Films that demonstrate the folly of political violence as a means for resolving conflict and/or show the superiority of nonviolent political conflict resolution.
THE LAUNDROMAT EXPOSES CORRUPTION, DECEPTION, AND FRAUD With the writing skills of Jake Bernstein and Scott Z. Burns, director Steven Soderbergh decided to bring the Panama Papers to the screen in The Laundromat. Rather than a conventional story beginning with a problem, developing characters through various scenes, leading to a climax, the film illustrates various […]
JIRGA RELITIGATES THE AFGHAN WAR Because the 9/11 attack was directed by Osama Bin Laden, whose Al Qaeda group was occupying a portion of Afghanistan, the U.S. Congress authorized regime change in Kabul and defeat of the ruling Taliban. But the UN Charter makes clear that any war conducted without Security Council authorization is a
15 MINUTES OF WAR CELEBRATES HOW LONG TERRORISTS WERE SHOT DOWN Based on an incident in 1976, Somali terrorists kidnapped a bus of 31 children going to school in the French colony of Djibouti. The Somalis wanted to exchange the kids for release of their brethren. Paris sought negotiations while a small group of sharpshooters
DOES RED JOAN REVEAL A POSSIBLE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE RECIPIENT? Did a humble British woman prevent World War III? The film Red Joan, a biopic of Melita Norwood, suggests that that was her motive in providing secrets of the atom bomb to the Soviet Union. Based on Jennie Rooney’s novel recounting true events, Red Joan
LITHUANIANS MOURN IN ASHES IN THE SNOW Made for about $5,000, Ashes in the Snow (Tarp pilku debesu) is based on the novel Between Shades of Gray, which dramatizes how Lithuanians were treated by the conquering Soviets during World War II. Beginning with a calm day in a Lithuanian town in early 1941, the film focuses on the fate
THE POST CELEBRATES MORE THAN FREEDOM OF THE PRESS When The Post begins, Daniel Ellsberg (played by Matthew Rhys) is with a unit of soldiers in Vietnam in 1966, finding out that the Viet Cong rule the country in the night. One day, while flying home on Air Force One, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (Bruce Greenwood) summons
THE FATE OF FJORDS IN THE FUTURE OF NORWAY IN THE KING’S CHOICENorway played a unique role during World War II. Titles at the beginning of the film inform filmviewers that Norway became independent of Sweden in 1905, when King Haakon VII (played by Jesper Christiansen) was imported from Denmark, where his brother was on the
DETROIT REVEALS THE UNREPORTED RIOTERS—THE POLICE Fifteen major cities in the United States experienced riots during the “long hot summer” of 1967. In each case, the police provided the trigger, and the result was a national commission on the causes as well as numerous academic studies to explain who rioted and why. Detroit, directed by Kathryn Bigelow,
TWO CIVIL WAR RIVALS SHAKE HANDS IN THE JOURNEY For forty years, Catholics and Protestants fought, killed, and died in Northern Ireland until one day in October 2006, when their leaders agreed on powersharing to end the conflict—a model for conflict resolution. In accordance with the St. Andrews Agreement, Reverend Ian Paisley (played by Timothy Spall)
WAR MACHINE IS THE BIGGEST ANTI-WAR FILM SINCE PLATOON Inspired by Michael Hastings’s book The Operators, director David Michôd has out-Oliver Stone’d us by deciding to tell the truth about the Afghan War. Although Barack Obama once called the intervention in Afghanistan as a “good war,” portrayal of the longest war in American history clearly seems anything but