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.
LILJA 4-EVER EXPOSES THE TEENAGE WHITE SLAVE TRADE Last year, the Political Film Society nominated Tricky Life as best film exposé for showing how the white slave trade operates between Uruguay and Spain. An even grimmer picture of the white slave trade, this time from Estonia to Sweden, is found in Lilja 4-Ever, directed by […]
In 1938, twenty-nine-year-old British stockbroker Nicholas Winton (played by Rupert Graves) began to organize an effort to have British families adopt Jewish children in Czechoslovakia as a part of what was called the kindertransport, which involved a total of some 10,000 children from Austria as well as Germany. Not all the “endangered children” were hustled
DARK BLUE BOLDLY DEMONSTRATES WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE LAPD Sometimes described as a paramilitary organization, the Los Angeles Police Department has several geographic divisions and often establishes special units in which officers are given autonomous authority apart from other police, developing their own headquarters, jargon, logos, radio frequencies, rituals, and slogans, with no direct supervision.
TWO REVIEWS SEPARATED BY 20 YEARS COSTA-GAVRAS’S AMEN DOCUMENTS THE NAZI HORRORS (February 15, 2023) Many films have emerged recently to contradict those who have denied the Holocaust. Amen, directed by Constantine Costa-Gavras has trumped them all, providing specific documentation from an unwilling participant who supplied gas to the death camps, with a story based
THE FILM MAX ASKS WHETHER HITLER’S CAREER IN POLITICS WAS INEVITABLE Max, directed by Menno Meyjes, is ostensively about German art critic and dealer Max Rothman, but more importantly is a biopic of Adolf Hitler in the years 1917-1919. The film purports to show a critical turning point in the life of Hitler–and of the
A BLACK NAVAL OFFICER FINDS PEACE SEARCHING FOR HIS PSYCHOLOGICAL ROOTS Antwone Fisher, a young African American in the U.S. Navy decided one day to write the story of his life. Ten years later, his autobiography, with some fictionalization, has now been portrayed on the screen. The story so deeply touched Denzel Washington that he
SKINS EXPOSES THE DESTITUTE CONDITION OF NATIVE AMERICANS Skins takes place at Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, the poorest county in the United States. When the film begins, a voiceover recites statistics of the miserable plight of Native Americans concerning their poor health and low income. The story focuses on Rudy Yellow Lodge (played by
A SINGLE FATHER ESTABLISHES A PRECEDENT TO GET BACK HIS CHILDREN IN EVELYN When Evelyn begins, Desmond Doyle (played by Pierce Brosnan) is celebrating Christmas together with his wife and their three children in Dublin; the year is 1953. Earlier, Desmond lost his job and had been spending so much time drinking at the local
A SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION EMERGES IN TO END ALL WARS The early comment in To End All Wars by a Scottish soldier characterizing World War II as the second “war to end all wars” somehow tells us that we are to view a film that will make us think. Based on the book The Miracle on
AUSTRALIAN “HALF-CASTES” DENIED RIGHTS ALONG THE RABBIT-PROOF FENCE The longest fence in the world bisects Australia for 1,500 miles. Farmland is on one side of the fence, which thus serves to prevent rabbits from invading the crops; hence the name “rabbit-proof fence.” Building and maintaining the fence placed some European settlers into contact with the
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