Saw Entranced Earth (1967), a political film about a power struggle in the fictional South-American country of Eldorado. The hegemony as personified by a media mogul is squaring off against a populist democratic leader. The protagonist is a poet who works for the media mogul but backs the populist. The film starts off by giving the ending away: that the populist candidate wins, but immediately calls in the army to quell dissent and to disperse crowds. He is as bankrupt as the media mogul.
The film has the feel of a Goddard film: lots of high-falutin' talk about the people and the masses and socialism and religion and democracy etc etc and lots of men in suits smoking and talking. Also like Goddard, the film is full of little stylistic flourishes. Several times people talk directly to the camera, clips of future events are dropped in early, or fantasies are spliced in as reality. There's a long sequence at the end where a politician is crowned with a pope hat, laughing and laughing.
The film is aiming at political unrest and discontent. It's even-handed in that everyone comes off looking somewhat bad. The central protagonist wants what's best for the people and the country, but he is an intellectual idealist, and even he is revealed to be somewhat bankrupt, when he threatens a peasant who is asking that his land be returned to him. The film gives away that this is going to be a downer in the opening scene, where the populist leader starts calcifying into yet another dictator. It feels true to life, but also cynical, bitter, rabble-rousing.
I didn't really dig this film (just like a Goddard film!) It was a little dreary and frustrating to watch and, frankly, if I want to see depressing failures of the political process, I need look no further than recent headlines. There's plenty enough to be depressed about. I frankly could use a more up-beat, optimistic take on democracy. My general feeling is too pessimistic already, leading me to embrace a kind of not-very-productive isolation. Enough already.
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