Coming to NYC’s Quad Cinemas today, Friday, November 23: MAN AT WAR
Jacek Blawut’s look at men around the world obsessed with virtual war re-enactment premiered at Krakow earlier this year.
This slick and surprisingly enjoyable HBO Central Europe production focuses on American, Polish, Russian, and German men, young and older, who spend an inordinate amount of their time participating in real-time simulations of key WWII aerial battles from the comfort of their computer desks. Blawut cuts quickly between the pilots at their monitors and their virtual world, represented through elaborate animated sequences, occasionally exploring their offline reality and the somewhat bemused or resigned reactions of their wives, girlfriends, or other family members. Politics and nationalism come into play, with rivalries between some of the combatants, and particular concern about sympathizers among the Polish players with their historical enemies, but there are so many players featured that it’s frankly pretty impossible to keep track of most of them as individuals. While gamers might be most enthralled by Blawut’s film, it does offer general viewers the experience of a spectacle – the chaotic nature of the dogfights is especially conveyed thrillingly and appropriately – as well as an intriguing look at a modern, technological form of historical re-enactment.
what (not) to doc 