what do i do about robert greenwald? i like him, i really do. i agree with his politics and admire him for taking on the likes of rupert murdoch and wal-mart. i just don't think he's a very good documentary filmmaker.
i liked outfoxed, but largely because of the strength of the materials he managed to gather in putting the film together. the film was compelling because he had the goods on fox news. i was less impressed by how it worked stylistically or the preachy "what do we do now" bit at the end.
by the time i saw wal-mart, greenwald's shtick was getting old. it was only the second greenwald film i saw and already things were seeming formulaic. and unlike outfoxed, "wal-mart" included a bunch of emotionally manipulative scenes--scenes of people who were harmed by wal-mart's practices. those type of scenes only work if you don't notice the manipulation. i noticed and so the entire film got a little hard to bear, even as i strongly agreed with its message.
"iraq for sale" was not as bad as "wal-mart." but overall it suffered from some of the same problems. it had it's share of manipulative moments (though i might have been overly sensitive to that because of my experience with "wal-mart"). i also thought the overall structure of the film didn't work that well. the film moved from point to point to build it's case against military contractors. while that may be effective in a written piece, it gave the film a strung-along episodic quality to it that i think made it less effective.
that's my stylistic criticisms. content-wise, i thought "iraq for sale" had a lot to say. war profiteering is a major element of the iraq war, an element that gets woefully little attention. and like with "outfoxed," greenwald really does have the goods on the major military contractors. so despite the fact that i don't think it's a particularly good documentary, i really hope a lot of people end up seeing it. what it says needs to be said, even if in the ideal world it would have been said a little better.
...susie's review is here.
...atrios' is here.
...brendan's is here.
i seem to be in the minority in my criticisms of the film. all the more reason you should go and see it to make up your own mind.
