Review: Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Reviews

Protagonist

Modern tragidocumentary

By PETER KEOUGH | December 5, 2007

3.0 Stars

Hans Joachim Klein

A gay former evangelist, a kung fu expert, a German terrorist, and a bank robber walk into a documentary, and the result isn’t a bad joke but an illustration of the Greek notion of tragedy. Jessica Yu interweaves the seemingly disparate but equally enthralling lives of Mark Pierpont, Mark Salzman, Hans Joachim Klein, and Joe Loya, and from the mix emerges a common pattern dramatized by intermissions with titles like “Character,” “Catharsis,” and “Resolution” and acted out by puppet stagings of Medea and Electra in the original Greek. Pretentious? Not at all, and certainly not trite, as the film demonstrates that heroism is not a platitude but an ancient, universal, and inescapable ordeal.90 minutes | Kendall Square

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ARTICLES BY PETER KEOUGH

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