SALVADOR ALLENDE
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: This is an angry documentary about the rise and fall of the socialist and populist Salvador Allende who was toppled from power and committed suicide during a rightist coup in Chile. Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4) or 6/10
Patricio Guzman takes a highly sympathetic view of the controversial leftist president of Chile Salvador Allende and documents the conspiracies against him. Allende was an intellectual and a populist with strong socialist leanings. This made him a threat to the Right Wing elements in his own country. While his policies were at first effective when he was elected president, he made powerful enemies, particularly among his country's military, and the country fell into unrest and chaos. At least twice there were attempts to remove him from office with coups d'etat by the Chile military apparently aided by the American Central Intelligence Agency. September 11, 1973 (another tragic September 11), there was a violent military coup in Chile and his palace was bombed. Allende committed suicide and Chile was seized by a right wing military government led by General Augusto Pinochet. The new government took control of the streets in a reign of terror and mass murder. (Readers may remember an account of those events in Costa-Gavras's film MISSING.) That military regime held power for eighteen years. In the hands of Guzman, Allende seems to be a president who had good ideas but who failed to unite the extremist elements in his extremely polarized country. By openly allying himself with Fidel Castro and by nationalizing industries he clearly frightened and provoked an extreme reaction from right wing elements inside (and unfortunately also outside) his country.
Guzman's biographical study is not tremendously innovative as a documentary. It is probably being chosen for film festivals because the story it tells is political and shocking. At least that is true if you have not heard before about what happened or about the United States intelligence community's involvement. The film's release comes at a time when ironically the American public seems to be leaning toward wanting a more effective intelligence community. The film shows the arts prospering under the first year of Allende's leadership. Murals and decoration of roadways has since been painted over by the new government. He seems to have a lot of good ideas. But he did not have the power to do what he needed to do, not unlike our own Jimmy Carter. SALVADOR ALLENDE is an angry look of what might have been but wasn't.
Chilean Guzman captures the populist appeal of Allende's campaign and the fervor many of the people felt for the candidate.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Copyright 2004 Mark R. Leeper
========== X-RAMR-ID: 39019 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1338827 X-RT-TitleID: 10004536 X-RT-AuthorID: 1309 X-RT-RatingText: 6/10
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