Mike Nichols’s Primary Colors develops the same theme as Wag the Dog—a president’s campaign is in jeopardy, so political advisers invoke various measures of damage control. In Primary Colors, a Clintonesque candidate is confronted by sex scandals but manages to distract the public into believing that he deeply cares about human problems. Political advisers, including […]
Barry Levinson’s Wag the Dog has been nominated for best film in 1998 promoting the need for greater democracy. Similar to Catch 22, the film plays out a plausible scenario to an absurd conclusion. In this case, a presidential candidacy wanes, provoking the incumbent to launch an external war in order to boost his re-election
A second nominee for the category peace is John Sayles’s Men with Guns, a story of a retired physician who seeks to learn the result of a project to send newly trained physicians to the provinces of a Spanish-speaking country where indigenous peoples live without proper medical care. What the physician finds, instead of a
The Boxer has been nominated for the best film promoting peace. The classic Romeo and Juliet story, set in Northern Ireland, shows the human absurdity of a war between the modern Capulets and Montagues. The later peace agreement by British Prime Minister Tony Blair may be seen as a fulfillment of the ambitions of the
MICHAEL MOORE’S THE BIG ONE EXPOSES ARROGANT CEOs Although a documentary, not eligible for a Political Film Society award, Michael Moore (of Roger & Me fame) films his book tour of the United States and efforts to interview corporation heads regarding massive employment layoffs and corporate welfare in the context of megaprofits. A highlight of
TWO FILMS NOMINATED FOR 1998 AWARDS PROMOTING PEACE Several films released in 1998 have already been nominated for awards. The Boxer has been nominated for the best film promoting peace. The classic Romeo and Juliet story, set in Northern Ireland, shows the human absurdity of a war between the modern Capulets and Montagues. The later
Political Film Review #25 Read More »
The Political Film Society, which has been based in Honolulu from 1985, has moved to Hollywood, effective today. Each year members of the Political Film Society select the films which best raise political consciousness in one of several categories. Today, after balloting for the past three months, the following have been voted as the top
Political Film Review #24 Read More »
OFFICIAL BALLOT Cast your votes for the films that best raised political consciousness in 1997: DEMOCRACY ___ Red Corner (shows how extralegal considerations endemic in crony rule within China prevent the criminal justice system from producing a just outcome) ___ The Rainmaker (portrays the elusiveness of justice in the cases of a battered wife who
Political Film Review #23 Read More »
OFFICIAL BALLOT Cast your votes for the films that best raised political consciousness in 1997: DEMOCRACY ___ Red Corner (shows how extralegal considerations endemic in crony rule within China prevent the criminal justice system from producing a just outcome) ___ The Rainmaker (portrays the elusiveness of justice in the cases of a battered wife who
Political Film Review #22 Read More »
In Alain Berliner’s The Wall (Le Mur, with English subtitles), the year 2000 approaches in Belgium, a country of 10 million in a territory about the same size as Maryland. Although Belgians were ruled for nearly 1,800 years by conquerors, including Rome, the Franks, Burgundy, Spain, Austria, and France, then handed to Holland in 1815 after the