War on Democracy.
Directed by John Pilger, Chris Martin. 2007
Written and presented by John Pilger. 94 mins
John Pilger is basically the flipside of Alan Whicker. Not exactly contemporaries by they were both at their peak in the 70’s, shared a ferocious appetite for travel and a desire to interview the rich and powerful. Now into his 60s, Pilger is still making documentaries in as straightforward a way imaginable: interviews with those that have suffered oppression, interviews with the oppressors, lots of news footage and the occasional impassioned to-camera piece by Pilger himself. Nobody is going to mistake this for the work of Michael Moore or Adam Curtis.
This is the first Pilger film to be shown in the cinemas, and he’s taking on a big theme: American Imperialism in South America and how for half a century the US has ruthlessly oppressed any leader or government that attempted to represent the people, and all in the name of democracy and liberty. Important stuff but surely old news – isn’t the whole world now up to speed on the American Empire and in no need of another history lesson on Allende, Pinochet, the Contras and the Sandinistas?
There is a point to this. The film opens up with an interview with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, the democratically elected President who is trying to divert some of the country’s enormous oil revenue to aid the poor. When Pilger sits down to interview him you expect a simpering style interview like Oliver Stone’s meeting with Castro.
But the movie isn’t soft on him, pointing out that in the capital Caracas there still exist the extremes of rich and poor. It does though draw inspiration from the moment in 2002 when an American backed coup d’etat failed to topple of him because the nation’s poor took to the streets and stopped it. Later in the film he finds further examples of genuine democratic reform in Bolivia.
At the end he makes a case for suggesting that the age of the American Empire being at an end and that true democracy may sweep South America. And then over the closing credits he plays Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna come” and initially I cringed, thinking he can’t be serious.
But of course he was. Pilger is a man who has a total irony bypass. He’s still angry, still passionate, still idealistic and, for that alone, inspiring.
Directed by John Pilger, Chris Martin. 2007
Written and presented by John Pilger. 94 mins
John Pilger is basically the flipside of Alan Whicker. Not exactly contemporaries by they were both at their peak in the 70’s, shared a ferocious appetite for travel and a desire to interview the rich and powerful. Now into his 60s, Pilger is still making documentaries in as straightforward a way imaginable: interviews with those that have suffered oppression, interviews with the oppressors, lots of news footage and the occasional impassioned to-camera piece by Pilger himself. Nobody is going to mistake this for the work of Michael Moore or Adam Curtis.
This is the first Pilger film to be shown in the cinemas, and he’s taking on a big theme: American Imperialism in South America and how for half a century the US has ruthlessly oppressed any leader or government that attempted to represent the people, and all in the name of democracy and liberty. Important stuff but surely old news – isn’t the whole world now up to speed on the American Empire and in no need of another history lesson on Allende, Pinochet, the Contras and the Sandinistas?
There is a point to this. The film opens up with an interview with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, the democratically elected President who is trying to divert some of the country’s enormous oil revenue to aid the poor. When Pilger sits down to interview him you expect a simpering style interview like Oliver Stone’s meeting with Castro.
But the movie isn’t soft on him, pointing out that in the capital Caracas there still exist the extremes of rich and poor. It does though draw inspiration from the moment in 2002 when an American backed coup d’etat failed to topple of him because the nation’s poor took to the streets and stopped it. Later in the film he finds further examples of genuine democratic reform in Bolivia.
At the end he makes a case for suggesting that the age of the American Empire being at an end and that true democracy may sweep South America. And then over the closing credits he plays Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna come” and initially I cringed, thinking he can’t be serious.
But of course he was. Pilger is a man who has a total irony bypass. He’s still angry, still passionate, still idealistic and, for that alone, inspiring.
