War Photographer (on DVD)

2001’s Oscar-nominated documentary War Photographer introduces to us one of the coolest character in recent movie memory, and best of all, he is real. James Nachtwey, considered by many as the best war photographer in the world, has a natural presence on screen himself. Filmmaker Christian Frei follows Nachtwey on several of his assignments in Indonesia, Kosovo and Palestine. The end result is not only a paean for a great professional, but also an expose of so much ugliness that still exists in the world. Nachtwey has a movie star good look and a head of hair I am sure that any middle aged men would die for. However, far above his appearance, his inner calm, compassion and unbelievable bravery dominate the screen. I truly believe that Frei may have tried to catch him in a flux some time, but really unable to. Nachtwey seems to have reached the highest spiritual level that all religions have tried to induce people into. His job is everything to him and he genuinely gains satisfactions from what he does even though that has made him sacrifice any prospect for a family or a close personal relationship. With all the praise heaped onto his work, he still remains humble and even guilty of gaining fame from other people’s tragedies. I, for one, am grateful for what he has done and deeply touched by all the images he has taken under extreme situations. In his own words, Nachtway summarizes the importance of his photographs, “In a way, if an individual assumes the risk of placing himself in the middle of a war to communicate to the rest of the world what's happening, he's trying to negotiate for peace. Perhaps that's the reason for those in charge of perpetuating the war do not like to have photographers around.” He also asks us to do our job, “We must look at it. We're required to look at it. We're required to do what we can about it. If we don't, who will?” So please get your hands on this movie and look at these images.