Ameriatch One of the best films i have seen

Brightlyme i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Adrian Edwards I do not wish to add more praise on my fellow-Australian than has been heaped on him so far, but it was great to see a well made documentary covering the way the US corporate empire tries as desperately to hang on to its satrapies as did the Roman and Ottoman empires.We had the unpleasant experience of having our popularly elected government led by Gough Whitlam destabilised by the CIA while at the same time they were backing Indonesia's illegal invasion of East Timor in which six Australian journalists were murdered. It turns out that the coup by which that Indonesian leader, Suharto, came to power was also orchestrated by the CIA, and thousands of Indonesians, especially ethnic Chinese, were slaughtered in the name of anti-Communism.It is by now well known that the casus belli for the war on the Vietnamese, the so-called Gulf of Tonkin incident, was a total fabrication, used to justify President Johnson's decision to reverse President Kennedy's plan to withdraw all troops from South Vietnam.There is plenty material here for The War on Democracy II if John wants to do a sequel.

bob the moo Using the recent action in Venezuela and the ongoing tensions with the US as his focal point, journalist John Pilger looks at the role of Washington in the control and manipulation of Governments and politics in Latin America. What he finds is elected Presidents removed with the support and perhaps connivance of the US, resulting in suffering, massacres and poverty for the indigenous populations left to face the consequences of US foreign policy.It helps to be fairly liberal in your views to watch this film because Pilger does not hide his colours for even a second here. And this is a weakness of the film because it is so heavily delivered that it is likely to put off the very sections of the audience that it should be looking to win over. At times it is so clearly leaning that even a liberal, middle-class white person like myself will feel like Pilger is standing 30cm from them, shouting and ranting for two hours. It is a shame because otherwise the material is really well put together, convincing and impacting. If Pilger had delivered this same material with a colder air of fact and journalistic detachment then the film might have done a better job of making non-liberals having their opinions changed or at least challenged.The film uses Chavez to put the topic in the present and make sure the viewer understands that this is not a history film but rather a relevant and topical documentary that draws on the past to back up the present. From here it takes us through Guatemala, Bolivia and so on and the case is built in such a way that it is hard to argue with the basic points made and accusations levelled. It is a very well researched film that I found fascinating throughout. I'm repeating myself here but again this is why it is frustrating to see Pilger take away from his own film by having the presentation subtlety of Michael Moore at his worst. His point is that the US preaches democracy but will go to bloody ends to remove any democratically elected Government that does not suit US interests; so in essence the crux of the film is "democracy" and he does not need to defend the people put in power but merely point to the fact that they were put in power by the people they represent by way of elections and people power. This point could have been made while still also recognising that Chavez, Morales etc are not perfect leaders. Instead of doing this, Pilger feels that having them be elected is not enough and so he presents them as near-perfect leaders who should be the ideal. This may well be his opinion but it is not the truth and by simplifying and spinning it is likely that he will lose viewers who ignore his message and assume that this liberal "nut" cannot be trusted.This is a real weakness in the film but it is still worth seeing if you can cope with it. The liberal "choir" will lap it up regardless, while those very much in the same camp as former CIA man Duane on the right will not even think of watching it. The material is strong enough to win over those in the middle but Pilger's presentation is so heavy and slanted that he risks losing viewers before the material gets to work. Well worth seeing and impacting stuff but while Pilger deserves credit for pulling it together as writer/director, his presentation and style is also a real liability.

ix-viii-ix A well put-together documentary that makes you think about the issues it discusses, with a couple of fatal flaws in its argument that make you love it or hate it, depending on your existing political affiliation. As a longstanding admirer of Milton Friedman, who is lambasted in this film as the economic "mad scientist" of Chile, I disliked it.Pilger is successful at creating controversy and getting those vital emotional scenes in, but he very much shoots himself in the foot elsewhere. The fawning interview with Chavez (who Pilger, like Ken Livingstone, another old red, seems determined to defend at all costs)leaves a bad taste in the mouth, and indeed many of his scenes describing the bright new Venezuala (like the reading/writing class) give the appearance of state intervention. Similiarly this film can be easily divided into "light" and "dark" scenes, the darkest being Pilger's descriptions of the USA, usually in front of Capitol looking ominous beneath a grey sky. It shouldn't surprise you the revolutionary rhetoric of the cold war makes an unwelcome re-appearance, America is guilty of ill-defined "imperialism". It's motives for wanting regime change in S. America aren't explored at all, besides a couple of tired old CIA veterans dragged into the light for re-examination of what we already know.It's pure polemic in some sections, where Pilger abandons all notion of impartiality and speaks directly to the camera. Chile's success as one of the few countries in S. America with a viable non-distorted economy is explored only as far as its homeless problem, while the real reason Chavez's dystopian Venezuala is able to function, the billions in oil bucks handed to it every year by the US and other Western countries, is smoothed over. This style of reporting hasn't been around since the cold war, it's ideas from the decades of revolution (look what a success that was!) between 1940-70. It's my opinion that Pilger, like a lot of old lefties (Galloway, Livingstone, Pinter), was thrown askance by the the collapse of the USSR, and it has taken him, like them, a good deal of time to find their feet in a world which the dreaded capitalism has well and truly won. The re-appearance of any form of revolutionary socialism, no matter how authoritarian, has them jumping over one another to attack the USA and Latin America has become the new battleground. We were on the subject of exploitation....?

Cliff Hanley Journalist and conscience of the nation John Pilger has been making excellent 'wake-up' TV programmes for years, and as we enter the new golden age of the documentary it was inevitable that he would move up to the big screen. He has chosen the recent struggle between Venezuela and the US as his leading theme, and the film opens by setting the background, before examining the events of the past few years, first by showing the 'spin' colluded upon by the short-lived coup, its US sponsors and the news media; then by exploding that fiction. It works, as it should in a movie, like an epic thriller. But even Micky Spillane loses out in competition with horrific real life. From Venezuela we are taken back to the other countries, where Uncle Sam has stamped on democracy: back to Guatemala, the original 'banana republic' in the US' arrogantly termed back yard, and including of course Chile. British viewers will be disappointed that Margaret Thatcher didn't get a mention as the gracious supporter of the murderous General Pinochet. There was a mention of terrorist's supporters being as worthy of condemnation as the terrorists themselves. Just a five-frame subliminal shot of Maggie there would do it! But there are plenty of choice nuggets in this film, painstakingly compiled from recent video, Pilger's interviews with Hugo Chavez himself, panoramic shots of these countries as they are now; the hills, the suburbs, the barrios, plus ancient news and propaganda footage. Some of the old stuff brought back the paranoid atmosphere of the Fifties, when we were faced with the Red Menace, and we were expected to 'duck and cover' under the nearest picnic cloth when we saw that Flash. One choice set piece is the interview with Duane Clarridge, ex-CIA man with responsibility for the torture and murder in Chile, justified because it was in America's interest, and sometimes 'you have to take unpleasant steps'. Or, as he put it another way, it just didn't happen. His contemptuous dismissals of all Pilger's allegations go beyond self-parody. Once again, real life leaves no room for the satirists. Despite it being the first really hot day of this wet English summer, the theatre was half-full, and the audience gave a heart-felt applause.