Theater of War.

"In his inspired, inspiring essayistic documentary Theater of War, the filmmaker John Walter jumps from art to history and politics and back again, from the theater of the streets to the theater of the stage, without pause," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. "That makes the movie, which follows a Public Theater production in Central Park of Bertolt Brecht's epic play Mother Courage and Her Children, tough to summarize, which is part of its appeal. Because while the movie is about a particular staging of Mother Courage, it is also about the war in Iraq, theater (and bicycle riding) as social protest, the necessity and futility of art, and the agonizing human failing that Mother Courage gives voice to in 'The Song of the Great Capitulation.'"

Updated through 12/25.

"For anyone interested in the continuing relevance of theater in a society dominated by momentary electronic impulses, in the responsibility of artists in wartime and in the greatest anti-capitalist, anti-government, antiwar and anti-romantic playwright of the 20th century, Walter's cool, capable, stimulating exploration is a must," writes Andrew O'Hehir in Salon. A "great strength of Theater of War is that, in the spirit of its subject, it gets you thinking about a lot of questions not easily answered. How and why did Brecht's plays, constructed to combine popular culture and the avant-garde, become the exclusive province of the left-wing intelligentsia?... And after his courageous defiance of Nazism and McCarthyism, why did Brecht accommodate himself so readily to the communist regime in East Germany?"

"Meryl Streep is arguably America's greatest living musical-theater actress," writes James C Taylor in the Voice. "Anyone who saw the two-time Oscar winner shamelessly mug and prance through the mindless movie musical Mamma Mia! earlier this year might call me certifiable, but those who caught her Mother Courage in Central Park two years ago would probably agree."

"Walter tries not only to capture the lightning-in-a-bottle spirit of a zeitgeisty staging in its formative state, but also tries to enrich it with a crib-notes portrait of the original production, Brecht's personal history, the specter of Nazism, the legacy of the Hollywood Ten, the pallid political mood of Bush II America, and the nature of motherhood," writes Eric Henderson in Slant. "It's almost as though Walter is trying to back up one commentator's point that Mother Courage is the finest theatrical work of the 20th century by connecting it thematically to basically everything else that happened in the 20th century, which isn't necessarily advisable when Brecht purposefully decontextualized his work, divorcing it from contemporary events and instead setting it during the Thirty Years War."

James Van Maanen has "had a good, long talk with Mr Walter."

For Filmmaker, Nick Dawson talks with Walter "about convincing Meryl Streep to let him film her, working in the tradition of Citizen Kane and Rashomon, and making a film version of Moby Dick with real whales."

At Film Forum through January 6.

Updates, 12/25: "The Streep material alone would be enough to recommend Theater of War," writes Chris Wisniewski in Reverse Shot, "but Walters has also included a few terrific sequences in which he reconstructs scenes from the play by cutting among rehearsals, footage from the 2006 production, and voiceovers from the original Berlin production starring Brecht's wife, Helene Weigel, illustrated with photographs of the show. These brief scenes achieve something Walters's talking heads never manage: while respecting the historical specificity of 1949 Berlin and 2006 New York, they reveal Mother Courage and Her Children's relevance to both moments. Streep describes the play as 'a living thing…an organism.' And it's then, as Walters jumps between decades using Brecht as his guide, that this is made thrillingly palpable."

Noel Murray at the AV Club: "While Theater of War contains a few direct, empathetic moments - like [Tony] Kushner describing how Mother Courage changed his life when he read it in college, or Streep explaining that she sees her role in theatrical revivals to be 'the voice of dead people' - Walter would rather we care about the ideas this film raises, not the people we meet. Which is very Brechtian, to be sure, but not always so engaging."

Posted by dwhudson at December 24, 2008 5:00 AM