“The Trials of Henry Kissinger” proposes that the former Secretary of State could be and perhaps should be tried as a war criminal. Some of the specific accusations against Kissinger will likely be familiar to the viewer, particularly his role in the Nixon administration’s bombing of Cambodia. More interesting is the analysis of Kissinger’s possible link to the overthrow of Chilean leader Allende and insertion of dictator Pinochet. To attempt to provide documentation for these assertions, filmmaker Eugene Jarecki interviews numerous journalists and politicians, including Alexander Haig and William Safire. In addition, abundant Kissinger memos from the Nixon administration, some only recently declassified, are dissected.
Much of this material is quite compelling; however, the film never ultimately connects all the dots in a convincing manner. Perhaps the major difficulty is the documentary’s seeming inspiration - writings by Vanity Fair writer, Christopher Hitchens. Viewers may recognize Hitchens as one of the talking heads who populate political shows. Unfortunately, Hitchens is not known as being particularly even-handed, and the documentary presents material from him too early and prominently to be taken seriously. In addition, the material on Chile is presented in the introduction as a key piece of evidence, but the full discussion of the Chile situation is shuffled to the end of the documentary and given relatively little time. The net feeling is that the evidence for Kissinger’s link to Chile is weak, which undermines the entire film.
Overall, this documentary is interesting and thought-provoking. In particular, the delineation of the current world view regarding war criminals could provoke some debate. However, the film’s allegation that Kissinger is a war criminal is ultimately not established, at least in this viewer’s mind.
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Category: Uncategorized
February 26th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
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