The War You Don't See

The War You Don't See

Poster featuring a blindfolded man

Theatrical Poster
Directed by
Produced by
  • Alan Lowery
  • John Pilger
  • Christopher Hird
Written by John Pilger
Starring
Narrated by John Pilger
Music by Sacha Puttnam
Cinematography Rupert Binsley
Edited by Joe Frost
Production
company
Dartmouth Films
Release dates
  • 13 December 2010 (2010-12-13)
Running time
 97 min
Country United Kingdom
Language English

The War You Don't See is a 2010 British documentary film written, produced and directed by John Pilger with Alan Lowery, which challenges the media for the role they played in the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel/Palestine conflicts. The film, which went on nationwide general release on 13 December 2010, had its premiere at the Barbican and was aired through Britain's ITV1 on 14 December 2010[1] and later through Australia's SBS One on 10 April 2011.[2]

Participants

Reception

The Guardian film reviewer Peter Bradshaw states that, "The force of his film is in its contention that the colossal scale of civilian casualties is, within the grammar of news, downgraded in importance so that it doesn't figure as news at all, but as all-but-invisible deep background to be ignored." "Pilger gives due respect to WikiLeaks," he concludes, "although his praise for al-Jazeera's independence is ironic, given that WikiLeaks has just revealed the possibility that the Qatar government is manipulating the channel."[3]

The Guardian television reviewer John Crace states that, "Pilger has never traded in anything other than black and white," and "Pilger's starting point is that all governments are shysters whose only interest is economic and all journalists are witless dupes," which, "had the feel of slight overkill," but "For all his lack of subtlety, he presents his case with passion and conviction." "What shone through," he concludes, "was that those we rely on to think clearly in times of war are often those most seduced by myopic machismo and that any sense of history gets instantly forgotten."[4] In the Financial Times, the journalist John Lloyd thought that individuals disagreeing with Pilger's interpretation were "ruthlessly marshalled into a narrative that gave them no quarter" and that by juxtaposing "two strongly put points of view" those watching "could have made up" their own minds. According to Lloyd, Pilger "showed, in his demolition of propaganda – which is what he calls government statements or politicians’ arguments – the mastery of the propagandist arts."[5]

Total Film reviewer Tom Dawson describes the film as a, "timely, potent doc," with, "an impressive range of interviewees, including 'embedded' war correspondents and whistleblowers," but concludes that, "it's the leaked footage of a US chopper attack on unarmed Baghdad residents that proves the film’s most disturbing scoop."[6]

References

  1. ↑ "The War You Don't See". Dartmouth Films. Retrieved 2010-12-20.
  2. ↑ "SBS Documentary Index: The War You Don't See". SBS Television Online. Retrieved 2011-03-31.
  3. ↑ Bradshaw, Peter (2010-12-09). "The War You Don't See - Review". The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-12-20.
  4. ↑ Crace, John (2010-12-15). "TV review: The War You Don't See – Pompeii: Life and Death in a Roman Town – Beautiful Equations". The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-12-20.
  5. ↑ John Lloyd ""Polemic in the hands of a master propagandist, Financial Times, 17 December 2010
  6. ↑ Dawson, Tom (2010-12-20). "The War You Don't See". Total Film. Retrieved 2010-12-20.

External links

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