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.
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
MOUNTAIN PATROL EXPOSES THE ROLE OF A FREE PRESS IN PRE-TIANANMEN CHINA Kekexili (Mountain Patrol), directed by Chuan Lu, is based on a true story about a volunteer group of Chinese who are trying to stop poachers from illegally harvesting antelope skin in Kekexili, a remote part of China on the Tibetan border where the
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SOPHIE SCHOLL CELEBRATES UNDERGROUND ANTI-NAZI GERMAN MARTYRS Sophie Scholl: The Final Days is a docudrama of the last five days of a member of White Rose, a German underground organization of college students who distributed leaflets with anti-Nazi information and propaganda. The film begins on February 18, 1943. Sophie Magdalena Scholl (played by Julia Jentsch),
THE FIRST COLLEGE BASKETBALL LINEUP ENTIRELY OF AFRICAN AMERICANS STARS IN GLORY ROAD Glory Road, directed by James Gartner, is well timed both for the holiday recognizing Martin Luther King, Jr., and the beginning of college basketball season. The movie is based on the 1979 book (by Robert A. Heinlein) and true story of a
MUNICH DEPICTS THE NEVER-ENDING UPWARD SPIRAL OF VIOLENCE In Munich, director Steven Spielberg appears to agree with Saverio Costanzo, whose recent film Private shows that Israelis are losing the fight against the indefatigable Palestinians. When Munich begins, nine Palestinians kidnap and execute eleven Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympiad in 1972 but escape justice. Israel’s
Before the Fall, directed by Dennis Gansel, is a German film entitled Napola, which translates “National Police Institutes of Learning,” with the subtitle Elite für den Führer. Titles at the end indicate that there were forty Napolas, where teenagers were trained to become SS officers. The movie focuses on the fate of Friedrich Weimer (played