DVD REVIEW

Sand and Sorrow

HBO Home Video || Not Rated || Jan 29, 2008

Synopsis

Executive produced and narrated by George Clooney, this film details the historical events that have given rise to the Arab-dominated Darfur government’s willingness to kill and displace its own indigenous African people, and examines the international communities “legacy of failure” to respond to such profound crimes of humanity in the past.


Critique

A Journey to Darfur. The Devil Came On Horseback. Darfur Diaries. God Grew Tired of Us. There are four films about the Darfur crisis that are infinitely better and more worthy of your time than Sand and Sorrow. It’s sad to say because usually HBO can be counted on to put on compelling, dynamic programming. They’re not all winners, and Sand and Sorrow is definitely a loser. The film does something remarkable: it manages to make one care less about the problems in Darfur.

The one highlight of the film, and something that perhaps should have been given more time, is the historical perspective given to the conflict. We are taken back to 1956, when Sudan ceased to be a British colony and became a sovereign nation. The troubles begin there, and we follow them to the present day, to refugee camps where the people, the women especially, still aren’t safe.

Sand and Sorrow is a long succession of horrible images, one after the other, and the repeated refrain that THIS IS WRONG and THE WORLD DID NOTHING. The whole tone is that of someone self-righteously shaking their finger at you. In the end, we descend into what feels like one long pep rally for Darfur, but it is never clear exactly what anyone has done. We even get a well timed interview with Barack Obama.

I watched this film on the day that infamous international arms dealer Viktor Bout was arrested in Thailand. Bout had dealings with warlords all over Africa, and he employed and sold durable old Russian Antonov airplanes like the ones seen in Sand and Sorrow. It would have been interesting to explore how the conflict in Darfur might have been fueled by outside forces, as opposed to the overly simplistic line touted by the film, but that is probably asking too much. If you really want to learn about Darfur, watch something else.


Video

Sand and Sorrow is presented in the original full screen ratio. This looks like every other video documentary that is rushed onto the market, which is not exactly bad, but there’s also nothing distinguishing about it. The colors are sharp, and the overall picture is presented without defect.


Audio

This DVD is presented in Dolby 2.0. The soundtrack is flat, mostly dialogue and voice over, but the presentation is sharp and the channels are balanced and clear.


Special Features

None.


Final Thoughts

Sand and Sorrow simply isn’t very good. It fails on nearly every level, as an informational documentary, as a propaganda piece, and in every other way one might expect a documentary to work. Check out The Devil Came On Horseback or any number of other documentaries about the subject.

VERDICT: SKIP IT

 

Subscribe to DVD Reviews Feed

 

Review posted on Mar 16, 2008 | Share this article | Top of Page

Copyright © 1999-infinity MovieFreak.com