Studio ARTE-Zeta Prods., Australia, BBC, Diverse Limited, First Run Features, History Television Network, Jigsaw, SBS Television, Think Tank, TV 2 Denmark
Even as it preaches to those who will relish its witch-hunting zeal, The Trials of Henry Kissinger makes a potent assertion that the legendary diplomat and former Secretary of State is guilty of crimes against humanity. Produced for the BBC, seductively narrated by actor Brian Cox, and based on the scathing book by Christopher Hitchens (a Kissinger-bashing journalist featured heavily here in talking-head interviews), this film is clearly biased against its target, but there's ample documentation to support its claims that Kissinger prolonged the Vietnam war and orchestrated the illegal and indiscriminate bombing of Cambodia; supervised the 1973 coup against democratically elected Chilean president Allende; and played a role in U.S.-backed atrocities in East Timor. Expert interviews on both sides of the political fence (but mostly damning Kissinger) make this a compelling, information-packed example of situational ethics in action; additional viewings simultaneously deepen the film's conviction and reveal the weakness of its one-sided embrace of Hitchens. Either way, this is essential viewing for anyone interested in the labyrinthine machinations of international power. --Jeff Shannon
2.
THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER, a documentary based on the book by British journalist Christopher Hitchens, argues that Kissinger, the former U.S. Secretary of State and the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, was a power-hungry warmonger responsible for massive military cover-ups in Vietnam, Cambodia, and East Timor in the 1960s, as well as the assassination of a Chilean leader in 1970. The film includes interviews with historians, political analysts, and such notable journalists as the New York Times' William Safire--a former speech writer for Richard Nixon. In addition, it uses archival footage from the Nixon era, including coverage of events both in Washington and in Vietnam. With narrator Brian Cox guiding the flow of the film and keeping it tightly focused on its arguments, THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER is shocking in its political revelations and fascinating in its portrait of Kissinger. It was directed by Eugene Jarecki and written by Alex Gibney.
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