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.
NORTH COUNTRY PORTRAYS THE ROSA PARKS OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT North Country, directed by Niki Caro, begins with titles that inform filmviewers that 1975 was the year when the first woman was hired in the coal mines of the Mesabi Iron Range, Minnesota, and that by 1989 the ratio of men to women was 30:1. The […]
INNOCENT VOICES INDICTS THE USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS Titles at the beginning of Innocent Voices (Voces inocentes), directed by Luis Mandoki, inform filmviewers of the civil war in El Salvador from 1980-1992 that began when peasants under the banner of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front organized opposition to the dispossession of their lands. Titles
PARADISE NOW LOOKS INTO THE SOUL OF PALESTINIANS Paradise Now, directed by Hany Abu-Assad, is a Palestinian-Dutch film that seeks to acquaint filmviewers with the everyday life at Nablus and the views of certain residents toward Israeli occupation. The facts presented are stark. Many residences have been destroyed, mostly by Israeli firepower but some even
Anti-Communist crusader Senator Joseph McCarthy rose to prominence in the early 1950s with the accusation that some 200 Communist Party members were employed in the United States government, though he never presented evidence or names. When attacked for his methods of badgering witnesses, making false statements, and promoting hysteria, he responded that his attackers were
Good Night, and Good Luck Read More »
THE TITLE ROLE IN LORD OF WAR DARES INTERPOL, “CATCH ME IF YOU CAN” When a film ends with the title “Based on True Events,” the impact is much more profound than if the title appears in the beginning. Lord of War, directed and written by Andrew Niccol, is indeed an exposé of major significance.
YUGOSLAV COMMUNISTS APE NAZI METHODS IN THE GREAT WATER The breakup of Yugoslavia was a tragedy, especially because of the ethnic cleansing that took place. Accordingly, some recall with nostalgia the way in which the various ethnic groups lived together in harmony under Marshall Iosip Broz Tito. The Great Water (Golemata voda), a Macedonian film
A PRIEST LEAVES DACHAU TO MEET FAUST IN THE NINTH DAY Among the many horrific accounts of the Nazi era, Constantine Costa-Garvas’s Amen (2003) raised serious questions about the silence of the Vatican. The Ninth Day (Der neunte tag), directed by Volker Schlöbdorff, provides a partial answer to that silence. When the film begins, Abbé
CRASH ASKS WHY THE RACES “DON’T GET ALONG” IN THE UNITED STATES In 1991, Rodney King asked, “Why can’t we all get along?” He was referring to racial mistrust in Los Angeles, but his query was interpreted as relevant to the United States as a whole. Because few efforts subsequently have tried to answer his
MACHUCA PORTRAYS THE CLASS STRUGGLE THAT BROUGHT ABOUT & UNSEATED ALLENDE IN CHILE In 1973, after the reelection of Richard Nixon, the government of democratically elected Salvador Allende was replaced by a military coup led by General Agusto Pinochet. Machuca, directed by Andrés Wood, attempts to recreate events before, during, and after the coup from
ASSISTED LIVING EXPOSES A NASTY SECRET “Old people’s homes,” now euphemistically called “assisted living facilities,” are nursing homes where the elderly are parked in the United States because dysfunctional families do not take care of them. Assisted Living, directed by Elliot Greenebaum, is a semifictional exposé of Masonic Home, an actual facility at Louisville, Kentucky. The