Paul Haggis

The Dialogue - An Interview with Screenwriter Paul Haggis
$8.95
After starting as what he calls "a complete failure" who survived only because of his supportive parents, writer, director, and now producer Paul Haggis (b. 1953) enjoyed many successful years as a television screenwriter. The Canadian then moved to the big screen with two improbable hits-- Million Dollar Baby (2005) and Crash (2006), both of which won Oscars for Best Picture. Not bad for a person with no formal training in film. Haggis is the first and only writer to accomplish that back-to-back feat. More recently he wrote the screenplay for Clint Eastwood's Flags of our Fathers (2006), then wrote and directed In the Valley of Elah (2007). In this interview-dialogue format Haggis talks about the trajectory of his life and work. Writers must write for themselves, from the gut, he says, and not for what they think directors or audiences want. They ought to address questions of the human heart, as opposed to easy answers. Haggis says that when he is anxious and nervous about his characters or script, then he knows he's in the right place. One of the most pleasant aspects of this interview is Haggis's authentic and self-effacing manner.

Crash - The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)
$14.98
Q: What could be more painfully dull than sitting through this movie? A:Sitting through it TWICE--the second time as part of a class on multiculturalism.

A trait shared by all substandard-to-mediocre movies is predictability, and this movie is about 95% predictable. That's a lazy way to make a film, as well as an insult to the audience's intelligence.

After the first few scenes, you know exactly how the movie will evolve. There are no surprises. The characters are wooden and one-dimensional. Good actors were wasted in this movie, which is preachy and moralistic while having nothing important to say.

Amazingly, this has become a must-see in classes having to do with "issues" such as racism. I suppose there are people out there who found the movie thought-provoking and interesting, but these are individuals who feel more comfortable being told what to think rather than use critical-thinking skills to interpret more nuanced works.

If you really feel compelled to rent this movie, feel free to turn it off after the first five minutes: you'll be able to guess the rest.

In the Valley of Elah [Blu-ray]
$35.99
With the fresh spate of suicidal bombings violating the impending election in Iraq, my viewing of Haggis's terrifying, Valley' has added resonance. Yes, so many war films have urged us to outrage, to sense the futility, the heroics, the cruelty, the power plays and their perversions. But not since, 'The Deerhunter', has the chilling consequences of violence been so devastatingly enunciated. It is no surprise that the tale has connexions to an actual event (albeit tenuously, as a lead reviewer notes. And I don't mind that Haggis even uses the actual dad as a surrogate authority for his own film's moral integrity).We need feel the sympathy and ramifications of of all characters caught in the malestrom(though I do think the young woman found murdered in the bath is stacking the cards too high even for these dramtic ends. And the inverted flag is a flawed in its overstatement).T L jones, whose grity and sullen fdemanour has made him the perfect messenger for late mid-life crises, the causes in which he eventually will tally his own contribution, is magnificent. The old-boy's network is unravelling. The new kid's deal with their stresses in unprecedented ways, and the lines once drawn in the sand have been erased.

The Dialogue - An Interview with Screenwriter Paul Haggis
$2.99