Follow the link to watch the documentary on the Democracy Now! website, using RealPlayer. "Produced and directed by Irish filmmaker and former BBC producer Jamie Doran, the film tells the story of thousands of prisoners who surrendered to the US military's Afghan allies after the siege of Kunduz. According to the film, some three thousand of the prisoners were forced into sealed containers and loaded onto trucks for transport to Sheberghan prison. ... Witnesses say that when the trucks arrived and soldiers opened the containers, most of the people inside were dead." "Nafas (Niloufar Pazira) is a reporter who was born in Afghanistan, but fled with her family to Canada when she was a child. However, her sister wasn't so lucky; she lost her legs to a land mine while young, and when Nafas and her family left the country, her sister was accidentally left behind. Nafas receives a letter from her sister announcing that she's decided to commit suicide during the final eclipse before the dawn of the 21st century; desperate to spare her sister's life, Nafas makes haste to Afghanistan, where she joins a caravan of refugees who, for a variety of reasons, are returning to the war-torn nation. As Nafas searches for her sister, she soon gets a clear and disturbing portrait of the toll the Taliban regime has taken upon its people." (From the Amazon.com description) Winner of the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. "The first movie produced by Afghanistan filmmakers after the fall of the Taliban, Osama is a searing portrait of life under the oppressive fundamentalist regime. Because women are not allowed to work, a widow disguises her young daughter (Marina Golbahari) as a boy so they won't starve to death. Simply walking the streets is frightening enough, but when the disguised girl is rounded up with all the boys in the town for religious training, her peril becomes absolutely harrowing. Golbahari's face -- beautiful but taut with terror -- is riveting. The movie captures both her plight and the miseries of daily life in spare, vivid images. At one point, her mother is nearly killed for exposing her feet while riding on the back of a bicycle; for the entire scene, the camera shows only her feet, with the spokes of the wheel radiating out behind as she lowers her burka over them." (Bret Fetzer) "Nelofer Pazira, the star of the movie Kandahar, returns to her native Afghanistan. In the hope of tracking down her childhood friend Dyana -- whose story inspired the feature film -- Nelofer travels to the city of Kabul, Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif. Landing in Kabul, after 13 years, Nelofer unravels her past and the unfolding of history in her country while searching for Dyana." (From the website description)
"This internationally acclaimed film was banned by the French government for its realistic portrayal of the vicious battle for independence fought by the Algerian resistance fighters in the 1950s. This film is considered a classic for its documentary style of storytelling. It contains a prescient scene of Algerian women planting a bomb in a popular cafe." (Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity) The Battle of Algiers is more relevant than ever in the age of the "War on Terror" and renewed debate over the use of torture as a counterinsurgency tool; indeed, it has been required viewing in U.S. Army circles. The three-disc Criterion Collection edition features numerous extras, including interviews and documentaries.
"This 1994 film was adapted from a play by Argentinean playwright Ariel Dorfman and was directed by Roman Polanski. Set in an unnamed South American country, three people are thrown together in an isolated house on a dark and stormy night. The woman, played by Sigourney Weaver is clearly troubled and sad. Her husband, played by Stuart Wilson, is late for dinner. Turns out he had a flat tire and a stranger helped him out. That stranger, who is a doctor, played by Ben Kingsley, soon befriends the husband. The woman thinks the stranger is the man who tortured her while she was a political prisoner many years before. ... Is the doctor really the torturer or an innocent man?" (Linda Linquvic) "This is one of those rare political films that transcend politics with a stirring emotional story. Argentinean first-time director Luis Puenzo tells the story of a strong-willed teacher who tries to learn the true identity of her adopted daughter's father, coming to suspect that he was a political prisoner. Her political awakening is actually an emotional one as well because of her detached persona. Ironically, even though she is a teacher, she doesn't connect with people very well, thinking of history in the most abstract terms. But she learns the painful truth of present-day life. Tautly directed by Puenzo, The Official Story was a 1985 Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Film, with a riveting performance by Norma Aleandro." (Bill Desowitz)
"This remarkable, intricate movie from Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter) centers around the making of a film about the genocide of Armenians in Turkey in 1915 -- but this is not a dry, didactic historical re-enactment. Ararat unspools multiple storylines around Ani (Arsinee Khanjian), an art historian hired as a consultant on the film; her son Raffi (David Alpay); his stepsister, with whom Raffi is in love even though she believes that his mother is responsible for her father's suicide; an actor (Elias Koteas) hired to play the Turkish officer who organized the genocide; and a customs officer (Christopher Plummer), who holds Raffi for questioning under suspicion of smuggling heroin. All these characters, combined with the movie within the movie, intertwine in a complex yet powerfully emotional examination of memory (both cultural and personal), loyalty (to one's family, to one's heritage), creativity, and the subjectivity of truth." (Bret Fetzer) "The Armenian Genocide is the complete story of the first Genocide of the 20th century -- when over a million Armenians died at the hands of the Ottoman Turks during World War I. This unprecedented and powerful one-hour documentary, which aired April 17th, 2006 on PBS, was written, directed and produced by Emmy Award-winning producer Andrew Goldberg of Two Cats Productions, in association with Oregon Public Broadcasting. Featuring interviews with the leading experts in the field such as Pulitzer Prize-winning author Samantha Power and New York Times best-selling author, Peter Balakian, this film features never-before-seen historical footage of the events and key players of one of the greatest untold stories of the 20th century. The Armenian Genocide is narrated by Julianna Margulies and includes historical narrations by Ed Harris, Natalie Portman, Laura Linney and Orlando Bloom, among others." (From the Amazon.com description) "Documentary feature examining why genocides keep occurring -- from the Armenian genocide in 1915, to the Holocaust, Bosnia, Rwanda and now Darfur -- through the eyes and music of the Grammy award-winning rock band 'System of a Down,' based in Los Angeles, whose members are all grandchildren of genocide survivors. As the band tours the world and touches on the locations and stories of genocide in the last century, the film follows the personal story of the lead singer's grandfather, a 96-year old survivor of the Armenian genocide, one of the few remaining survivors from his village in Turkey. With the arguments of Harvard Professor Samantha Power, the personal stories of survivors from Armenia, Rwanda and Darfur, policy critics and whistleblowers –- the 'screamers' -- the film targets the problem of genocide denial, with specific reference to the Turkish government's current campaign to stop its citizens from discussing the genocide." (From the film's website) Based on hundreds of interviews conducted with survivors of the Armenian genocide. Includes the instalments "Voices from the Lake" (87 mins.), "Germany and the Secret Genocide" (60 mins.), and "Caravans along the Euphrates" (approx. 90 mins.), which appears to be still in production. Note: if you have up-to-date ordering information for this feature, please supply it.
Award-winning examination of the forces and actors that led to Yugoslavia's collapse into internecine war in the 1990s. "It is notable in its combination of never-before-seen archive footage interspersed with interviews by most of the main players in the conflict, including Slobodan Milosevic, then President of Serbia." (Wikipedia) Note: at the time of writing, two of the episodes were available on YouTube: see Episode 1, Episode 2. Sections of the documentary were re-edited as The Struggle for Bosnia, which is also available on YouTube, in eight parts beginning here. "Danis Tanovic's Academy Award-winning satire of the war in the Balkans is an astounding balancing act, an acidic black comedy grounded in the brutality and horror of war. Stuck in an abandoned trench between enemy lines, a Serb and a Bosnian play the blame game in a comic tit-for-tat struggle while a wounded Bosnian soldier lies helplessly on a land mine. A French tank unit of the U.N.'s humanitarian force (known locally as 'the Smurfs'), a scheming British TV reporter, a German mine defuser, and the U.N. high command (led by a bombastically ineffectual Simon Callow) all become tangled in the chaotic rescue as the tenuous cease-fire is only a spark away from detonation." (Sean Axmaker) "Filmed in Montenegro and based on true accounts of the early '90s ethnic clashes between Serbia and neighboring states, Savior is a harrowing triumph for Serbian director Pedrag Peter Antonijevic and actor Dennis Quaid. For Antonijevic, who shaped Robert Orr's script through his own knowledge of the Serb-Bosnian struggle, the story provides the daunting challenge of putting a human face on a monstrous chapter in modern Europe's geopolitical evolution, and of transcending nationalism by capturing an even-handed but hardly unemotional portrait of the 'war psychosis' that only partly explains the deep, divisive hatreds at work. For Quaid, Savior rescues his artistic reputation after too many formulaic studio outings that attempted merely to cash in on his wolfish charms. Quaid is Joshua Rose, an American in Paris traumatized by the death of his wife and child in an Islamic terrorist bombing, wreaking immediate and fateful vengeance on innocent Muslim worshippers, then escaping into a new life as a mercenary supporting Bosnian Serbs. Under the nom de guerre Guy, Rose is a remorseless, nearly comatose presence until he intervenes in a brutal attack on a Serbian woman (Natasa Ninkovic) pregnant from a Muslim rape. Guy's gradual immersion in his charge's destiny brings him face to face with the centuries-old political, religious, and cultural feuds that haunt the region, and Quaid's own salvation comes through a remarkably subdued, sober performance. That restraint, and Quaid's haggard, close-cropped features are all but unrecognizable to those more familiar with his cocky, grinning turns as a more conventional hero." (Sam Sutherland) "The horrors of war are examined from the view points of lifelong friends (Linus Roache, Vincent Perez), who end up on opposing sides in the civil war in Sarajevo. One is an expert marksman, who trains the snipers used to terrify the city and the other becomes a freedom fighter, who rejects his friend's offer to gain an escape from the city. As might be expected, the two eventually have to face off against one another." (From the Amazon.com description) "Srebrenica, Bosnia, the world's first United Nations Safe Area, was the site of the worst case of genocide in Europe since World War II. In July 1995, the Bosnian Serb army staged a brutal takeover of the small, intimate spa town and its surrounding region. Over a period of five days, the Bosnian Serb soldiers separated Muslim families and systematically murdered over 7,000 men and boys in fields, schools, and warehouses. ... Narrated by Bill Moyers, this compelling film includes previously unreleased footage and first-hand personal accounts of the 1995 Bosnian massacre." (From the film's PBS webpage) Two lovers from different ethnic groups are separated by war and ethnic cleansing. "The city of Vukovar, from which the movie takes its name, was a thriving home to 50,000 Serbs and Croats before the war. Now, fewer than 3000 survivors remain. Houses and businesses have been razed, and a pall of death and smoke lies over the ruins. Vukovar's cameras catch all of this. Director Boro Draskovic chose to produce his movie in the former Yugoslavia because he believed no other part of the world could adequately capture his homeland's anguish. So, at peril to cast and crew, who were occasionally fired upon by snipers, the story of two fictional citizens of Vukovar was committed to the screen. It's a sobering consideration to recognize that the background of this picture is not a movie set. Often during Vukovar, the line between documentary and fiction becomes very blurred." (James Berardinelli) The final scene, filmed from a helicopter flying over the ruins of Vukovar city, is unforgettable. "In the spring of 1992, news correspondents from around the world descended upon Bosnia to document the most horrific conflict Europe had seen since World War II. Welcome to Sarajevo is the story of those correspondents and the surreal world they entered when they checked into their rooms at the Holiday Inn (which, as fate would have it, was located right on the infamous boulevard known as Sniper Alley; they couldn't have found a better place to view the action if they tried). ... Welcome to Sarajevo is based on "Natasha's Story," the 1993 memoir of ITN correspondent Michael Nicholson. Director Michael Winterbottom has fashioned a remarkable film by taking the events in Nicholson's book and interweaving them with actual footage of the siege of Sarajevo. And he's couldn't have assembled a better cast; Stephen Dillaine and Woody Harrelson give the performances of their careers (thus far) as Henderson and Flynn, and they're ably supported by Kerry Fox, Marisa Tomei, Emira Nusevic, and a charismatic, pre-ER Goran Visnjic (who comes close to walking away with the movie)." (Zapasnik, Amazon.com reviewer)
"Inside Burma exposes the history and brutality of one of the world's most repressive regimes. Nearly the size of Texas, with a population of more than 40 million, Burma has rich natural resources probably unequaled in Asia. Yet Burma is also a secret country. ... Award-winning filmmakers John Pilger and David Munro go undercover to expose how the former British colony is ruled by a harsh, bloody and uncompromising military regime. More than a million people have been forced from their homes and untold thousands killed, tortured and subjected to slavery." (From the film's webpage)
"During the 60's and early 70's, as the war in Vietnam threatened its borders, a new music scene emerged in Cambodia that took Western rock and roll and stood it on its head-creating a sound like no other. Cambodian musicians crafted this sound from the various rock music styles sweeping across America and England, adding the unique melodies and hypnotic rhythms of their traditional music. The beautiful singing of the renowned female vocalists became the final touch that made this mix so enticing. As the peasant Khmer Rouge army closed in on the capital city of Phnom Penh, Cambodian rock and rollers played at rooftop parties while bombs ignited the evening sky. On April 17, 1975, after taking over the country, the Khmer Rouge began one of the most brutal genocides in history, killing 2 million people -- 1/4 of the Cambodian population. Intellectuals, artists and musicians were murdered simply for their status. Only a few miraculously survived to tell their story. This documentary film, Don't Think I've Forgotten, provides a new perspective on a country usually assocated with war and genocide. By celebrating this powerful music, and the people who created it, Cambodia's musical heyday emerges from the shadows of tragedy into the light of history." (From the film's website) "This harrowing but rewarding 1984 drama concerns the real-life relationship between New York Times reporter Sidney Schanberg and his Cambodian assistant Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor), the latter left at the mercy of the Khmer Rouge after Schanberg -- who chose to stay after American evacuation but was booted out -- failed to get him safe passage. Filmmaker Roland Joffé, previously a documentarist, made his feature debut with this account of Dith's rocky survival in the ensuing madness of the Khmer Rouge's genocidal campaign. The script spends some time with Schanberg's feelings of guilt after the fact, but most of the movie is a shattering re-creation of hell on Earth. The late Haing S. Ngor -- a real-life doctor who had never acted before and who lived through the events depicted by Joffé -- is outstanding, and he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Oscars also went to cinematographer Chris Menges and editor Jim Clark." (Tom Keogh) Writes the film's director, Socheata Poeuv: "While I thought everything about my parents was 'old country,' they were desperately trying to forget their past. They are survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide. In fact my whole family is, and it’s something they almost never talk about. They call me 'the lucky one.' Though conceived in Cambodia, I was born on New Year Day in a refugee camp in Thailand after the horror was over. ... One Christmas Day, my parents called a family meeting. They sat down my brother, two older sisters and me -- to reveal secrets after 25 years. My mother told us that my two sisters aren't actually my sisters. They are the children of my mother's sister, orphaned when their parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge. We learned my older brother isn't actually my full brother. He is my half brother -- the surviving child from her first family. My mother's first husband and daughter died in the genocide. This was the first I'd heard of them. It was the first for my brother too. In that room of shocked and tearful children, my father got up and in his character, locked himself in the bathroom. My parents' revelation raised more questions than it answered, so I became determined to document the full story. Last year, my parents took both my brother and me back to their homeland. Neither of us had ever been to Cambodia, save for my conception and my brother's harrowing escape. ..." (From the film's website) "In 1975-79, the Khmer Rouge waged a campaign of genocide on Cambodia's population. 1.7 million Cambodians lost their lives to famine and murder as the urban population was forced into the countryside to fulfill the Khmer Rouges' dream of an agrarian utopia. In S21, Panh brings two survivors back to the notorious Tuol Sleng prison (code-named 'S21'), now a genocide museum where former Khmer Rouge are employed as guides. Painter Vann Nath confronts his former captors in the converted schoolhouse where he was tortured, though by chance he did not suffer the fate of most of the other 17,000 men, women and children who were taken there, their 'crimes' meticulously documented to justify their execution. The ex-Khmer Rouge guards respond to Nath's provocations with excuses, chilling stoicism or apparent remorse as they recount the atrocities they committed at ages as young as 12 years old. To escape torture, the prisoners would confess to anything, and often denounce everyone they knew -- though their final sentence was never in doubt." (From the Amazon.com description)
"On September 11, 1973, President Salvador Allende's democratically elected Chilean government was overthrown in a bloody coup by General Augusto Pinochet's army. Patricio Guzmán and five colleagues had been filming the political developments in Chile throughout the nine months leading up to that day. The bombing of the Presidential Palace, in which Allende died, would now become the ending for Guzmán's seminal documentary The Battle of Chile (1975-76), an epic chronicle of that country's open and peaceful socialist revolution, and of the violent counter-revolution against it." (From the film's webpage) "Not only the best film about Allende and the coup d'etat, but among the best documentary films ever made, changing our concepts of political documentary within a framework accessible to the widest audience." (Time Out Film Guide) "The major political film of our times -- a magnificent achievement." (Tom Allen, Village Voice) "A landmark in the presentation of living history on film." (Judy Stone, San Francisco Chronicle)
"A portrait of a brutal Pinochet military dictatorship made during a three month visit to Chile in 1985 by David Bradbury. The footage reveals a country torn with civil strife and political unrest; military intimidation of the population; indiscriminate arrests: murder torture and disappearances were facts of Chilean life. Bradbury's film traces the 12 years from 1973 to 1985 of General Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship whose forces seized power in a bloody, US-backed coup that left Marxist president Salvador Allende dead and with him any hopes of democracy remaining in Chile. Under General Pinochet's rule 50,000 Chileans have been detained, and many are missing. believed dead." (From the film's webpage)
"The peril facing a lone American amid Third World political turmoil is elegantly communicated in this important film from Costa-Gavras (Z), adapted by the director and Donald Stewart from Thomas Hauser's nonfiction book. The key to its power onscreen stems from the decision not to center the action merely on the disappearance of Charles Horman (John Shea), but also on the search for him by his father Ed (Jack Lemmon) -- and on Ed's discovery of a son he never knew. The Oscar-winning script flows freely between that search and Charles's earlier experiences in the unnamed country (in the true account, Chile). Providing a link between those two stories is Charles's wife Beth (Sissy Spacek), who follows her father-in-law around a country in chaos, teeming with reckless authority and disinterested American diplomats (epitomized by ace character actor David Clennon). The film, which was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar and won the Cannes Film Festival's top prize, is certainly manipulative, but it works because of its finely detailed human elements. Usually emotionally extroverted, Lemmon gives one of his finest performances playing against that type -- here, he's a controlled, intellectual man who learns more about his son, and his country, than he ever dreamed he would." (Doug Thomas)
"Midway through Sarah Pirozek's concert documentary, Free Tibet, about the 1997 two-day benefit show in San Francisco, Smashing Pumpkin guitarist James Iha clearly summarizes the proceedings. 'It's hard to expect real serious intentions with a rock concert with millions of kids.' Indeed. Most of the thousands in attendance over the weekend didn't know squat, much less care, about the situation in Tibet. As long as they got to see Rage Against the Machine hammer home their political fury or A Tribe Called Quest kick out the jams, everything would be fine. This documentary, which mixes concert footage with backstage and crowd interviews, political lectures, and archival footage of Tibet's downtrodden history, successfully captures both the good intentions of the festival organizers and the ignorant audience reception, i.e., kids more interested in moshing and partying than world peace. As one kids puts it, 'I care, ya know, but short attention span.' The same unfortunately can be said of Pirozek's approach to all of this. She directs the film like she has ants in her pants, and then cuts it together with a blender. ..." (Dave McCoy) "It would be a mistake to call Kundun a disappointment, or a film that director Martin Scorsese was not equipped to create. Both statements may be true to some viewers, but they ignore the higher purpose of Scorsese's artistic intention and take away from a film that is by any definition unique. In chronicling the life of the 14th Dalai Lama, Kundun defies conventional narrative in favor of an episodic approach, presenting a sequential flow of events from the life of the young leader of Buddhist Tibet. From the moment he is recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama in 1937 to his exile from Tibet in the wake of China's invasion, the Dalai Lama is seen as an enlightened spiritual figurehead. This gives the film its tone of serenity and reverence but denies us the privilege of admiring the Dalai Lama as a fascinating human character. ... But as a political drama and an elegant gesture of devotion, Kundun is a film of great value and inspirational beauty -- one, after all, that perhaps only Scorsese could have made." (Jeff Shannon) "Using a faulty thriller for his soapbox as an outspoken critic of China, a devout follower of the Dalai Lama, and an influential supporter of Tibetan freedom, Richard Gere resorts to the equivalent of propagandistic drama to deliver a heavy-handed message. In other words, Red Corner relies on a dubious strategy to promote political awareness, but director Jon Avnet appeals to the viewer's outrage with such effective urgency that you're likely to forget you're being shamelessly manipulated. Gere plays a downtrodden TV executive who sells syndicated shows on the global market, and during a business trip to China he finds himself framed for the murder of the sexy daughter of a high Chinese official. Once trapped in a legal system in which his innocence will be all but impossible to prove, Gere must rely on a Chinese-appointed lawyer (played by Bai Ling) who first advises him to plead guilty but gradually grows convinced of foul play. Barely attempting to hide its agenda, Red Corner effectively sets the stage for abundant anti-Chinese sentiment, and to be sure, the movie gains powerful momentum with its tale of justice gone awry. It's a serious-minded, high-intensity courtroom drama with noble intentions ... but did it have to be so conspicuously lacking in subtlety? (Jeff Shannon) "Ten years in the making, this award-winning documentary was filmed during a remarkable nine journeys throughout Tibet, India and Nepal. Cry of the Snow Lion brings audiences to the long-forbidden 'rooftop of the world' with an unprecedented richness of imagery ... from rarely-seen rituals in remote monasteries, to horse races with Khamba warriors; from brothels and slums in the holy city of Lhasa, to the magnificent Himalayan peaks still traveled by nomadic yak caravans. The dark secrets of Tibet's recent past are powerfully chronicled through riveting personal stories and interviews, and a collection of undercover and archival images never before assembled in one film. A definitive exploration of a legendary subject, Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion is an epic story of courage and compassion." (From the Amazon.com description) "A remarkable film produced under remarkable conditions, Windhorse dares to present a realistic and scathingly critical depiction of Chinese oppression in Tibet. ... Set in 1998, it's a simple tale, accessible to a wide audience, in which a young Tibetan singer named Dolkar (Dadon) is a rising star on the Chinese-owned nightclub circuit, growing too comfortable with her own integration into Chinese society in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. Her grandfather had been killed by the Chinese in 1959 for protesting against Chinese occupation, and now, 18 years later, her brother Dorjee (Jampa Kelsang) is aimless and unemployed, hating the Chinese and powerless to do anything about it. Their cousin Pema (played by an actress who must remain unidentified) is a Tibetan nun who is imprisoned and severely beaten for her outspoken protest against China and defiant embrace of the Dalai Lama as her religious leader. She is released to her family, weakened and on the verge of death, and her testimony about Chinese brutality is videotaped by a sympathetic American tourist (Teije Silverman). In depicting this dangerous activity, Windhorse becomes a vehicle for global awareness of Tibet's ongoing oppression. This personal history and family turmoil provides an intimate perspective on the Tibetan cause, and much of the film was shot illegally in Tibet with digital home-video cameras, under the noses of the Chinese police. Many of the Tibetan actors and crewmembers remain unnamed in the credits to protect their identities, and this clandestine production strategy gives Windhorse a sense of urgent authenticity, also resulting in a variety of interesting anecdotes in Wagner's audio commentary, recorded with cowriter/coproducer Julia Elliot and exiled Tibetan cowriter Thupten Tsering. The result is more of a human-rights treatise than a truly satisfying movie, but Windhorse retains enough dramatic impact to provide a powerful and still controversial look at a political crisis that remains stubbornly unsolved." (Jeff Shannon) "Directed by Joan Chen from an award-winning novella banned in China because of political and sexual content, Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl is a powerful love story. Between 1967 and 1976, nearly 8 million Chinese youths were 'sent down' for specialized training to the remotest corners of the country. Before being sent down, the young and beautiful Xiu Xiu dreams of becoming a horse trainer in the wide open plains of Tibet, far away from her busy city home. Her journey begins in a training camp in the isolated plains with a solitary and mysterious man. Slowly, Xiu Xiu discovers that she is unlikely to ever see her home again without a wealthy sponsor. Her world becomes a horrifying cage, where 'patrons' promise her escape in exchange for her sexual compromise. This is one girl's story and a compassionate deed that inspired one special man and everyone who hears her tale." (From the Amazon.com description)
"Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death describes how King Leopold II of Belgium turned Congo into its private colony between 1885 and 1908. Under his control, Congo became a gulag labor camp of shocking brutality. Leopold posed as the protector of Africans fleeing Arab slave-traders but, in reality, he carved out an empire based on terror to harvest rubber. Families were held as hostages, starving to death if the men failed to produce enough wild rubber. Children's hands were chopped off as punishment for late deliveries. The Belgian government has denounced this documentary as a 'tendentious diatribe' for depicting King Leopold II as the moral forebear of Adolf Hitler, responsible for the death of 10 million people in his rapacious exploitation of the Congo. Yet, it is agreed today that the first Human Rights movement was spurred by what happened in the Congo." (From the Amazon.com description) "Made in the tradition of such true-life political thrillers as Malcolm X and JFK, Raoul Peck's award-winning Lumumba is a gripping epic that dramatizes for the first time the rise and fall of legendary African leader Patrice Lumumba. When the Congo declared its independence from Belgium in 1960, the 36-year-old, self-educated Lumumba became the first Prime Minister of the newly independent state. Called 'the politico of the bush' by journalists of the day, he became a lightning rod of Cold War politics as his vision of a united Africa gained him powerful enemies in Belgium and the U.S. Lumumba would last just months in office before being brutally assassinated. Strikingly photographed in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Belgium as civil war once again raged in the Congo, the film vividly re-creates the shocking events behind the birth of the country that became Zaire during the reign of Lumumba's former friend and eventual nemesis, Joseph Mobutu. This version features the film with its original French dialogue and English subtitles." (From the Amazon.com description)
"In October, 2004 a team of three independent filmmakers -- Aisha Bain, Jen Marlowe and Adam Shapiro -- left for Darfur, Sudan and eastern Chad. After monitoring the worsening political and humanitarian crisis for months and recognizing that the mainstream media offered marginal and inadequate coverage, the team set out with the goal of providing a platform for the people of Darfur (both those displaced inside Darfur and those living in refugee camps in Chad) to speak for themselves about their experiences, their fears, and their hopes for the future. The conflict serves as the ongoing narrative in the film, but the focus is on the people who are living through what has been termed a 'genocide.' Through the voices of refugees, displaced persons, and in particular women and children, who are always among the most vulnerable in any conflict situation, this film seeks to provide space for the marginalized victims of atrocities to speak and to engage with the world. Additionally, the film probes the history, culture and heritage of Darfur as a means of deepening understanding of the crisis and complicating easily assumed perceptions by which the conflict is often portrayed (such as a matter of race, ethnicity or religion)." (From the film's website)
"Accusations of genocide fly in this disturbing and controversial British documentary by David Munro and John Pilger who had to film sequences in secret. According to them the Indonesian government has been systematically destroying the native population of East Timor, an island which they took over from the Portuguese in 1975. Since that time, one third of the population, approximately 200,000 Timorese have been slaughtered. The Timorese are not related to the Japanese. Just off shore from Timor are large underwater oil fields. The filmmakers make disturbing accusations regarding the complacency of the U.S., British, and Australian governments who purportedly knew about the killing and did nothing. Included in the film is footage of the 1991 massacre, and interviews." (Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide) The complete video can be viewed here).
"At its heart, Romero is simply a story of a man's conversion. Oscar Romero was chosen archbishop of San Salvador because it was perceived that the conservative bishop would 'make no waves' for the ruling oligarchy. The film begins with Romero warning his Jesuit friend Father Rutilio Grande (played by Richard Jordan), who is helping to organize poor farmers, against 'going too fast.' In his inaugural sermon as archbishop, Romero warns against 'radical ideas' and says the church must 'keep to the center.' ... It is the death-squad murder of his friend, Fr. Rutilio Grande, and his pastoral relationship with the families of hundreds of 'disappeared' people (murdered by National Guard soldiers or right-wing death-squads) that finally push the reluctant Romero to move from his safe, non-committal stance ... Faced with human suffering, Romero confronts the dilemma that all people of compassion must confront: either become numb to the pain of those around you or begin to take action on their behalf. Ultimately, he cannot ignore the poverty and suffering of his people, and finally compassion -- not politics or ideology -- compels him to choose sides, to take a stand on behalf of the poor, effectively signing his own death warrant." (Review found here) "Director Oliver Stone (Platoon, JFK) offers up this brilliant, engrossing true-life account of the violent civil war in El Salvador as told through the perspective of a has-been journalist trying for one last grasp at glory and finding the true horror of war. James Woods is freelance journalist Richard Boyle, who leaves San Francisco broke with his drug-addled, disc-jockey buddy (Jim Belushi) to cover the escalating conflict and hopefully return to his former stature as a war correspondent. What he finds is a nation torn by random violence, shifting ideologies, poverty, and the malevolent influence of the United States. Boyle tries to make sense of the brutality he sees while extracting his girlfriend from the war zone and saving his own life. Featuring John Savage (The Deer Hunter) as an earnest photojournalist, this is a fascinating and riveting depiction of the bloody strife that tore apart a nation and mirrored the disillusionment of the Vietnam era." (Robert Lane)
"This 1930 film, No. 54 on the [American Film Institute's] Top 100 list, still holds up as a surprisingly forceful and honest antiwar drama. Indeed, the modern sensibility is almost as startling as the sometime stagey acting of Lew Ayres, which can be excused by the fact that, three years after the introduction of sound, actors were still applying stage techniques to talking pictures. Ayres plays a German college student during World War I, who is brainwashed into enlisting in the Army (along with the rest of his class) by a zealously inspirational college professor. Once in uniform and on the front lines, however, he quickly discovers that the glory of the Fatherland is of little concern to a soldier dodging bullets and explosions, whose comrades are dying in his arms. As powerful in its way as Platoon almost 60 years later, it remains a classic tale of young soldiers' confrontations with the possibility of imminent and arbitrary death. Director Lewis Milestone shows a surprising range of techniques in this film from the formative years of moviemaking with sound." (Marshall Fine) "Although the First World War gets less attention than its successor, it was really the watershed event of the 20th century. This conflict shaped the world that came after to this day. It was the catalyst for the rise of soviet communism in Russia, whose unravelling less than a decade and a half ago continues to affect worldwide diplomacy and economics. Germany's defeat provided the opportunity for fascism and Hitler to come to power there, causing the Second World War and its greater destruction. The defeat of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War and the diplomatic and political morass that followed was the precursor for the reconstitution of Israel and eventually brought the Middle East into center stage today. This series is based upon the books and encyclopedic knowledge of Professor Hugh Strachan. It examines every aspect of the war, from its causes to the conduct of the war on and behind the front lines to its aftermath. In doing so, it covers the diplomatic, political, military and social aspects, each of which played a role in shaping what happened and why. It does not just present the summary facts but goes in depth in its explanations. For example, instead of simply depicting the spring 1918 German offensive on the western front, it gives detail about how they accomplished it, the attitudes of the troops on each side and the thought processes of the respective high commands." ("Scout," Amazon reviewer) "An outstanding drama, Gallipoli resonates with sadness long after you have seen it. Set during World War I, this brutally honest antiwar movie was cowritten by director Peter Weir. Mark Lee and a sinfully handsome Mel Gibson are young, idealistic best friends who put aside their hopes and dreams when they join the war effort. This character study follows them as they enlist and are sent to Gallipoli to fight the Turks. The first half of the film is devoted to their lives and their strong friendship. The second half details the doomed war efforts of the Aussies, who are no match for the powerful and aggressive Turkish army. Because the script pulls us into their lives and forces us to care for these young men, we are devastated by their fate." (Rochelle O'Gorman) "This is a significant film that has reached cult status. Dalton Trumbo wrote the novel in 1938, won the National Book Award, and then the book was banned as subversive. Trumbo suffered a polemic from HUAC [House Un-American Activities Committee] in 1949, and spent a year in jail for contempt of Congress. The book was banned again in 1950, during the Korean War. Kirk Douglas brought him out of exile in 1960 to write the screenplay for Spartacus. In 1970, Trumbo directed this film himself, adapted from his own book, and it emerged as a scathing anti-war allegory. When the film opened, it did poorly at the box office in America. The Viet Nam war had clouded the issue. Perhaps if he had included more humor and satire in the picture it would have been easier to digest. Watching it is like drinking white lightning; it burns all the way down. ... We are introduced in the opening scene to a group of doctors discussing a decerebrated patient, a grievously wounded soldier, assumed to be brain dead; incapable of sentience or dreams; just an armless, legless, faceless, totally deaf living chunk of meat with a beating heart and an active colon. But we soon hear the soldier's voice, and realize he is aware of his environment. ... [The film] teaches us that blind patriotism can lead us into dark events, whereby the powers that be will be able to manipulate or sacrifice our life or limb on the alter of their choosing. It teaches us further that freedom, liberty, and democracy can be reduced to buzz words that can mantle the real issues. We come to realize that, in fact, there are worse things in this world than death." (Glenn A. Butkus, Amazon reviewer) "Stanley Kubrick had already made his talent known with the outstanding racetrack heist thriller The Killing, but it was the 1957 antiwar masterpiece Paths of Glory that catapulted Kubrick to international acclaim. Based on the novel by Humphrey Cobb, the film was initiated by Kirk Douglas, who chose the young Kubrick to direct what would become one of the most powerful films about the wasteful insanity of warfare. In one of his finest roles, Douglas plays Colonel Dax, commander of a battle-worn regiment of the French army along the western front during World War I. Held in their trenches under the threat of German artillery, the regiment is ordered on a suicidal mission to capture an enemy stronghold. When the mission inevitably fails, French generals order the selection of three soldiers to be tried and executed on the charge of cowardice. Dax is appointed as defense attorney for the chosen scapegoats, and what follows is a travesty of justice that has remained relevant and powerful for decades. In the wake of some of the most authentic and devastating battle sequences ever filmed, Kubrick brilliantly explores the political machinations and selfish personal ambitions that result in battlefield slaughter and senseless executions. The film is unflinching in its condemnation of war and the self-indulgence of military leaders who orchestrate the deaths of thousands from the comfort of their luxurious headquarters. For many years, Paths of Glory was banned in France as a slanderous attack on French honor, but it's clear that Kubrick's intense drama is aimed at all nations and all men. Though it touches on themes of courage and loyalty in the context of warfare, the film is specifically about the historical realities of World War I, but its impact and artistic achievement remain timeless and universal." (Jeff Shannon)
"While the term 'genocide' is a product of the 20th century, the phenomenon is not; massacres and brutality riddle humankind's past. Introduced by Academy Award-winning actor Jon Voight, this series presents the definitive, most comprehensive overview of the history of genocide. With the aid of an impressive array of scholars, experts, eyewitnesses, and survivors from around the world, the programs examine the complex dimensions of human nature's darkest side." (From the film's website) "The Night of Truth is set in a fictitious west African country rent by 10 years of civil war; and though [director Fanta Régina] Nacro clearly has Rwanda in her sights, her film could equally draw on the experience of Sierra Leone, Sudan, Zaire, Uganda or, indeed, Yugoslavia. As she herself says, 'Yugoslavia reminded people that African countries don't have a monopoly of horror.' Barring a brief coda, the action takes place over a period of a few hours on the day when two warring sides, having agreed a fragile truce, come together for what's planned as a feast of reconciliation. The conflict, as in Rwanda, is tribal: the Bonande, led by the charismatic Colonel Theo, have rebelled against the oppressive rule of the Nayak, represented by President Miossoune. ... The strength of Nacro's film lies not so much in its plot, which occasionally errs on the side of predictability, as in the all-too-convincing texture of its portrayal of a country traumatised by a decade of hatred and slaughter. Throughout the movie we can glimpse, almost casually in the background of the action, walls on which women are painting vigorous, graphic pictures -- all of them depicting mutilation and killing. Even more chilling is a gathering of children aged ten or younger who casually tease each other about the various injuries and amputations they've suffered. These details, as much as the nightmarish flashbacks of landscapes strewn with severed body parts, reinforce the sense of a country where the cruellest, most extreme violence has become a commonplace, part of the very fabric of life. Small wonder if the banal tree-planting ceremony intended to mark the moment of reconciliation proves hopelessly inadequate. A blood sacrifice is needed to seal the pact, an act of horror commensurate with the horrors that have preceded it. The film ends on a note of optimism, with Tomota reporting to his dead commander on a nation at peace, and schoolchildren learning a text that speaks of unity. But so powerful is the preceding portrayal of a poisoned legacy of hate and fear, that you can't help wondering how long this peace will hold." (From the review by Philip Kemp, British Film Institute)
"Quite simply a great movie, one whose implacable portrait of ruthless greed and insane ambition becomes more pertinent every year. The astonishing Klaus Kinski plays Don Lope de Aguirre, a brutal conquistador who leads his soldiers into the Amazon jungle in an obsessive quest for gold. The story is of the expedition's relentless degeneration into brutality and despair, but the movie is much more than its plot. Director Werner Herzog strove, whenever possible, to replicate the historical circumstances of the conquistadors, and the sheer human effort of traveling through the dense mountains and valleys of Brazil [sic: Peru] in armor creates a palpable sense of struggle and derangement. This sense of reality, combined with Kinski's intensely furious performance, makes Aguirre, the Wrath of God a riveting film. Its unique emotional power is matched only by other Herzog-Kinski collaborations like Fitzcarraldo and Woyzek." (Bret Fetzer) "Perhaps the highest compliment you can pay to Edward Norton is that his Oscar-nominated performance in American History X nearly convinces you that there is a shred of logic in the tenets of white supremacy. If that statement doesn't horrify you, it should; Norton is so fully immersed in his role as a neo-Nazi skinhead that his character's eloquent defense of racism is disturbingly persuasive -- at least on the surface. Looking lean and mean with a swastika tattoo and a mind full of hate, Derek Vinyard (Norton) has inherited racism from his father, and that learning has been intensified through his service to Cameron (Stacy Keach), a grown-up thug playing tyrant and teacher to a growing band of disenfranchised teens from Venice Beach, California, all hungry for an ideology that fuels their brooding alienation. The film's basic message -- that hate is learned and can be unlearned -- is expressed through Derek's kid brother, Danny (Edward Furlong), whose sibling hero-worship increases after Derek is imprisoned (or, in Danny's mind, martyred) for the killing of two black men. Lacking Derek's gift of rebel rhetoric, Danny is easily swayed into the violent, hateful lifestyle that Derek disowns during his thoughtful time in prison. Once released, Derek struggles to save his brother from a violent fate, and American History X partially suffers from a mix of intense emotions, awkward sentiment, and predictably inevitable plotting. And yet British director Tony Kaye (who would later protest against Norton's creative intervention during post-production) manages to juggle these qualities -- and a compelling clash of visual styles -- to considerable effect. No matter how strained their collaboration may have been, both Kaye and Norton can be proud to have created a film that addresses the issue of racism with dramatically forceful impact." (Jeff Shannon) "David Lynch peeks behind the picket fences of small-town America to reveal a corrupt shadow world of malevolence, sadism, and madness. From the opening shots Lynch turns the Technicolor picture postcard images of middle class homes and tree-lined lanes into a dreamy vision on the edge of nightmare. After his father collapses in a preternaturally eerie sequence, college boy Kyle MacLachlan returns home and stumbles across a severed human ear in a vacant lot. With the help of sweetly innocent high school girl (Laura Dern), he turns junior detective and uncovers a frightening yet darkly compelling world of voyeurism and sex. Drawn deeper into the brutal world of drug dealer and blackmailer Frank, played with raving mania by an obscenity-shouting Dennis Hopper in a career-reviving performance, he loses his innocence and his moral bearings when confronted with pure, unexplainable evil. Isabella Rossellini is terrifyingly desperate as Hopper's sexual slave who becomes MacLachlan's illicit lover, and Dean Stockwell purrs through his role as Hopper's oh-so-suave buddy. Lynch strips his surreally mundane sets to a ghostly austerity, which composer Angelo Badalamenti encourages with the smooth, spooky strains of a lush score. Blue Velvet is a disturbing film that delves into the darkest reaches of psycho-sexual brutality and simply isn't for everyone. But for a viewer who wants to see the cinematic world rocked off its foundations, David Lynch delivers a nightmarish masterpiece." (Sean Axmaker) "Sam Lowry is a harried technocrat in a futuristic society that is needlessly convoluted and inefficient. He dreams of a life where he can fly away from technology and overpowering bureaucracy, and spend eternity with the woman of his dreams. While trying to rectify the wrongful arrest of one Harry Buttle, Lowry meets the woman he is always chasing in his dreams, Jill Layton. Meanwhile, the bureaucracy has fingered him responsible for a rash of terrorist bombings, and both Sam and Jill's lives are put in danger." (Amazon.com description) "Brazil is one of the great political films, an extraordinary mixture of Fellini and Kafka, with a complex force of synthesized images, which belongs to [director Terry] Gilliam alone. A meek, distinctly nonglamorous secretary is taking dictation through earphones. She types up everything she hears in the next room. In the course of time, the viewer of the film deduces that she is compiling an endless transcript of what a victim is saying in a torture chamber. Even if he screams it, she types it up as if he has merely said it. She herself says nothing, and her face betrays no emotion as the words quietly take form. Her boss, the torturer, is played by Michael Palin in the full, sweet spate of his bland niceness. This is the ne plus ultra of torture as an everyday activity. The torture surgery contributes one of the most brain-curdling of the film's many disturbing themes (still revealing their subtleties on a third and fourth viewing). The suggestion seems to be that a torturer need be no more sinister than your doctor." (Clive James, on Slate.com) "Like cinematic dynamite, City of God lights a fuse under its squalid Brazilian ghetto, and we're a captive audience to its violent explosion. The titular favela is home to a seething army of impoverished children who grow, over the film's ambitious 20-year timeframe, into cutthroat killers, drug lords, and feral survivors. In the vortex of this maelstrom is L'il Z (Leandro Firmino da Hora -- like most of the cast, a nonprofessional actor), self-appointed king of the dealers, determined to eliminate all competition at the expense of his corrupted soul. With enough visual vitality and provocative substance to spark heated debate (and box-office gold) in Brazil, codirectors Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund tackle their subject head on, creating a portrait of youthful anarchy so appalling -- and so authentically immediate -- that City of God prompted reforms in socioeconomic policy. It's a bracing feat of stylistic audacity, borrowing from a dozen other films to form its own unique identity. You'll flinch, but you can't look away." (Jeff Shannon) "Stanley Kubrick's striking visual interpretation of Anthony Burgess's famous novel is a masterpiece. Malcolm McDowell delivers a clever, tongue-in-cheek performance as Alex, the leader of a quartet of droogs, a vicious group of young hoodlums who spend their nights stealing cars, fighting rival gangs, breaking into people's homes, and raping women. While other directors would simply exploit the violent elements of such a film without subtext, Kubrick maintains Burgess's dark, satirical social commentary. We watch Alex transform from a free-roaming miscreant into a convict used in a government experiment that attempts to reform criminals through an unorthodox new medical treatment. The catch, of course, is that this therapy may be nothing better than a quick cure-all for a society plagued by rampant crime. A Clockwork Orange works on many levels -- visual, social, political, and sexual -- and is one of the few films that hold up under repeated viewings. Kubrick not only presents colorfully arresting images, he also stylizes the film by utilizing classical music (and Wendy Carlos's electronic classical work) to underscore the violent scenes, which even today are disturbing in their display of sheer nihilism. Ironically, many fans of the film have missed that point, sadly being entertained by its brutality rather than being repulsed by it." (Bryan Reesman) "An epic in length and breadth, this documentary aims at nothing less than a full-scale portrait of the most dominant institution on the planet Earth in our lifetime -- a phenomenon all the more remarkable, if not downright frightening, when you consider that the corporation as we know it has been around for only about 150 years. It used to be that corporations were, by definition, short-lived and finite in agenda. If a town needed a bridge built, a corporation was set up to finance and complete the project; when the bridge was an accomplished fact, the corporation ceased to be. Then came the 19th-century robber barons, and the courts were prevailed upon to define corporations not as get-the-job-done mechanisms but as persons under the 14th Amendment with full civil rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (i.e., power and profit) -- ad infinitum. The Corporation defines this endlessly mutating life-form in exhaustive detail, measuring the many ways it has not only come to dominate but to deform our reality. The movie performs a running psychoanalysis of this entity with the characteristics of a prototypical psychopath: a callous unconcern for the feelings and safety of others, an incapacity to experience guilt, an ingrained habit of lying for profit, etc. We are swept away on a demented odyssey through an altered cosmos, in which artificial chemicals are created for profit and incidentally contribute to a cancer epidemic; in which the folks who brought us Agent Orange devise a milk-increasing drug for a world in which there is already a glut of milk; in which an American computer company leased its systems to the Nazis -- and serviced them on a monthly basis -- so that the Holocaust could go forward as an orderly process." (Richard T. Jameson) "You could only see his eyes behind the layers of makeup, but those expressive orbs earned John Hurt a well-deserved Oscar nomination for his moving portrayal of John Merrick, the grotesquely deformed Victorian-era man better known as The Elephant Man. Inarticulate and abused, Merrick is the virtual slave of a carnival barker (Freddie Jones) until dedicated London doctor Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins in a powerfully understated performance) rescues him from the life and offers him an existence with dignity. Anne Bancroft costars as the actress whose visit to Merrick makes him a social curiosity, with John Gielgud and Wendy Hiller as dubious hospital staffers won over by Merrick. David Lynch earned his only Oscar nominations as director and cowriter of this somber drama, which he shot in a rich black-and-white palette, a sometimes stark, sometimes dreamy visual style that at times recalls the offbeat expressionism of his first film, Eraserhead. It remains a perfect marriage between traditional Hollywood historical drama and Lynch's unique cinematic eye, a compassionate human tale delivered in a gothic vein. The film earned eight Oscar nominations in all, and though it left the Oscar race empty-handed, its dramatic power and handsome yet haunting imagery remain just as strong today." (Sean Axmaker) "Inspired by a famous 1971 psychological experiment, Oliver Hirschbiegel's German-language movie The Experiment finds a group of 20 volunteers randomly divided into 12 prisoners and eight guards and asked to play out their roles for a fortnight while scientists study their reactions. A conflict arises between undercover reporter Fahd (Moritz Bleibtreu), a con with a hidden agenda, and the apparently mild-mannered Berus (Justus von Dohnanyi), a guard with a megalomaniac streak. The film begins as a psychological drama as ordinary people settle into the game, with joking displays of resistance by the 'prisoners' greeted with increasing brutality from the 'guards,' but detours into suspense and horror as Fahd, who needs the experiment to get out of hand in order to make his story more saleable, deliberately ratchets up the tension between the factions only to see the situation spiral nightmarishly out of control as various test subjects in both camps edge closer to snapping. With a terrific display of ensemble acting and unforced use of the popular claustrophobic semi-documentary look, Hirschbiegel's movie takes its time to get underway, with apparently irrelevant cutaways to Fahd's outside girlfriend (Maren Eggert), but works up to a powerful second half that delivers a sustained symphony of psychological and physical anguish." (Kim Newman) "Set in a time when a buildup of toxic chemicals has made most people sterile, Volker Schlondorff's film offers a disturbing view of a society under martial law in which fertile women are captured and made into handmaids to bear children for rich and infertile matrons. The film unfolds from the eyes of newly converted handmaid Kate (Natasha Richardson). She is trapped in this mysogynistic society which both deifies these fertile women as prized possessions and condemns them as whores. Throughout the story Kate has to cope with the jealousy of the woman she serves (Faye Dunaway), the advances of her sleazy military husband (the Commander, played by Robert Duvall), and the loss of her daughter, who has been shuttled off to a similarly aristocratic setting. She also falls in love with one of the Commander's security guards (Aidan Quinn), who sympathizes with her plight and potentially offers her a way out. Throughout The Handmaid's Tale, issues of feminism, abortion rights, male dominance, and conservative religious politics all come under fire. Some may view the film itself as antifemale considering its concepts, but it is quite the opposite. Instead it shows how only through solidarity can women bring down an overriding patriarchical mindset. The film, which works from Harold Pinter's screenplay adaption of Margaret Atwood's novel, features strong performances from those mentioned as well as Elizabeth McGovern and Victoria Tennant." (Bryan Reesman) "Two bored businessmen, exiled to a remote company outpost on a six-week business trip, decide to enliven their visit by romancing a deaf woman and then savagely dumping her. Slimy Chad (Aaron Eckhart) convinces schlumphy Howard (Matt Malloy) to take part in the vicious scheme by framing it as an act of revenge against uppity womankind, but it quickly becomes apparent that he harbors some even more sinister motives. What might have been a simple exploration (some, no doubt, would say reiteration) of straightforward misogyny is elevated by the remarkable performance of Eckhart; at once charming and nauseating, his fascinating interpretation of pure competitive evil dominates the film. Neil LaBute's intelligent script is somewhat reminiscent of Whit Stillman's darker moments (minus the collegiate cleverness and zany warmth), and his direction, while rarely visually impressive, does connote the hellish impersonality of corporate interiors with chilling success. The director-screenwriter deserves additional plaudits for resisting both the tidal pull toward poetic justice and the temptation to draw either of his main characters as even slightly sympathetic. A study in ugliness, a rubbernecker's delight, a time bomb." (Miles Bethany) "In this classic 1963 adaptation of William Golding's novel, a planeload of schoolboys is stranded on a tropical island. They've got food and water; all that's left is to peacefully govern themselves until they're rescued. 'After all,' says choir leader Jack, 'We're English. We're the best in the world at everything!' Unfortunately, living peacefully is not as easy as it seems. Though Ralph is named chief, Jack and the choristers quickly form a clique of their own, using the ever-effective political promise of fun rather than responsibility to draw converts. Director Peter Brook draws some excellent performances out of his young cast; the moment when Ralph realizes that even if he blows the conch for a meeting people might not come is an excruciating one. Well acted and faithfully executed, Lord of the Flies is as compelling today as when first released." (Ali Davis) "The lethal business of arms dealers provides an electrifying context for the black-as-coal humor of Andrew Niccol's Lord of War. Having proven his ingenuity as the writer of The Truman Show, and writer-director of Gattaca and the under-appreciated Simone, Niccol is clearly striving for Strangelovian relevance here as he chronicles the rise and inevitable fall of Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage), a Ukrainian immigrant to America who makes his fortune selling every kind of ordnance he can get his amoral hands on. With a trophy wife (Bridget Moynahan) who's initially clueless about his hidden career, and a younger brother (Jared Leto) whose drug-addled sense of decency makes him an ill-chosen accomplice, Yuri traffics in death the way other salesman might push vacuum cleaners (he likes to say that alcohol and tobacco are deadlier products than his), but even he can't deny the sheer ruthlessness of the Liberian dictator (a scene-stealing Eamonn Walker) who purchases Orlov's 'products' to expand his oppressive regime. Niccol's themes are even bigger than Yuri's arms deals, and he drives them home with a blunt-force lack of subtlety, but Cage gives the film the kind of insanely dark humor it needs to have. To understand this monster named Yuri, we have to see at least a glimpse of his humanity, which Cage provides as only he can. Otherwise, this epic tale of gunrunnng would be as morally unbearable as the black market trade it illuminates." (Jeff Shannon) "According to a recent report by [the] Ministry of Health and UNFPA, there are around 35 million girls missing from the population of India due to large gender discrimination. Though the government has bought legislation to penalize those indulging in this practice, female infanticide and feticide still continue unabated. The last census revealed that the national male-female ratio has dipped to an all time low. The film Matrubhoomi - A Nation without Women explores the impact of absence of woman on men. The instability, which can creep into a society due to the absence of women -- be it physical, emotional or psychological. It underlines how the absence of women inexorably leads to the debasement of men, draining them of all that makes them human. The film explores a futuristic rural India wherein due to rampant female infanticide, women are practically extinct. The impact of the absence of women on men sees them finding alternative sources of release -- pornography, homosexuality, bestiality, violence. When a girl Kalki (Tulip Joshi) is actually spied, she is promptly sold and married to five brothers. All five -- and the father-in-law Ramcharan (Sudhir Pandey) -- exercise their conjugal rights in turn. She starts coming closer to the youngest brother Sooraj (Sushant Singh), the only one who treats her as human being much to the chagrin of the father and other brothers. The eldest brother has the youngest one killed." (From the Amazon.com description) "Set in the chillingly possible future of 2054, Steven Spielberg's Minority Report is arguably the most intelligently provocative sci-fi thriller since Blade Runner. Like Ridley Scott's 'future noir' classic, Spielberg's gritty vision was freely adapted from a story by Philip K. Dick, with its central premise of 'Precrime' law enforcement, totally reliant on three isolated human 'precogs' capable (due to drug-related mutation) of envisioning murders before they're committed. As Precrime's confident captain, Tom Cruise preempts these killings like a true action hero, only to run for his life when he is himself implicated in one of the precogs' visions. Inspired by the brainstorming of expert futurists, Spielberg packs this paranoid chase with potential conspirators (Max Von Sydow, Colin Farrell), domestic tragedy, and a heartbreaking precog pawn (Samantha Morton), while Cruise's performance gains depth and substance with each passing scene. Making judicious use of astonishing special effects, Minority Report brilliantly extrapolates a future that's utterly convincing, and too close for comfort." (Jeff Shannon) "Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe star in this well-intentioned and largely successful civil rights-era thriller. Mississippi Burning, using the real-life 1964 disappearance of three civil rights workers as its inspiration, tells the story of two FBI men (Hackman and Dafoe, entertainingly called 'Hoover Boys' by the locals) who come in to try to solve the crime. Hackman is a former small-town Mississippi sheriff himself, while Dafoe is a by-the-numbers young hotshot. Yes, there is some tension between the two. The movie has an interesting fatalism, as all the FBI's best efforts incite more and more violence, which becomes disturbing -- the film's message, perhaps inadvertently, seems to be that vigilantism is the only real way to get things done. The brilliant Frances McDormand, here early in her career, is not given enough to do but still does it well enough to have racked up an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. (Hackman also received a nomination for Best Actor, and the film won an Academy Award for Cinematography). The story line of Mississippi Burning is ultimately unsatisfying -- it is, after all, the story of white men coming in to rescue poor blacks -- but it is beautifully shot and very watchable and features a terrific cast playing at the top of their games." (Ali Davis) "Critics have universally praised Charlize Theron's [Academy Award-winning] performance in Monster, and the praise, for once, is astonishingly deserved. The gorgeous star of The Italian Job and The Cider House Rules vanishes into the character of Aileen Wuornos, a real-life serial killer and prostitute who murdered at least seven men in Florida. Monster traces her relationship with a young woman named Selby (Christina Ricci, The Ice Storm, Buffalo 66), which intertwines with Wuornos's murder spree. This remarkable movie finds compassion for Wuornos but unflinchingly faces her brutal crimes; Theron expresses this woman's horrific life history without softening her terrifying, dead-eyed stare. This is a gripping, devastating performance, a physical and psychological transformation comparable to Robert DeNiro's in Raging Bull. The movie's moral and emotional complexity wouldn't succeed without this searing performance -- but succeed it does, and it will stick with you for some time afterward." (Bret Fetzer) "Michael Radford's adaption of George Orwell's foreboding literary premonition casts John Hurt and Suzanna Hamilton as lovers who must keep their courtship secret. Aside from criminalizing sex and interpersonal relationships, the ruling party in their country Oceania both fabricates reality and reconstructs history for the sake of oppressing the masses. They brainwash their citizens via large, propaganda-spewing TV monitors installed in their living rooms, which also inspect everyone's activities. Hurt and Hamilton are among the few we see desperately trying to fight the system by keeping control of their thoughts and beliefs. While the atmosphere becomes a bit too stifling at times, the images are quite striking with their muted colors and dilapidated sets. In an interesting bit of casting, Richard Burton costars (in his final role) as a government agent who surreptitiously exposes Hurt to the ideas of resistance. Unlike many like-minded films, 1984 does not offer a flashy vision of the future, but then that aspect makes it feel all the more real. In an age when more and more of our everyday activities are being scrutinized, Big Brother may not be so far off after all." (Bryan Reesman) "Fans of Luis Buñuel know how important this film is. One of his earliest Mexican films, it was received with about as much controversy as his previous film Las Hurdes (aka Land Without Bread), which was made in Spain. In both cases, people were unwilling to accept the accuracy of Buñuel's portrayal because of its cruelty. In both cases, Buñuel's vision endures. If you've not seen it, Los Olvidados is the story of a gang of poor children, some homeless and others abused, trying to survive on the streets. Buñuel's spare direction, as usual, brings out wonderfully instinctive performances from the actors, and his cinematography is as great as ever. It's not as surrealist as many of his better-known films but it remains surprisingly engrossing and challenging." ("Leeeeee," Amazon reviewer) "One of the key movies of the 1970s, when exciting, groundbreaking, personal films were still being made in Hollywood, Milos Forman's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest emphasized the humanistic story at the heart of Ken Kesey's more hallucinogenic novel. Jack Nicholson was born to play the part of Randle Patrick McMurphy, the rebellious inmate of a psychiatric hospital who fights back against the authorities' cold attitudes of institutional superiority, as personified by Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). It's the classic antiestablishment tale of one man asserting his individuality in the face of a repressive, conformist system -- and it works on every level. Forman populates his film with memorably eccentric faces, and gets such freshly detailed and spontaneous work from his ensemble that the picture sometimes feels like a documentary. Unlike a lot of films pitched at the 'youth culture' of the 1970s, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest really hasn't dated a bit, because the qualities of human nature that Forman captures -- playfulness, courage, inspiration, pride, stubbornness -- are universal and timeless. The film swept the Academy Awards for 1976, winning in all the major categories (picture, director, actor, actress, screenplay) for the first time since Frank Capra's It Happened One Night in 1931." (Jim Emerson) "Hector Babenco, who went on to direct the acclaimed Kiss of the Spider Woman, made an international splash with this gritty portrait of juvenile poverty and street crime in Brazil. Pixote (Portuguese slang for 'Peewee') is the name of a chubby-cheeked 10-year-old runaway played by real-life slum kid Fernando Ramos da Silva. He's a natural, creating a childlike and vulnerable character left emotionally hardened and morally adrift by his brutal experiences. In an overcrowded São Paulo 'reform school,' a cross between a prison and an army barracks, he learns the hard facts of survival as he watches gangs prey on weaker kids, and the cops and guards abuse, beat, and even murder their charges. Pixote escapes and turns to street crime in Rio with a small gang, but his dreams of big money and a good life are dashed as they play at crime in a violent kill-or-be-killed world. Equal parts exposé and social drama, Pixote dramatizes the plight of millions of children who live on the streets or get ground up in the system that breeds hardened criminals from juvenile delinquents. Like Luis Buñuel's Los Olvidados, one of Babenco's inspirations, this occasionally melodramatic portrait of poverty is shocking and affecting, but no more so than da Silva's own life story. After completing the film he sank back into poverty and crime, and died on the streets. His life became the subject of the 1996 film Who Killed Pixote?, which showed that despite the outcry created by Pixote, Brazil has done little to alleviate these conditions." (Sean Axmaker) "Taxi Driver is the definitive cinematic portrait of loneliness and alienation manifested as violence. It is as if director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader had tapped into precisely the same source of psychological inspiration ('I just knew I had to make this film,' Scorsese would later say), combined with a perfectly timed post-Watergate expression of personal, political, and societal anxiety. Robert De Niro, as the tortured, ex-Marine cab driver Travis Bickle, made movie history with his chilling performance as one of the most memorably intense and vividly realized characters ever committed to film. Bickle is a self-appointed vigilante who views his urban beat as an intolerable cesspool of blighted humanity. He plays guardian angel for a young prostitute (Jodie Foster), but not without violently devastating consequences. This masterpiece, which is not for all tastes, is sure to horrify some viewers, but few could deny the film's lasting power and importance." (Jeff Shannon) "'Remember, remember the fifth of November,' for on this day, in 2020, the minds of the masses shall be set free. So says code-name V (Hugo Weaving), a man on a mission to shake society out of its blank complacent stares in the film V for Vendetta. His tactics, however, are a bit revolutionary, to say the least. The world in which V lives is very similar to Orwell's totalitarian dystopia in 1984: after years of various wars, England is now under 'big brother' Chancellor Adam Sutler (played by John Hurt, who played Winston Smith in the movie 1984), whose party uses force and fear to run the nation. After they gained power, minorities and political dissenters were rounded up and removed; artistic and unacceptable religious works were confiscated. Cameras and microphones are littered throughout the land, and the people are perpetually sedated through the governmentally controlled media. Taking inspiration from Guy Fawkes, the 17th century co-conspirator of a failed attempt to blow up Parliament on November 5, 1605, V dons a Fawkes mask and costume and sets off to wake the masses by destroying the symbols of their oppressors, literally and figuratively. At the beginning of his vendetta, V rescues Evey (Natalie Portman) from a group of police officers and has her live with him in his underworld lair. ... Controversy and criticism followed the film since its inception, from the hyper-stylized use of anarchistic terrorism to overthrow a corrupt government and the blatant jabs at the current U.S. political arena ... Many are valid critiques and opinions, but there's no hiding the message the film is trying to express: Radical and drastic events often need to occur in order to shake people out of their state of indifference in order to bring about real change. Unfortunately, the movie only offers a means with no ends, and those looking for answers may find the film stylish, but a bit empty." (Rob Bracco)
"Set in Lahore, India in 1947, this is a story of friendship, love, jealousy, betrayal, politics and ethnic cleansing. The main character is a young disabled Parsee girl named Lenny, who lives a comfortable life with her wealthy parents. Her nanny Shanta (Nandita Das, who also stars in Fire) is Hindu, and together with Lenny, enjoys the company of a diverse group of friends, including two Muslims, another Hindu and a Sikh. Shanta falls in love with Hasan (Rahul Khanna) a peaceful, intelligent Muslim masseur, despite the affection of Dil Navez, known as 'Ice Candy Man' (Aamir Khan). The partition of India splits the group wide apart, and in the ethnic violence following independence, Dil Navez's sisters are brutally butchered. Turning to Shanta for support and love, his marriage proposal is rebuffed, and the final straw comes when he watches an intimate act between Shanta and Hasan. The violence eventually reaches Lenny's household, as an angry Muslim mob descends on the property looking for Hindus, and she learns the hard way that even your friends can betray you under the right circumstances. This movie graphically depicts the violence of ethnic cleansing, the horror of which overshadows the beauty of romance, the closeness of friendship and the happiness of families. Well directed and acted, this movie may bring tears to the eyes of even the most jaded viewers." (Amanda Richards, Amazon reviewer) "Final Solution is a study of the politics of hate. Set in Gujarat, India, the film graphically documents the changing face of right-wing politics in India through a study of the 2002 genocide of Muslims in Gujarat. The film examines the aftermath of the deadly violence that followed the burning of 58 Hindus on the Sabarmati Express train at Godhra on February 27 2002. In 'reaction' to that incident, some 2,500 Muslims were brutally murdered, hundreds of women raped, and more than 200,000 families driven from their homes. Borrowing its reference from the history of Nazism, the title of the film exposes what the film director calls 'Indian Fascism' and seeks to remind that 'those who forget history are condemned to relive it.'" (From the Ektaonline website)
"... The director gives us a view into (what the viewer must assume is) an average, impoverished Maori family in New Zealand. (The Maori are the aboriginal peoples of New Zealand.) The movie is very raw and definitely not suitable for children. You aren't human if you don't cry for these people when you watch this movie. Mr. Tamahori made no attempt to make a feel-good movie. He has a story to tell and makes no attempt to sugar-coat the truth. ... Once Were Warriors drew a lot of acclaim. It was the first film to successfully present the modern-day Maori plight to the world. ... Once Were Warriors is one of the few movies that has made a real impact on my world-view. I saw [it] when I was a freshman in college and it opened my eyes to cultures well beyond my reach and scope. It forced me, for the first time, to abandon my ethnocentricity. As a result of this movie I am (I hope) a much more culturally sensitive person." (J.A. Gant, Amazon reviewer) "Based on a true story, Rabbit-Proof Fence moves with dignified grace from its joyful opening scenes to a conclusion that's moving beyond words. The title refers to a 1,500-mile fence separating outback desert from the farmlands of Western Australia. It is here, in 1931, that three aboriginal girls are separated from their mothers and transported to a distant training school, where they are prepared for assimilation into white society by a racist government policy. Gracie, Daisy, and Molly belong to Australia's 'stolen generations,' and this riveting film (based on the book by Molly's daughter, Doris Pilkington Garimara) follows their escape and tenacious journey homeward, while a stubborn policy enforcer (Kenneth Branagh) demands their recapture. Director Phillip Noyce chronicles their ordeal with gentle compassion, guiding his untrained, aboriginal child actors with a keen eye for meaningful expressions. Their performances evoke powerful emotions (subtly enhanced by Peter Gabriel's excellent score), illuminating a shameful chapter of Australian history while conveying our universal need for a true and proper home." (Jeff Shannon) "The contrast between modern, urban civilization and life in the natural world lies at the heart of Nicolas Roeg's visually dazzling drama Walkabout. In broad outline, the plot might resemble a standard fish-out-of-water tale: two city children become stranded in the Australian outback, and struggle to find their way back to civilization with the help of a friendly aborigine boy. But Roeg and screenwriter Edward Bond are concerned with far more than the average wilderness drama, as a shocking act of violence near the story's beginning makes clear. This is particularly true in regards to the relationship between the white children and the aborigine boy, who ultimately develops a troubled romantic attraction towards the older sister. Obviously intended as a statement on the exploitation of the natural world and native cultures by European civilization, the film nevertheless maintains an evocative vagueness that usually -- but not always -- favors poetry over didacticism. Most importantly, the film's justifiably acclaimed cinematography is likely to sway even those who find fault with the film's narrative and message. The shift between the sterile city images and the truly stunning, beautifully composed Australian landscapes provide the film's single best argument, making the film a vivid and convincing experience." (From the Amazon.com description)
"On one level it's a glimpse into the life of a middle-class boy, his family, his crushes, school, etc., and on another an eye-opening account of the US government's shameful overthrow of the democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954. It's hard to believe that it is the first feature film of Luis Argueta. It is crafted so expertly ... and it is a brilliant aesthetic choice to have this story told through the eyes of the young boy. It gives the events an innocence and humor that balance the grim political realities unfolding. Of course the images are amazing. How can they not be when as a setting you have Guatemala? We felt like we were there--near the volcano in Antigua, on some dusty roads between small towns. We thought the Ladino/Maya theme was handled very well too -- not preachy or obvious, but done realistically. This is the best movie we have seen in a long time. It beats anything coming out of the US film market these days. I am going to recommend it to anyone I talk to about film -- or history -- or politics. If you've seen US-made and backed films such as El Norte and Salvador, you owe it to yourself to see a film made by Guatemelans in Guatemala. It's great cinema, period." (Scott Forrey, Amazon reviewer) "Robert De Niro is Rodrigo Mendoza, a wealthy adventurer who makes a fortune as a mid-eighteenth-century slave trader, capturing Guarani Indians in Paraguay and selling them for a huge profit to the local governor. Mendoza's life takes a turn for the worse, however, when he learns that the woman he loves, Carlotta (Cherie Lunghi), has fallen in love with his younger brother, Felipe (Aidan Quinn). And when he discovers them in bed together, he loses control and kills his brother in a swordfight. Afterwards, however, Mendoza is consumed with extreme guilt and he becomes a Jesuit postulant after meeting Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons). But Father Gabriel, who has always cared for the natives and resented the slave traders, is at first unsure if Mendoza's desire to do penance and achieve redemption is sincere. Mendoza fianlly completes his penance after suffering many hardships, and he helps Gabriel teach the Indians about Christianity. As the years pass, Mendoza and Gabriel become close if somewhat wary companions, running the isolated mission above Iguacu Falls together while allowing each other plenty of personal space. Everything changes, though, when in 1750 Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Madrid, which redefines their territorial borders in the Americas. The end result of the treaty is that Spain (which has forsaken slavery) delivers the Indian land to Portugal (where slavery remains legal). To avoid the Jesuit order being expulled from Portugal, all Jesuit missions in South America are ordered closed by the Pope, which means the Indians living there will be abandoned to the slave traders. The Guarani Indians are determined to stay and fight for the mission they've come to love, and this deeply troubles Mendoza. Despite his Jesuit vow of practicing nonviolence, he knows that with his past fighting skills as a mercenary he's the only one who can teach the Guaranis to defend themselves. Gabriel also stays, but for a different reason. The end result of the inevitable battle is predictable but nevertheless is devastating to watch." (David Forehand, Amazon.com reviewer) "The 20th Anniversary Special Edition of When the Mountains Tremble remains as startling and sad as it was when first released. Though promoted as 'the astonishing story' of Nobel Peace Prize winner and Quiche Indian Rigoberta Menchú, the documentary is actually more the story of the Guatemalan people at large, specifically the struggles of the poor and peaceful Indian population that came to be labeled 'subversives' by a draconian government. The film won several independent film awards, and earns its stead among other political truth-telling documentaries, including Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. The explanation of the role the Reagan administration played in providing money, arms and training to the corrupt Guatemalan government has relevance to countless other American interventions in foreign affairs. The filmmakers reveal both the complexities and the tragedies of the Guatemalan situation; scenes of Indians digging through massive garbage dumps for useful scraps are juxtaposed with those of government-sponsored beauty pageants in which Indians are proudly paraded in native costumes. Footage of breast-feeding Indians making camp in the jungle to avoid being found (and killed) is equally as compelling as the images from protests and brutalities that occurred in the cities." (Brangien Davis)
"Robert Redford is the executive producer (and narrator) of this fine, eye-opening documentary about the violent events that took place in 1975 on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Indian activists ended up in an extended standoff with FBI agents, and the result was several deaths, including two federal men whose killing (according to many people) was never clearly attributed to a specific gunman. Nevertheless, the government laid blame for the tragedy on Leonard Peltier, a Sioux political leader who has long been a focus for supporters believing he took the fall, possibly heroically, for others. Peltier has spent many years in prison, and Apted's film, which is hardly ambiguous in its commitment toward Peltier's hoped-for freedom, is persuasive in both its detail and its case against brutal federal policies toward Indians. Whatever one's position on the Peltier question, this is a compelling piece of work." (Tom Keogh) "A profound, deep, rambling, touching adventure story to end all such stories, a true labor of love for director Arthur Penn, and the performance of Dustin Hoffman's career (not bad for a second major role). This one is right up there with Gone With the Wind as an epic morality tale of the human journey. Another reviewer compared this film to Forrest Gump in its scope, which is not too far off the mark, but this story cuts a little more deeply in its cry of outrage at the atrocities visited upon Native Americans as our great ancestors paved their way westward across our infant nation. One of the most heartbreaking and infuriating moments in cinema history takes place as we see Jack Crabbe watching helplessly from a few feet away while his beautiful Cheyenne wife and newborn baby meet cruel, bloody death at the hands of the U.S. infantry. You realize then that this is more than an epic about Western Heroes; it is a truly subversive landmark film achievement, made at a time when our government's good intentions were up to question ... Subversive because it could break your heart one moment and entertain and tickle you the next with its irreverent view of our Great Society. This is one of those movies that will never wear out its welcome, rather it will be rediscovered with renewed appreciation with age ..." (Solo Goodspeed, Amazon reviewer) "On November 21, 1996, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples delivered its recommendations on the status of Canada's First Nations. For five years, the Commission traveled to more than 100 communities and heard from more than 3000 representatives. The Royal Commission focused its inquiry on sixteen Aboriginal issues and became a sounding board for all the past government injustices including the slow process of land claim settlement, the reluctance to recognize Aboriginal self-government, the inequity of Aboriginal prisoners held in jail, and the legacy of residential schools. For two-and-a-half years, Edmonton director, Greg Coyes, worked with teams of Native filmmakers, following the Commission on its journey from coast to coast. The video weaves the passionate and articulate voices of Indian, Inuit, and Métis people with the history of Canada's relationship with its First Nations peoples." (From the film's website) "A favorite film of some of the world's greatest filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, John Ford's The Searchers has earned its place in the legacy of great American films for a variety of reasons. Perhaps most notably, it's the definitive role for John Wayne as an icon of the classic Western -- the hero (or antihero) who must stand alone according to the unwritten code of the West. The story takes place in Texas in 1868; Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a Confederate veteran who visits his brother and sister-in-law at their ranch and is horrified when they are killed by marauding Comanches. Ethan's search for a surviving niece (played by young Natalie Wood) becomes an all-consuming obsession. With the help of a family friend (Jeffrey Hunter) who is himself part Cherokee, Ethan hits the trail on a five-year quest for revenge. At the peak of his masterful talent, director Ford crafts this classic tale as an embittered examination of racism and blind hatred, provoking Wayne to give one of the best performances of his career. As with many of Ford's classic Westerns, The Searchers must contend with revisionism in its stereotypical treatment of 'savage' Native Americans, and the film's visual beauty (the final shot is one of the great images in all of Western culture) is compromised by some uneven performances and stilted dialogue. Still, this is undeniably one of the greatest Westerns ever made." (Jeff Shannon) "Soldier Blue was made as a biting allegory of the Vietnam war. It divided critics at the time of its release and indeed, continues to do so. It is extremely brutal but not gratuitously so. The appalling acts depicted are shown from the point of view that this actually happened, as opposed to: well, let's give the audience some gore. People seeing the film tend to be shocked from the former point of view as opposed to the latter. The film opens deceptively with a Cheyenne massacre of a US Cavalry troop guarding a pay chest. The survivors of the massacre are one naive boy soldier and a savvy, young frontier woman, played superbly by Peter Strauss and Candice Bergen, respectively. Their adventures and subsequent romance are then chronicled. Along the way they encounter Donald Pleasance's superbly sinister arms smuggler. The film's climax is a savage massacre of a Cheyenne village by the US Army -- based on the real life events at Sand Creek, Colorado. In an orgy of blood lust, women and children are slaughtered and body parts are taken as trophies. By this time the film has swung 180 degrees from its opening, and has established the root cause of the suffering which is the white man's treatment of the Native American. During all this, Strauss' character has changed from naive volunteer soldier to conscientious objector while the character of Candice Bergen remains the hope of reconciliation and co-existence." (David Shipley, Amazon reviewer)
"It's autumn in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq -- and the wedding season is coming to an end. Marriage for most Kurdish brides promises freedom and respectability. But for others, it can bring isolation, cruelty and even death. This Life program explores how oppression of the minority Kurds in the disputed enclave of north Iraq has unleashed a chain of violence -- often directed at the weakest members of Kurdish society: its women. A former doctor, Nasik gave up her career to run a shelter for women living under threat of death from their families. 'Till now,' she says, 'hundreds of women have been killed in Iraqi Kurdistan simply because they fell in love, or because they demanded their basic rights -- such as the right to divorce or to be treated as a human being, to go outdoors, to be free to talk to other men." (From the film's website) "Many Americans drive around with 'Support Our Troops' stickers affixed to their vehicles, and if Occupation: Dreamland is any indication, the men and women who are serving their country in Iraq could certainly use it. Filmed in early 2004, director-editor Ian Olds' documentary (for which he was given full access by the U.S. authorities) follows a group of soldiers from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division stationed in al-Falluja (also known as Falloujah), Iraq's 'city of mosques,' where their mission is to maintain the peace and root out insurgents, but their goal is simply to survive their tours of duty and go home. Many of these young men, a lot of them poor and under-educated, joined the military because they lacked viable career or life alternatives; once stationed in Iraq, they clearly wonder why they are there ('What exactly are we protecting?' asks one. 'I don't know'). Their daily lives, at least as depicted rather matter-of-factly by Olds, seem to consist of stretches of drudgery punctuated by occasional outbursts of gunfire and dangerous activity, along with meetings in which officers try to persuade them to re-enlist once their contracts expire. Although there are snipers and bombers around, we don't witness any casualties (filming was completed before the Marines laid bloody siege to al-Falluja in April of that same year). Instead, what we see is an uneasy co-existence between locals who don't want them there ... and soldiers who are duty-bound to fulfill their missions and understand why they are mistrusted, but have little sympathy for those they are supposed to help ('I hate these people,' mutters one). They may call their base of operations 'Dreamland' (it's actually an abandoned Ba'athist retreat), but for most of these guys, 'nightmare' might be more appropriate. (Sam Graham) "In a hard-hitting special report, award-winning journalist and filmmaker John Pilger investigates the effects of sanctions on the people of Iraq and finds that ten years of extraordinary isolation, imposed by the UN and enforced by the US and Britain, have killed more people than the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan. The UN Security Council imposed the sanctions and demanded the destruction of Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons under the supervision of a UN Special Commission (UNSCOM). Iraq is permitted to sell a limited amount of oil in exchange for some food and medicine. Pilger takes the former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Denis Halliday, back to the crippled country for the first time since he resigned in protest over the sanctions back in September 1998. Together, they reveal an extraordinary portrait of life in a country with a decaying infrastructure and a population that Pilger says is being held hostage to the compliance of Saddam Hussein." (From the film's website)
"This poignant and powerful documentary takes a shocking, first-hand look at the culture of hate that permeates the West Bank and Gaza, and which continues to escalate the perennial violence pitting Palestinians against Israelis. Starting out in the city of Nablus (where as many as 80 percent of suicide bombing plots are planned), James Miller and Saira Shah ended up in the Gaza town of Rafah, one of the most dangerous cities in this volatile region. There they spent several weeks focusing on the activities of three Palestinian children -- two 12-year-old boys and a 16-year-old girl -- who have grown up surrounded by messages of hate against Israel (whose military presence in their town is a constant), and taught that the greatest glory is to die a martyr. The film ends on a day like many other days in Rafah, with death -- except that on this day, the fallen victim happens to be the man making this film." (From the Amazon.com description)Afghanistan
Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death (documentary, 2003)
Kandahar (2001, 85 mins.)
Osama (2003, 83 mins.)
Return to Kandahar (documentary, 2003, 65 mins.)
Algeria
The Battle of Algiers (1967, 117 mins.)
Argentina
Death and the Maiden (1994, 103 mins.)
The Official Story (1985, 117 mins.)
Armenian Genocide
Ararat (2002, 115 mins.)
The Armenian Genocide (documentary, 2006, 60 mins.)
Screamers (documentary, 2006, 91 mins.)
The Witnesses Trilogy (three-part documentary, 2004)
Bosnia & Herzegovina / War of Yugoslav Secession
The Death of Yugoslavia (five-part BBC documentary, 2002)
No Man's Land (2001, 94 mins.)
Savior (2001, 94 mins.)
Shot Through the Heart (1998, 112 mins.)
Srebrenica: A Cry from the Grave (documentary, 1999, 90 mins.)
Vukovar (1994, 95 mins.)
Welcome to Sarajevo (1997, 102 mins.)
Burma
Inside Burma: Land of Fear (documentary, 1997, 51 mins.)
Cambodia
Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll (documentary, in progress)
The Killing Fields (1984, 142 mins.)
New Year Baby (documentary, 2006, 74 mins.)
S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (documentary, 2002, 101 mins.)
Chile
The Battle of Chile, Parts 1 & 2 (documentary, 1976, 184 mins.)
Chile: Hasta Cuando? (documentary, 1986, 73 mins.)
Missing (1984, 123 mins.)
China / Tibet
Free Tibet (documentary, 1998, 88 mins.)
Kundun (1997, 135 mins.)
Red Corner (1997, 122 mins.)
Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion (documentary, 2003, 104 mins.)
Windhorse (1998, 97 mins.)
Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl (1998, 99 mins.)
Congo
Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death (documentary, 2003, 90 mins.)
Lumumba (2001, 115 mins.)
Darfur
Darfur Diaries: Message from Home (documentary, 2006, 57 mins.)
East Timor
Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy (documentary, 1994, 96 mins.)
El Salvador
Romero (1989, 102 mins.)
Salvador (1986, 122 mins.)
First World War
All Quiet on the Western Front (1932, 132 mins.)
The First World War: The Complete Series (2005, 503 mins.)
Gallipoli (1981, 111 mins.)
Johnny Got His Gun (1971)
Paths of Glory (1957, 87 mins.)
Genocide: General
The Genocide Factor (documentary, 2001, 57 mins.)
The Night of Truth (2004, 100 mins.)
The "Genocidal Continuum"
Note: The anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes defines the "genocidal continuum" as "the less dramatic, permitted, everyday acts of violence that make participation (under other conditions) in genocidal acts possible, perhaps more easy than we would like to know." She places special emphasis on practices in institutions like schools, prisons, and hospitals. In this catch-call category, I list works that address these more quotidian and institutional forms of violence, including those born of racism, sexism, and imperialism; and dystopian "science fiction" films exploring the dark side of humanity and society.
Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1974, 94 mins.)
American History X (1998, 119 mins.)
Blue Velvet (1986, 121 mins.)
Brazil (1985, 142 mins.)
City of God (2002, 130 mins.)
A Clockwork Orange (1972, 137 mins.)
The Corporation (documentary, 2004, 145 mins.)
The Elephant Man (1980, 123 mins.)
The Experiment (2001, 120 mins.)
The Handmaid's Tale (1990, 109 mins.)
In the Company of Men (1997, 97 mins.)
Lord of the Flies (1963, 90 mins.)
Lord of War (2005, 121 mins.)
Matrubhoomi (Motherland) (2003, 99 mins.)
Minority Report (2002, 146 mins.)
Mississippi Burning (1989, 127 mins.)
Monster (2004, 108 mins.)
1984 (1984, 110 mins.)
Los Olvidados (1950, 90 mins.)
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975, 133 mins.)
Pixote (1981, 127 mins.)
Taxi Driver (1976, 128 mins.)
V for Vendetta (2006, 133 mins.)
India
Earth (1998, 101 mins.)
Final Solution (2003, 218 mins.)
Indigenous Peoples: Australasia
Once Were Warriors (1994, 105 mins.)
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002, 93 mins.)
Walkabout (1971, 100 mins.)
Indigenous Peoples: Central and South America
El Silencio de Neto (The Silence of Neto) (1994, 108 mins.)
The Mission (1986, 125 mins.)
When the Mountains Tremble (documentary, 1983, 90 mins.)
Indigenous Peoples: North America
Incident at Oglala: The Leonard Peltier Story (documentary, 1992, 90 mins.)
Little Big Man (1970, 139 mins.)
No Turning Back: The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (documentary, 1996, 47 mins.)
The Searchers (1956, 119 mins.)
Soldier Blue (1970, 115 mins.)
Iraq
In the Name of Honour (documentary, 2000, 24 mins.)
Occupation: Dreamland (documentary, 2005, 140 mins.)
Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq (documentary, 2000, 74 mins.)
Israel / Palestine
Death in Gaza (documentary, 2003, 80 mins.)