Review by John Packman.

Given the world's near-total disapproval of the Bush administration's ongoing campaign in Iraq, John Pilger's documentary The War on Democracy could not be more timely. An extended rumination on the U.S.'s lamentable history of replacing democratically elected foreign leaders with puppet governments, Pilger's film (with co-director Christopher Martin) may focus on Latin America, but the parallels are there. The bulk of the film is drawn from talking-head interviews with citizens and politicians from several Latin American countries, as well as some key figures in the shaping and execution of American foreign policy. Chief among these interview subjects is Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who functions as Pilger's chosen avatar for sensible reform in a region plagued by years of corruption.

Pilger is a charismatic narrator and a talented polemicist, and therein lies a considerable problem with his film: he is rarely content to let the facts speak for themselves, choosing instead to telegraph his sympathies so broadly that his message is obscured. At times The War on Democracy veers dangerously close to hagiography; during his interviews with Chavez, I half-expected Pilger to superimpose a glowing halo atop the president's head. Chavez, without any help, comes off as an eloquent intellectual with great concern for his country's welfare, so Pilger's near-constant veneration of the man seems grasping and redundant. Likewise, any and all criticisms of Chavez' consolidation of his own executive power and his questionable record in fulfulling his promises are dismissed as the self concerns of an ivory-tower upper class, a few members of which Pilger actually interviews with almost Waiting for Guffman-style condescension. Shame, really, because Pilger is fully capable of exposing American imperialism without resorting to such lily-gilding. His most effective sequence is an interview with former CIA chief Duane Clarridge that really has to be seen to be believed; Clarridge states in no uncertain terms that the U.S. has carte blanche to do whatever it wants for whatever reason it wants, and who the fuck are you to argue? Bone-chilling stuff. The War on Democracy is a flawed film, but it remains an important one.

The War on Democracy
John Pilger/Christopher Martin | UK | 2007 | 95min

Sun. Sept. 30 | 9:15pm | Ridge Theatre
Sat. Oct. 6 | 1:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre