Global Spin’s lineup of films to watch this weekend takes its cue from the 10th year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Farenheit 9/11
Michael Moore’s fiery 2004 documentary was agitprop that packed considerable heat. Farenheit 9/11 won the Palme D’Or at Cannes, an award that stoked conservative ire in the U.S. The documentary takes aim at the Bush administration’s response to 9/11, pillorying the culture of fear propagated then by Washington, the dangers of the swiftly-executed Patriot Act, and the cynical, misleading moves that led to the launch of the Iraq War. The highest grossing documentary of all time, it’s still one of the more scathing (and entertaining) treatments of the post-9/11 years.
25th Hour
This 2002 Spike Lee joint — about the last day of freedom of a man sentenced to jail for seven years on a drug offense — was characterized at the time of its release as one of the first ”post-9/11” films. Though the attack plays little direct role in the movie, the 25th Hour opens with the launching of those ethereal beacons into the night sky from Ground Zero. And in the vein of Lee’s earlier meditation on New York City, Do the Right Thing, it includes an extended, vulgar rant on race and identity in the city, tinged this time by the memory of 9/11.
The Tillman Story
Few p.r. exercises ended so embarrassingly. Following his 2004 death in Afghanistan, the Bush administration sought to make hay of the sacrifice of Pat Tillman, a square-jawed, charismatic football player who turned his back on a multi-million dollar NFL contract to join the war effort against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. But his tragic end proved awkward propaganda: The Tillman Story tells of the cover-up that obscured his true death, at the hands of friendly fire.
The Baader-Meinhof Complex
While the U.S. “war on terror” targeted a small coterie of Islamic fundamentalist outfits, terrorism as a tactic knows no borders or boundaries. Indeed, rarely did the media ever consider the actions of al-Qaeda and its affiliates in the wider historical lens that perhaps it deserved. The trailer to the The Baader-Meinhof Complex invites you to “meet the original faces of terror” — hyperbole, of course — but a closer look at Germany’s famous Red Army Faction offers real insight into the righteous anger and misguided idealism that has suffused extremist militancy over the decades.
The Battle of Algiers
As far as your humble Couch Potato is concerned, Battle of Algiers should be watched in almost any context. The cult film — the most famous work by the Italian Communist director Gillo Pontecorvo — depicts one episode in the Algerian struggle for independence. Its immortal newsreel-style dramatization of the processes of revolution, terrorism and counter-insurgency led to its screening by the Pentagon following the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
