May Recap: Did We Learn Some Shit?

    So. We had our first “Maybe-Learn-Some-Shit” Month. My wife has already covered if we learnt shit or not, news flash, it wasn’t a lot. My bit here will be short, sweet, and probably actually neither of the former.

    I think the month was a success but only barely. The issue here is that it’s our first time around and due to the rules of this marathon we must watch the documentaries in release order until the 20th of the month, where we then can pick better ones to view. For 2/3rds of the month we are forced to endure very terrible documentaries from the 2000s and early 2010’s. Take “Stonehenge Decoded”, “Million Dollar Moon Rock Heist” and our various shark themed movies for example. They are cheesy and poorly made by today’s standards (and probably the standards of the time too). Honestly, anything ranked below “Winged Seduction” I flat out just no longer remember, and that’s not even my fault. I tried most of the time to pay attention, and they just weren’t good at their job…

    However, there are exceptions to every rule, some of our early 2000-2010 documentaries were quite good. “The Lost City of Machu Picchu”, “George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview”, “9/11 The Plane That Hit The Pentagon” and “Hubble’s Cosmic Journey” were all very fucking good. These documentaries exceeded at giving us a topic, explaining that topic thoroughly, keeping us entertained, and doing so in a manner that allowed us to retain the information it was presenting. They were classic NatGeo docs, and very good ones at that. 

    Our picks for this month’s ten day free-for-all were also amazing. “LA 92”, “Jane”, and “Wild Japan: Snow Monkeys” were all wonderful documentaries. The pool to pick from was quite small because of the nature of the month (NatGeos aren’t very numerous on Disney I’m afraid), but I was pleasantly surprised with the choices of decent modern documentaries available. 

    As for our Top 3? Here are my opinions on their cinematography, originality, professionalism, and how much fun I had watching them:

• LA 92
  • LA 92 was definitely an experience. In terms of cinematography, holy shit. This movie’s editing is immaculate, the footage they use was relevant and conveyed the atmosphere of the city amazingly. There were also real accounts and news footage from when the events were taking place, which provides an insight that cannot be replicated. The soundtrack fits the mood of the documentary the entire time and never breaks my immersion. This documentary was also very original as I don’t ever see very much coverage over these riots in the U.S. We briefly talk about them in our schools, but otherwise they are swept under the rug, which is a shame given the current social issues that the U.S is currently facing, and in light of the recent 2020 BLM riots, it’s only fair to look back on the last time chaos to this scale erupted in my home country. The film is also very professional in its showing of footage from the riots. The documentary shows us the extreme racism in the country, but not just White on Black racism. We get racism from all different sides, which is what happened. Everyone was racist towards everyone else. No one group is being put on blast or depicted as the bad guys, which honestly soothes my little Liberal-Conservative heart. I am about as middle of the line as it comes with this shit, and I hate when one side denies that their members can be racist. Blacks, Whites, Asians, hell, even my own Latino brothers can be racist. Those who believe they or their own cannot be racist are idiots. This documentary could’ve done that. It could’ve depicted the White majority as all being racist and deserving of hate, and the Black minority as being virtuous and godlike figures who don’t deserve to be called out when they too do something shitty. No. They acted like monsters too. Everyone did. The killing of Latasha Harlins by the Asian shop owner, the beating of a Rodney King by White cops, the Asians having their businesses raided and destroyed by racist Black people, the unwarranted beatings of Fidel Lopez and Reginald Denny by an angry mob. Latinos were both assaulted and were the assaulters in a lot of cases. Notice how no one color was left out. Everyone was terrible to everyone. Showing this unbiased professionalism is what gave it the number one spot on the list at the time of this post. This documentary was very well done and I don’t think it will be dethroned next year, but who knows, maybe they will make one about the 2020 riots. The timeline of all the events was also easy to follow and digest, which I like. This movie isn’t a fun watch, but it is an informative one. Take that as you will.
• Hubble’s Cosmic Journey
  • Hubble’s Cosmic Journey was very informative, and everything it talked about mostly stuck. The footage was relevant and accurately gave me an idea of the scale of NASA’s  fuck up in the beginning. The interviews and use of news footage made me understand what was going on in each of these people’s minds as they worked like a well oiled machine to correct the error. This film wasn’t very original, as it feels like other NatGeo docs and also covers a widely observed story. Other smaller things like the use of the first professional pictures Hubble took just added to the overall immersion, which benefits the documentary in every way. Overall, I enjoyed this film, it was a fun watch.
• 9/11 The Plane That Hit the Pentagon
  • This documentary did the best out of all the other documentaries at recreating events that took place, which is usually fairly hard to do and often comes off as very corny and cringeworthy, with actors who do not know what they are doing and don’t ever look like the people they are portraying (Take the Hudson River landing film we watched as an example). My biggest takeaway from this film was the realization of just how deep the plane went, which made the whole thing just that much more terrifying to watch and learn about. The film feels rather early 2000-2010ish, which is fine, but it hasn’t aged well. It was well done and professional for the time however. The film was not shy to describe the horrors the people went through and just how bad the ordeal was. I also liked the use of footage showing Flight 77, which before this documentary, I didn’t know there was any. I didn’t have fun watching this documentary, because like “LA 92”, it isn’t exactly a fun topic to talk about. It’s a terrible story of innocent people dying because of the pointless bickering of old men. Also, if you think 9/11 was an inside job, you are a prick and I sincerely hope you get your dick or tits chopped off you useless scum. Fuck you.

    SO! Overall, I think we can assume that “Maybe-Learn-Some-Shit” Month will have a sequel in 2024. I can’t say I’m excited because I would be lying, but I am curious to see what we end up watching.