An Unlikely Weapon (2008) User Reviews (4)

The Adventurer

[st-shot · 7/10 · 24 October 2013]

When asked about the artistic nuances of the great war photographer and friend Frank Capa Henri Cartier Bresson aid he was not a photographer but an adventurer. The same may well be said for Eddie Adams a fearless war photographer who after having seen action in over a dozen went on to the much more sedate world of portrait work featuring movie stars, presidents and a pope for the ultra mediocre Sunday supplement, Parade and nude centerfolds for a racy challenger to Playboy, Hustler magazine. With the fun aspect aside it is more than evident that while he might have done photography for a living it is in his adventurous and courageous side we find the man in full.

Eddie Adams more than likely took the most famous photograph of the Viet Nam War; the execution of an enemy combatant on a city street. Unsparing in its graphic depiction and burned into the consciousness of a generation Unlikely Weapon gives us the heart and soul behind the eye in the abrasive personality of Adams. Not the easiest person in the world to get along with Adams in interviews had no time for pretense, was driven to be the best while displaying a self effacing gallows humor along the way of a man who "has seen more weeping than you could understand". Those that knew him (Jennings, Brokaw, Safer) as well as fellow photographers saw through the abrasiveness and they shower him with nothing but respect and awe as well as feelings of friendship in interviews. Adams gave back in a big way, helping the maligned commander he photographed to get into the US when the government wouldn't even lift a finger as well as set up free schools of photography.

Eddie clearly deserved his down time snapping popes and playmates. It is more than fitting he should decompress after what he witnessed but for the sake of the documentary his latter day assignments pale in comparison re-enforcing Cartier Bresson's point all the more; first and foremost Eddie Adams was one courageous adventurer first, a photographer second.

Stunning - A must see

[roaringfirefilms · 10/10 · 9 April 2009]

I saw this at the Fort Lauderdale film festival and it jumped into my soul. It's about as compelling a guy as you can find but the story telling is pitch perfect as well. It took fifteen minutes for me to decompress on my own outside the cinema. Very powerful stuff. I then had the joy of seeing it again at the Santa Fe film festival and second time it hit me as hard. It is for me one of the two best things I saw last year, the other being Man on Wire. When are fiction films going to live up to the standard of the best of their non fiction siblings. Bear in mind Man on Wire beat Slumdog Millionaire for the Best British Film Award at the British Academy Awards this year.

Please go see this film as you won't regret it.

This motion picture is worth more than 1,000 words

[se7en187 · 9/10 · 16 June 2008]

Very interesting documentary about Eddie Adams, the legendary photographer whose career spanned 13 wars, 6 US presidents, and 50 years of movie stars. His most famous picture is that of a Vietcong being shot during the war by a Saigon police chief.

His friends and co-workers talk about Adams, who died a few years ago, and say how much he influenced them and how much his photos influenced the American people. There are a lot of interviews with Adams before he died that the director found while rummaging through piles of tapes in Adams' photo studio. People like Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw and Kim Phuc (she was the girl running naked on the street during Vietnam with severe burns) are interviewed as well.

The stories of his time in Vietnam are amazing, especially the moment he took that famous photograph. Apparently that photograph is what influenced Michael Cimino to make The Deer Hunter.

I also had no idea that among other things, Adams is the one who took the photo of Clint Eastwood that became the poster for Unforgiven.

This was a great documentary, I really enjoyed it.

Really enjoyed this hard-hitting documentary

[lawkansas · 9/10 · 20 May 2014]

Eddie Adams says in this movie that he is "not a good guy," but he felt good about his photograph of some Viet Namese people adrift on a boat, trying to find a new home. He says that this photo had a positive impact on the United States making it possible for 200,000 of these people to find a new home in the United States.

And of course his most famous photo is most likely the photo showing a shooting, point blank, of a Viet Cong which may have brought about the end of the Viet Nam War.

Adams has been described as the quintessential war photographer, and this film shows why this is true.

Adams did have a sense of humor when describing his work for Penthouse Magazine. He claims he never touched the scantily clad female models but then says "you'll never know."