The Bang Bang Club

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  • Opened April 22, 2011 (Limited 4/22)
  • 1 hr 46 min
  • R | Pervasive language, disturbing images, sexual content, some drug use and strong brutal violence
  • Parents: Common Sense Media says Iffy for 17+. More on child suitability

  • The Bang Bang Club is the real life story of a group of four young combat photographers - Greg Marinovich, Joao Silva, Kevin Carter and Ken Oosterbroek - bonded by friendship and their sense of purpose to tell the truth. They risked their lives and used their camera lenses to tell the world of the brutality and violence associated with the first free elections in post Apartheid South Africa in the early '90s. This intense political period brought out their best work (two won Pulitzers during the period) but cost them a heavy price. Based on the book of the same name by Marinovich and Silva. Full synopsis

  • Cast: Ryan Philippe, Taylor Kitsch, Malin Akerman, Frank Rautenbach, Neels Van Jaarsveld
  • Director: Steven Silver
  • Genres: Drama

What's the Buzz?

So-so
Critics say So-So
48 out of 100
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Critic Reviews

70
Los Angeles Times
| Gary Goldstein

Writer-director Steven Silver (with an able assist from cinematographer Miroslaw Baszak) captures this brutal time - which led to the country's first free, multiracial elections in 1994 and the end of apartheid - in vivid, often bold, but never overpowering strokes. Read full review

60
Movieline
| Stephanie Zacharek

Unfortunately, Silver's movie doesn't cut deep enough: It glosses over some thorny questions and hammers too fixedly on others. Read full review

60
New York Daily News
| Elizabeth Weitzman

The story has heat, even if the movie is more entranced with its subjects than in what they're trying to achieve. Read full review

50
The Hollywood Reporter
| Michael Rechtshaffen

When all is said and done, their Pulitzer-winning photographs prove more potent than this well-intended but frustratingly generic picture. Read full review

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Ryan Philippe and Malin Akerman in "The Bang Bang Club."