I regret the fact that I waited so long to write a review for this movie because many parts of it has escaped my mind. I saw it last Saturday and UGHHHH...damn this April school time! Anyway...so needless to say I had to get some work done before I could do any "extracurricular" activities! But I was lucky to have a piece of paper with me to scribble down notes, right after watching it.
First of all, gotta say, I liked it a lot. Wouldn't say loved it...but since I could relate to it a great deal. The theater was packed! Of course it was one of the small Amherst Cinema show rooms but still! I didn't expect it because first of all it had been out for quite some time at that time and also, not every one goes to see a foreign movie with subtitles. There were literally no seats left!
For those of you who don't know the story line, here's a brief summary of it. This was based on a true story that happened in Chile back in 1988 (around the time I was born!). 15 years has passed since Pinochet's coup and overthrowing of Salvador Allende. The world says that they have had enough with this dictator's tyranny and they put pressure on him to resign. Pinochet budges in (just a little!) and announces that he will hold a referendum so the people of Chile can decide if they want him to stay or go by simply voting YES or NO. He also allows the TV industry to have a debate-like thing where the supporters of each group to share their opinions every day, each having 15 minutes air time, beginning 28 days before the big election.
The movie is awesome in the way it has been made. It is filmed in a way that would look like old footage...the kind of quality that you would find in the films back in the 80's and that's one of the reasons you get drawn and involved in it from the very beginning. The main character, played by Gael Garcia Bernal, whose character makes cheesy trailers for the TV and gets recruited by the NO team to be one of the people working on making of the 15-minute NO trailers. The movie has a very gentle humor to it and the dialogues are well-written. They face this obstacle where they think there is no point in working on this NO project on TV since the government will definitely win because those who are against Pinochet will probably not vote since they think their vote wouldn't count and the results are already chosen and the election will most likely be rigged. I don't remember the exact words so I'm not going to ruin it but if you watch it, look for the part they talk about old ladies and young girls voting which I found funny and at the same time true! It was also true in case of Iran's elections.
By the time they air the first episode of the NO campaign, which all of them put their heart into, the YES opposition group feels the threat for the first time. In the next episodes they do everything they can to mar the face of the NO group...they try to scare people off with communism and that the NO people have Marxist affiliations. It is almost the same way here which is ridiculous to me but very convenient for many politicians to control people's minds! Take Obama's care plan which many people oppose because of the fear of socialism! I mean come on! All over the world people have free health plans in democratic countries and nothing has happened to them...what are you afraid of?! Anyway...moving on...they even tried to change the appearance of Pinochet by making him more "civilian" to make people like him and say that he's changed (the same way they do in Iran by making Ahmadinejad wear suit instead of that ridiculous white jacket he used to wear!), they try to point out the progression of the country from the time that Pinochet took over, the development of the industry,...and I think I have talked about this before in the post I had about Evita that at that time, any country with any ruler would've had these changes...but the NO group teases these apart smartly and points them out in their 15 minutes.
But everything aside, what made me find this movie so powerful was that they were able to make the audience (me!) subconsciously so involved in the story and root for the NO group so much so that in the scene where they were reading the ballots, I found a smile sitting on my face. The whole purpose of this movie was to show how the media can play a role in the fate of a nation (if given the freedom they need).
If you're Iranian or have been following the Iranian news and politics this sounds familiar...a lot! Hence me relating to the movie. Back when there was the Iranian revolution 30-something years ago and after the Shah was overthrown, they held a referendum saying YES/NO to the Islamic Republic. Also, there was a debate between the presidential candidates back in 2009 on TV where the 4 of them will pair up and debate for 30 minutes, each getting 15 minutes, which was basically the same thing that except they would talk for themselves, not representatives or supporters. I pointed out the freedom of the media above because in Iran's case it didn't work. Probably because nowadays the governments have learned new ways of controlling the mass media and getting their own way!
I highly recommend this movie and think that many people would enjoy it, especially those who have experienced these feelings in the past elections in Iran, though not getting the results they wanted.
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