Iron Crows

Name: Iron Crows
Genre: Drama, Documentary
Released: August 26, 2011
Duration: 60 min
Rating: 72

2011

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Generally favorable reviews based on 7 Critic Reviews

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Movie Details & Credits

Film Forum | Release Date: August 26, 2011 | Not Rated

Summary: The world center for ship-breaking is located in the port city of Chittagong in Bangladesh — perhaps the poorest nation on earth — is home to the ship-breaking industry. Here huge megaton behemoths that once sailed the seas are sent to be broken apart by men and boys (some as young as 12, often wearing flipflops) who earn $2 a day, fromThe world center for ship-breaking is located in the port city of Chittagong in Bangladesh — perhaps the poorest nation on earth — is home to the ship-breaking industry. Here huge megaton behemoths that once sailed the seas are sent to be broken apart by men and boys (some as young as 12, often wearing flipflops) who earn $2 a day, from which they send money home to their families. They wrestle with thousands of tons of iron and asbestos, wielding blow-torches, hammers and crowbars. Here is where half of the world’s retired vessels are dismantled by 20,000 people who risk their lives to eke out the barest living. Iron Crows is a remarkably beautiful film, in this case, not just for its superb cinematography, but also for its indelible insight into how some of the most exploited people in the world retain their courage, decency and fortitude. (Film Forum)… Expand

Director: Bong-Nam Park

Genre(s): Drama, Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 60 min

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Critic Reviews

John Anderson

Aug 25, 2011

Virtually an experimental film -- the humanity is rich, but pure image and sensation are what makes it tick. Read full review

A.O. Scott

Aug 23, 2011

A startlingly beautiful documentary by Bong-Nam Park that is also devastatingly sad. Read full review

Keith Uhlich

Aug 24, 2011

The filmmaking is patient and participatory, getting down in the dirt with the workers (in one case the lens is even soaked by a spray of sludge) and allowing several touchingly distinct personalities to emerge. Read full review

Noel Murray

Aug 24, 2011

The movie has no story per se, and there are times when it does seem like Park is hovering, vulture-like, over his subjects' shoulders, waiting for a disaster. But Iron Crows isn't devoid of natural human exuberance, nor is it immune to the awesome spectacle of a dangerous job. Read full review

Scott Tobias

Aug 25, 2011

Iron Crows isn't the miserablist wallow you might expect. While director Park Bong-Nam observes the hazards of ship-breaking with a thoroughness that borders on fetishization, he also catches the humor and camaraderie of men in the trenches. Read full review

Nick Pinkerton

Aug 23, 2011

Park's view - clearly inscribed in his well-structured, practically chapter-headed ("After Hours," "Payday," "Back at the Village") documentary - is that the hideous working conditions and low wages are due to man-made avarice; the workers, though, tend toward a fatalism based in religious predestination. Read full review

Joseph Jon Lanthier

Aug 22, 2011

A maddeningly blunt and syrupy rendering of a piquant socio-economic configuration, Park Bong-Nam's Iron Crows is ultimately third-world documentary filmmaking at its most exploitatively surface-groping. Read full review

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