Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5832 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-02-04
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 94 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
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.

In The War On Democracy, he looks at the political tactics of America over the past decades, homing in on Latin America and the impact that ongoing strategic American political decisions have had. Throughout the course of the documentary, Pilger gets access to relevant subjects, and charts the backlash in Latin America too.

The subject matter of The War On Democracy is clearly emotive, and it’s inevitable perhaps that Pilger’s stance isn’t wholly impartial. His film, however, is very strong. Directed by Chris Martin, it’s an engrossing, studiously put-together picture, that can’t help but emote a reaction from those who sit through it. One or two of the interviewees, in particular, are all but certain to provoke.

As a piece of filmmaking, The War On Democracy continues the rich vein of quality that the documentary genre has been enjoying over the past few years. That it’s also likely to wind its audience up one way or the other is also, surely, an even stronger reason to recommend it. --Jon Foster

Synopsis
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.

Customer Reviews

Another Triumph For John Pilger
Occasionally you see something on television that makes you sit up and take notice of what is going on in the world. John Pilger and Chris Martin's 'The War On Democracy' is such a film.

I cannot claim to having had any interest in Latin American politics, so its impact on me was all the greater. It tells the incredible but true story of how Washington has over the years destabilized democratically elected governments such as those of Chile and Venezuela by fermenting dissent. This insidious process started under Nixon, and ( surprise, surprise ) has continued to the present day under Bush.

Pilger extracts an stunning admission from an unrepentant C.I.A. bigwig, who cites 'national security interests' as justification for his loathsome behaviour, I came close to kicking in the television screen. Hugo Chavez, president of Venuezuela, himself the victim of an attempted coup, is interviewed, and comes across as intelligent and articulate - unlike Bush. Remember Margaret Thatcher's old tea-drinking pal General Augusto Pinochet? Here we learn first-hand from some of the people he tortured the truth about the man 'we can do business with'.

'Fahrenheit 9/11' was impressive, but I think this was better, being more focused and in depth.

If you want to know why Bush is currently the most hated man on Earth, get this D.V.D.

Truly Great DVD!
I have just finished watching one of the most inspiring documentaries I think I have ever seen: John Pilger's "The War on Democracy" shown tonight on UK Channel Three (ITV), at over one and a half hours.

If you can, watch this film (or DVD when it is issued)!

It will have you punching the air, and sheading tears, cursing the rich even while your jaw hits the floor at the courage of the poor and the fight-back we are seeing in Latin America -- surely the most hopeful place on earth at the moment.

John finishes with a warning to his viewers "To those who are used to seeing the world through the eyes of media owned by the rich and powerful, I warn you the people of the world are rising up..."

It then ends with Sam Cooke's 'I know change is a coming."

Gob-smakcing DVD/TV at its very best.

Essential viewing for all
I watched this documentary on TV recently, and I have to say it was simply one of the best programs I have ever had the priviledge to see. John Pilger's gift is to take the truth and hold it up to your face so starkly that only a moron or corrupt politician could fail to be moved. Indeed I was almost moved to tears by parts of the program, and also angered that so much evil, and that's not too strong a word, is being done in our name by governments who drip feed us pap and misinformation.

I have been watching DVDs of Noam Chomsky recently too, and he tells of similar injustices meted out by the West on those less fortunate. I would urge everyone with a conscience to wake the hell up, stop watching SKY news which re-runs trivia every 15 minutes, and look around you. I have even started watching Al Jazeera for the news, and it has so much more depth and scope to proper issues that it boggles the mind. One of the major points Pilger makes is that the media are privately owned, and the garbage we get fed to us is simply to mis-inform and lie to us. Your government is lying to you every day people!

Pilger's books and documentaries dont make for a comfortable evening's viewing or reading. He strips away the facade of our supposed decency in the West and makes us examine the true extent of our leaders' underhand, duplicitous and evil doings in the name of supposed "democracy". It's all a lie, and as any history student will tell you, if you tell a big enough lie, people will believe it.

Hugo Chavez comes across as a good, decent well-intentioned man. He speaks with humility and good grace. Compare that with the lying, draft-dodging, incompetent, war-mongering, ingrate currently residing in the Whitehouse. Christ! The times they are a-changing.