Unfortunately this highly compelling true story about four combat photographers chronicling upheavals in post-apartheid South Africa in the early '90s too often seems to turn their profession into frivolous scenes resembling a shootout rather than the serious business of capturing history behind a lens.
With the film's focus on male bonding, womanizing, and trigger-happy reporting, you might be surprised that the real record of these guys includes bestselling books, two Pulitzer Prizes, and an Oscar-nominated short film. None of this is what writer-director Steven Silver seems most interested in.
Basing his screenplay on "The Bang Bang Club: Snapshots From a Hidden War"—a firsthand account written by two of the photojournalists, Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva—Silver ratchets up the action whenever he can by including that hoary favorite of some directors: the movie montage sequence.
In the key role of Marinovich, Ryan Phillippe, the only real "star" member of the cast, gets the most attention. It's unfortunate because Marinovich is probably the least interesting of the bunch—at least in the way Phillippe portrays him. Add to that a weak South African accent and you've got a recipe for flatness. Phillippe is a hit-and-miss actor who escaped soap operas but often seems saddled with the synthetic nature of that kind of daytime TV acting style.
At his best, such as when playing an oily villain in "The Lincoln Lawyer," he can be very fine, but here the performance seems trite and forced. South Africans Frank Rautenbach as Ken Oosterbroek and Neels Van Jaarsveld as Silva seem more authentic and comfortable in their skins, but are hamstrung by the lack of screen time devoted to developing their characters.
By far the best of this bunch is Taylor Kitsch from "Friday Night Lights" as the drug-addicted but enormously talented Kevin Carter. Through Kitsch's interpretation, Carter is easily the most three-dimensional and interesting of the quartet. One key scene in which a drugged-out, shell-shocked Carter is told he has won a Pulitzer Prize for a controversial photo of a child in harm's way is truly haunting, brilliantly played and sadly indicative of what this movie might have been if it wasn't trying too hard to entertain.
Also standing out is Malin Akerman as the photo editor who is caught between professional ethics and an attraction to Marinovich. Akerman brings dignity to the role even while being stuck in Silver's most pedantic and predictable scenes.
Genre: Drama
Written and directed by: Steven Silver
Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Taylor Kitsch, Malin Akerman, Frank Rautenbach, Neels Van Jaarsveld.