Films that bring previously obscured truths about the political process to the attention of the public, showing for example how offices of public trust are used for private purposes.
RUSTIN CELEBRATES THE ORGANIZERS OF THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON A biopic of Bayard Rustin (played by Colman Domingo), the film Rustin reveals that the March on Washington of August 28, 1963, was a goal he sought since 1941. He was frustrated that nothing much happened in Congress after the 1954 Supreme Court ruling that schools […]
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AIDS THE OSAGE NATION IN KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON Director Martin Scorsese begins the film as if seated on the stage in front of the curtain to assert that the film is made to correct the record, presumably hinting that he had some personal interest. But the film takes place in
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THE BURIAL DEMONSTRATES HOW CLEVER ATTORNEYS IMPRESS JURIES Much less is known about the lawsuit in The Burial, directed by Maggie Betts. Jeremiah O’Keefe (played by an aging Tommy Lee Jones) is the owner of several burial companies as well as a burial insurance company in Mississippi. After World War II, O’Keefe contributed to civil
GOLDA TRIES TO REDEEM THE REPUTATION OF GOLDA MEIR Israel’s prime minister Golda Meir, sometimes known as the “Iron Lady,” has been blamed for unnecessary deaths in the Yom Kippur War of 1973, but when her conduct before, during, and after the war are examined in Golda, filmviewers may make a very different assessment. Directed
AURORA’S SUNRISE Graphically Explains the Armenian Genocide A biopic about Arshaluys Mardiganian, Aurora’s Sunrise is also a biopic and mini-critique of the previously forgotten film Auction of Souls (1919). The latter film is a story (though she was renamed Aurora to sell to an American audience), of a 14-year-old who is evicted from her home
Oppenheimer Tries to Restore A Reputation A biopic about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy), scenes shift back and forth throughout his life, with particular attention to those trying to destroy his reputation after his face appears on Time magazine as the father of the atomic bomb. Although he mostly speaks softly in
THE WIND AND THE RECKONING DESCRIBES AN ANTI-COLONIAL STRUGGLE IN HAWAIʽI After titles inform filmviewers that the Kingdom of Hawaiʽi was overthrown in 1893, the context is on a new law of the Republic of Hawaiʽi that required all persons with leprosy (Hansen’s disease) to be rounded up and sent to a “leper colony” on
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CHEVALIER FEATURES WHITE SUPREMACY Historical information about Joseph Bologne has been pieced together, and the film Chevalier has a lot of interesting subplots that are doubtless fictional. But the message of the film is one of the most fascinating of 2023 and seems very timely indeed, with White males infuriated by an upstart Black whom
SWEETWATER REMINDS FILMVIEWERS OF THE EARLY DAYS OF CIVIL RIGHTS PROGRESS In 1990, a man by the name of Nathaniel Clifton (played at age 78 by Everett Osborne) is driving a Chicago taxi. After his rider asks to increase the volume of an ongoing basketball game, a discussion begins, and the driver reveals that he
WOMEN TALKING RECOUNTS SEXUAL ABUSE IN BOLIVIA Mennonite “colonies” exist in Canada, the United States, and Bolivia. Women perform household chores and are not allowed educational opportunities. Such asymmetry evidently provokes the view of some men that they are superior, while women are mere objects. Between 2009–2009, about 150 women were raped, ages 5 to