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.
THE TOP AMERICAN SPY’S DOWNFALL IS DEPICTED IN BREACH Directed by Political Film Society awardwinner Billy Ray, Breach is based on several biographical accounts of the life of FBI agent Robert Hanssen (played by Chris Cooper), who was apprehended on February 18, 2001. The movie begins with the announcement of Hanssen’s arrest by former Attorney […]
BLACK FRIDAY RECOUNTS THE EVENTS OF INDIA’S WORST TERRORISM Beginning and ending with a quote from Gandhi that the world will become blind following the “eye for an eye” maxim, Black Friday focuses on the terrorist bombing of landmark buildings in Bombay on March 12, 1993, in which some 300 died and about 2,000 were
The horrific complexity of the current conflict in Iraq (referred to as “the situation”) is depicted in The Situation, directed by Philip Haas, largely through the eyes of an American journalist, Anna Moiyneux (played by Connie Nielsen), who sleeps for information with Dan Murphy (played by Damian Lewis), a lower-level American diplomat, and Zaid (Mido
THE GOOD SHEPHERD ASKS WHETHER CIA MISCHIEF IS IN THE “NATIONAL INTEREST” The Good Shepherd, directed by Robert DeNiro, seeks to portray the early years of the Central Intelligence Agency. The timespan runs from a flashback to the 1919 suicide of the father of Edward Wilson (played by Matt Damon), who at the age of
THE LISTENING SHOWS HOW THE NSA HAS THE CAPABILITY TO IMPOSE “TOTAL TYRANNY” In 2005, Italy began to issue arrest warrants for twenty-five CIA agents who in 2003 abducted Islamic cleric Abu Omar (1963- ), an Italian citizen who had been granted asylum, from a street in Milan and flew him first to Germany and
FAST FOOD NATION WARNS AMERICANS THAT THEY ARE LITERALLY EATING SHIT The formidable challenge facing viewers of Fast Food Nation, directed by Richard Linklater, is whether they can see the film and continue to patronize fast food restaurants or ever eat meat again. There is much more than lettuce, tomato, and a pickle between the
CAUTIVA BRINGS THE ARGENTINE “DIRTY WAR” INTO A BROKEN HOME From 1976-1983, some 30,000 persons who were arrested on orders of the Argentine military junta disappeared without a trace. Some of the missing persons, perhaps as many as 500, were pregnant women. Their children were adopted by those loyal to the junta but never told
THE QUEEN EXPOSES HOW PRIME MINISTER BLAIR SAVED THE MONARCHY The Queen, directed by Stephen Frears, is an exposé of the peculiar way in which Queen Elizabeth (played by Helen Mirren) handled the death of Lady Diana during a week in midsummer 1997 shortly after the election of Tony Blair (played by Michael Sheen) as
THE ROAD TO GUANTÁNAMO IS PAVED BY BOUNTY HUNTERS, MENDACITY, & TORTURE Directed by Michael Winterbottom and Matt Whitecross, The Road to Guantánamo dramatizes the American roundup of alleged terrorists in Afghanistan in order to identify members of Al Qaeda, ship more than 750 of them to Guantánamo for questioning, and subject them to torture,
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POVERTY & TERRORISM JOIN FORCES IN CAVITE Cavite, directed by Ian Gamazon and Neill Della Llana, is a serious film about the Moslem separatist movement in the Philippines, presumably Abu Sayyaf. Although the early and last frames deal with the humdrum life of thirty-two-year-old Adam (played by the Ian Gamazon) as a security guard in