🇺🇸Review - "The Undefeated" (2016) - Dir. Stephen K. Bannon🌨

When Bannon was a feminist

This is a bad documentary. 

It is the life story of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin until 2011. Everything else is wrong about this film too. Especially the title 'The Undefeated' isn't spin; it is a lie. Even The narrative argues that she was defeated. No attempt is made to justify why this film is called the undefeated.

Actually it seems no attempted was made to justify anything creative done in the film which is made with interviews played over stock footage. Compared to some other right-wing populist films (Brexit - The Movie) which are trying to convince people of their policy positions, this film's merchandise is cliche. The movie has a structure like my old secondary school assignments, rushed together to so something can be handed in, content and quality ignored.

But this is kinda why it is interesting. Some of the cliches ("They didn't see us coming") used are the same when Bannon was part of a team manufacturing populism during 2016 Presidential race. But some of the cliches used back in 2011 are the opposite of the ones used in 2016. 

'The Undefeated' is superficially feminist. The narrative the film puts forward is that male establishment (the boys in the playground) disliked the strong, female politician which the film argues Palin was. Apart from her 'conservatism', the major reason her establishment critics dislike her is because she is a woman, the film argues. A Montage  of comedians making jokes (not including Tina Faye) about Palin opens the film and places that argument a the head of the 2 hour onslaught. 

Avoid this film. 

🖼Review - Ways of seeing (1972) - John Berger

It is a case of you don't know what you've got until it's gone. I was vaguely aware of John Berger, mostly hearing him referred to as the guy who gave his Booker prize to the Black Panthers. So as a result of the coverage of his death, I was introduced to his 4-episode, 1972 documentary Ways of Seeing. 

This documentary is up there in quality and passion with such great documentaries of the era such as Carl Sagan's Cosmos. It does have a slower pace than something made now, but it never feels dull. 

Aimming to demystify 'high culture' from the chains of heavy terms, Berger covers European painting from 1400 - 1900 and the echoes in mid-20th century culture. 

My favourite episode (or the one for which I took down the most notes) was the third, which discusses art as a commodity, but then looks back at why this is. The European oil paintings of this era, according to Berger, are the 'Images of the things which are desirable." Rich people had painters paint them along side their property, livestock, mistresses, slaves and junk to preserve and show off there spender. It was "a medium which celebrated private possessions."