Subjects include nonfiction films about pertinent sixties topics, campaign dramas, a couple slices of Michael Moore agitprop, serious studies on Iraq and the War on Terror, and political observations from auteurs like Spike Lee, Oliver Stone, and Frank Capra.
My highlight for this period is my review of Iraq in Fragments, an unusual film I had discovered a couple years earlier and wanted to share.
OCTOBER
Announcing an election series to cover both the issues and the drama of politics
Starting with the freshest film - Oliver Stone's rushed take on the sitting president, just released in theaters
Pairing two documentaries: the dawn and twilight of the Kennedy era, with the first anticipating an aesthetic revolution while the second sounds one last cry for the newsreel style
The game overtakes ideals for Robert Redford's underdog Democrat
Frank Capra's morality play was surprisingly more clear-eyed, even hard-edged, than I remembered
For my hundredth post, a lo-fi doc about a grassroots candidate
A very Aaron Sorkin-esque (for better or worse) political intrigue from an already distant 2000, frequently trying to have it both ways
The radical sixties group became weirdly relevant again in the '08 campaign, providing an opportunity to re-visit a favorite documentary
Barry Goldwater was often cited admiringly by liberal commentators in the zeroes, but even back then the reverence seemed iffy
A probably too harsh take on Michael Moore's blockbuster documentary (some criticisms might remain, but I wasn't appreciative enough at the time of the value of agitprop)
Exploring the 2004 election by focusing on Ohio
I was impressed with Michael Moore's Fahrenheit follow-up, diagnosing the health-care industry
A very recent documentary on debt (credit card, national, and otherwise) felt extremely prescient in October 2008
Descriptive but not particularly prescriptive doc emphasizes doom over solutions
The international section of my election series begins with a documentary about Darfur
I was rightly dismissive of this National Geographic program's sensationalism, but in retrospect I should have been much more skeptical of its overall outlook too
I was much more on point criticizing this saber-rattling doc, given its clash with more sober assessments of U.S./Iran relations that I'd seen
Frontline covers Afghanistan when it was still known as "the good war"
NOVEMBER
A series of Frontline specials on the War on Terror
The disaster of the Iraq occupation, criticized by a director who supported the invasion and seems fairly sympathetic to the State Department
The strongest film about Iraq at the time, offering an impressionistic view of three distinct Iraqi experiences
As Election Day approached, I covered the Obama and McCain campaigns through a recent Frontline special
Surveying my entire election series (followed by comments written just after Obama clinched the win)
(I also covered this period on Episode 2 of my Patreon podcast)
Next: Tying Up Loose Ends (November - December 2008)
(in which I finish my Twin Peaks and D.W. Griffith series and create some bigger posts)
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Previous: Look Ma, I'm blogging! (July - October 2008)
(in which I finish my Twin Peaks and D.W. Griffith series and create some bigger posts)
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Previous: Look Ma, I'm blogging! (July - October 2008)
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