The War On Democracy (2007)
Granada

Description

Award winning journalist John Pilger examines the role of Washington in America's manipulation of Latin American politics during the last 50 years, and how these same policies are now being used in the Middle East.

Tags

USA, Middle East, Latin America, Venezuela

Collected reviews and ratings

10 Amazon (UK) user reviews

John Pilger’s documentaries aren’t a place to find sensationalism, cheap tactics or irrelevancies. As The War On Democracy demonstrates, Pilger instead takes a deathly serious subject, and while his work isn’t bereft of politic leanings, presents his findings to his audience in a grown up, intelligent manner.
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8.8 The Documentary Blog | Christiaan Harden

The War on Democracy provides both a timely exposé of Washington’s disregard for democracy in post-war Latin America and an affectionate portrait of the continent’s nascent social movements.
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8.0 Daily Mirror

George Bush loves to lecture us about how his war on terror is all about preserving freedom and spreading democracy. What he doesn’t tell us is how for the past 50 years, the US has covertly tried to crush both in a bid to control South America, or The Back Yard as it’s known.
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8.0 Empire | Kat Brown

A brilliantly-researched and sometimes shocking insight into the democratic position of those countries whose dealings with America are more along the lines of slave than political poodle.
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6.0 Filmstalker | Richard Brunton

...if it had delved a little deeper and demonstrated a little more, then I would have been overwhelmed by it and we would have seen a stunning documentary.
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6.0 The Guardian | Peter Bradshaw

Pilger makes no secret of his own admiration for Chávez, a Bolivarian hero who has had the effrontery to survive without kowtowing to the mighty superpower. But how about Chávez's decision to bypass the National Assembly for 18 months, and rule by decree? Pilger passes over it very lightly.
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4.0 Times Online | Kevin Maher

The film is a passionate and perhaps rightfully indignant hatchet job on United States foreign policy over the past half a century, with specific reference to Latin America. However, the show is ultimately ruined by its ophidian writer/presenter Pilger, who is something of an acquired taste.
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3.0 The Independent | Anthony Quinn

Pilger's portentous voiceover and intrusions into shot bespeak an excruciating vanity, while his sycophantic interview with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, one of the still-flickering hopes of Latin "people power", is likely to prompt suspicion.
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