The War On Democracy
John Pilger has always been one of my heroes. He has always been brave, always told ‘the filthy truth’. However, I am not deaf to all the criticism directed towards him. His books have often been stronger than his documentaries. Some of his films overwhelm with a sense that the gravity of their conclusion has warped everything he tells and shows you. That is fine for polemical pieces, but sometimes partiality ends up being a barrier. I have a knee-jerk reaction against believing anything that smacks of propaganda – even if it is cheerleading for a cause I believe in.
Yet the best of Pilger’s work – books such as Hidden Agendas and documentaries like Quiet Mutiny, Year Zero or Death Of A Nation – offer up a perspective once revealed you cannot dismiss. Pilger might use shock to get you to look at the truth, but it stays with you because he backs it up with unchallengeable fact. Taken as a whole, his body of work is amongst that which helps give the field of journalism nobility.
Therefore I was quite excited when Surreal Girl announced she had got us tickets for the world première of his new film The War On Democracy at the NFT. The best bit of the news was Pilger was going to attend and introduce it. Given it is his first feature-length documentary, I was expecting great things of both the film and the chance to hear him speak again.
To say John Pilger’s introduction was disappointing would be like announcing ingesting Polonium-210 is bad for your health. We expected a 20-minute lecture and then a Q&A. He spoke for less than three minutes; dropped his notes and forgot that for people to hear you, holding the microphone towards you is actually useful. At points, he held forth with all the rambling coherence of a gin-soaked tramp or Gwyneth Paltrow accepting an Oscar. However, he did manage to get out a killer line on his aim for the film: “To challenge the tsunami of propaganda lulling us into passivity.”
It is a grand aim. One I wholeheartedly support. I am just fairly certain the best way of confronting the forces thriving on people’s passivity is not by producing a paean of praise to Hugo Chavez. At it’s worst, that it what The War On Democracy feels like. The popular movements behind Chavez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia are important, yet they sometimes seemed secondary to the Chavez cult of personality as over-exposed in the documentary.
At it’s best, The War On Democracy works as neat dissection of US foreign policy and quick a flash through some of the dirtier elements of CIA action in its ‘backyard’. It astonishes with footage revealing the truth behind the Venezuelan coup of 2002 and panoramic shots of revealing the scope of favelas. It brings tears to eye when Pilger talks to Sara de Witt who survived one of General Pinochet’s torture houses and the American nun, Dianna Ortiz, who was tortured and gang-raped by the Guatemalan secret police and one of their US handlers.
For all of emotional punches it managed to land, I found The War On Democracy annoying at times. I could not understand why a journalist as bloody good as Pilger failed to ask E. Howard Hunt and Duanne Clarridge any truly difficult questions. Instead he did the Michael Moore trick of making the clever and dangerous look foolish. Whatever else they are, Hunt and Clarridge are not clowns.
When the credits rolled and the applause started, Surreal Girl leaned over and said: “Oh this will change the world won’t it? A bunch of trendy, middle class left-wingers clapping at the NFT.” This made me chuckle a lot more than any of Pilger’s failed stabs at Moore-like wit had. As Surreal Girl also pointed out, Pilger does seem to have something of a humour deficit.
Afterwards, drinking Guinness in NFT bar with acquaintances of Surreal Girl, my disappointment with The War On Democracy softened somewhat. It is easy for me to forget not everyone knows as much about CIA dirty wars as I do, not everyone has at least a glancing knowledge of the last 50 years of worth of coups in South America. If Pilger wanted to help people in the West peer behind the propaganda cloak, to make people think about role of United States in subverting democracy, then he will probably achieve that with this film. However, I am not sure The War On Democracy is going to reach out much beyond the usual ‘trendy, middle class left-wingers’.
As we left the bar and wandered down to the Wagamamas on the South Bank, three things echoed through my mind. First, the film’s tagline – ‘Never believe anything until it is officially denied’ – was something I wish I had thought of for Secrets & Lies. Second, Pilger had wasted a massive opportunity with Hunt as it was one of his last ever interviews (he did not even mention Hunt’s possible role in killing JFK). Thirdly, it is a good thing to see your heroes in the type of shambolic and bumbling light you know shines on you all of the time. After tonight, I can now at least allow myself the possibility I handle a microphone better than one of journalism’s all-time greats.
Yet the best of Pilger’s work – books such as Hidden Agendas and documentaries like Quiet Mutiny, Year Zero or Death Of A Nation – offer up a perspective once revealed you cannot dismiss. Pilger might use shock to get you to look at the truth, but it stays with you because he backs it up with unchallengeable fact. Taken as a whole, his body of work is amongst that which helps give the field of journalism nobility.
Therefore I was quite excited when Surreal Girl announced she had got us tickets for the world première of his new film The War On Democracy at the NFT. The best bit of the news was Pilger was going to attend and introduce it. Given it is his first feature-length documentary, I was expecting great things of both the film and the chance to hear him speak again.
To say John Pilger’s introduction was disappointing would be like announcing ingesting Polonium-210 is bad for your health. We expected a 20-minute lecture and then a Q&A. He spoke for less than three minutes; dropped his notes and forgot that for people to hear you, holding the microphone towards you is actually useful. At points, he held forth with all the rambling coherence of a gin-soaked tramp or Gwyneth Paltrow accepting an Oscar. However, he did manage to get out a killer line on his aim for the film: “To challenge the tsunami of propaganda lulling us into passivity.”
It is a grand aim. One I wholeheartedly support. I am just fairly certain the best way of confronting the forces thriving on people’s passivity is not by producing a paean of praise to Hugo Chavez. At it’s worst, that it what The War On Democracy feels like. The popular movements behind Chavez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia are important, yet they sometimes seemed secondary to the Chavez cult of personality as over-exposed in the documentary.
At it’s best, The War On Democracy works as neat dissection of US foreign policy and quick a flash through some of the dirtier elements of CIA action in its ‘backyard’. It astonishes with footage revealing the truth behind the Venezuelan coup of 2002 and panoramic shots of revealing the scope of favelas. It brings tears to eye when Pilger talks to Sara de Witt who survived one of General Pinochet’s torture houses and the American nun, Dianna Ortiz, who was tortured and gang-raped by the Guatemalan secret police and one of their US handlers.
For all of emotional punches it managed to land, I found The War On Democracy annoying at times. I could not understand why a journalist as bloody good as Pilger failed to ask E. Howard Hunt and Duanne Clarridge any truly difficult questions. Instead he did the Michael Moore trick of making the clever and dangerous look foolish. Whatever else they are, Hunt and Clarridge are not clowns.
When the credits rolled and the applause started, Surreal Girl leaned over and said: “Oh this will change the world won’t it? A bunch of trendy, middle class left-wingers clapping at the NFT.” This made me chuckle a lot more than any of Pilger’s failed stabs at Moore-like wit had. As Surreal Girl also pointed out, Pilger does seem to have something of a humour deficit.
Afterwards, drinking Guinness in NFT bar with acquaintances of Surreal Girl, my disappointment with The War On Democracy softened somewhat. It is easy for me to forget not everyone knows as much about CIA dirty wars as I do, not everyone has at least a glancing knowledge of the last 50 years of worth of coups in South America. If Pilger wanted to help people in the West peer behind the propaganda cloak, to make people think about role of United States in subverting democracy, then he will probably achieve that with this film. However, I am not sure The War On Democracy is going to reach out much beyond the usual ‘trendy, middle class left-wingers’.
As we left the bar and wandered down to the Wagamamas on the South Bank, three things echoed through my mind. First, the film’s tagline – ‘Never believe anything until it is officially denied’ – was something I wish I had thought of for Secrets & Lies. Second, Pilger had wasted a massive opportunity with Hunt as it was one of his last ever interviews (he did not even mention Hunt’s possible role in killing JFK). Thirdly, it is a good thing to see your heroes in the type of shambolic and bumbling light you know shines on you all of the time. After tonight, I can now at least allow myself the possibility I handle a microphone better than one of journalism’s all-time greats.
Labels: Film Reviews, John Pilger
posted by David at 11:59 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home