skyscraper, airplanes parked at an airport, and Lake Victoria. It is quaint to the cosmopolitan viewer to see these kids experiencing a side of life that is so new to them. There is a reciprocal in play however, in that the comfortable city-dwellers seeing this movie can gaze into the world of the northern Ugandan bush with an equal measure of awe and wonder. Much of this is due to the camera crew who were able to capture some beautiful footage of the camp and the surrounding landscape.
Video
The original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.78:1 is preserved, enhanced for widescreen televisions. Running time is 1:46:51, divided into 20 chapters. Video quality is quite nice, with richly saturated colors. The print is sparkling clean and shows little (if any) compression artifacting. It appears that some of the material in "War Dance" was captured on the fly by a camera crew, but other portions look to have been staged. Either way, the camerawork is nice, and is (mercifully) less shaky than most contemporary documentaries (come to think of it, most "documentary-style" dramas are more shaky than most modern documentaries, but that is a rant for another time).
Audio
"War Dance" is presented in 5.1 English, with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo option available as well. Many of the Ugandan people speak English, but there are forced English subtitles for the parts spoken in Bantu or Sudanic. The musical aspects of the film are captured nicely, but I did have to wonder about sections where contemporary acoustic guitar-and-synth-pad washes were used in place of a score made by the kids (or at least further Ugandan music). A lot of the story is told in voice-overs pulled from interviews with the principle kids. This material is well-recorded and is integrated nicely with the video footage.
Extras
Bonus features are fairly minimal on this disc, which is unfortunate. I would have loved to see at least a short program giving context to the main feature by discussing the background of the problems in Uganda (aside from a single deleted scene - see below). Alas, all we are presented with are deleted or extended scenes and theatrical trailers: There are deleted or extended scenes that include the following: - "Choral Practice" runs for 3 minutes 14 seconds; The kids receive advice from their music teacher. - "Dominic's Escape from the LRA" runs for 1 minute 56 seconds; Dominic relates the tale of his escape. - "Dominic Meets a Professional Xylophone Player" runs for 3 minutes 18 seconds; Dominic is taken to meet a pro who gives him some pointers and jams with him. - "Dominic, His Music, and His Mother" runs for 4 minutes 29 seconds; Mom discusses her son's early years; son does same. - "The Crisis in Northern Uganda" runs for 5 minutes 11 seconds; Three experts tell us that the rebel leader is a madman with no political agenda. He has made no demands agains the Ugandan government, and has been waging guerrilla warfare against his own tribesmen since 1986. We are not told why the government of Uganda has failed to stop him, why he has so many followers (aside from the children who are abducted and inducted), and no one on the rebel side is allowed to give a rebuttal. It is a shame that this sequence was cut from the final film; if anything a longer version of this scene could have been a good companion piece to the feature. - "Rose is Consoled by Jolly" runs for 3 minutes 6 seconds; The haunted, soft spoken Rose talks to her teacher about the trip to Kampala. There's also the film's original theatrical trailer which runs for 2 minutes 32 seconds. Rounding out the extras are a collection of bonus trailers which include: - "Taxi to the Dark Side" which runs for 2 minutes 25 seconds. - "Nanking" which runs for 1 minute 37 seconds. - "In the Shadow of the Moon" which runs for 2 minutes 23 seconds.
Overall
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