Is there anything better than a great political documentary? All three of these are worth a watch and currently on Netflix…
Oklahoma City…A documentary about the Oklahoma City bombing that may not reveal a whole lot of new information, but it does delve deep into the history of the radical rightwing that led up to the bombing. By re-exploring Ruby Ridge, Waco, and the rise of patriot militias, white supremacist groups, and a network of anti-government organizations you’re learning about the rise of the far-right (before it was called “alt-right”) during the Bill Clinton era, and that may help explain their flocking to Trump today. 2016, Trump, and Obama are never explicitly mentioned in the doc, but needless to say things haven’t exactly gotten better with this problem over time. And what’s eerie is seeing just exactly how much Tim McVeigh (in old recordings where we hear his ramblings) sounded not all that different from Edward Snowden. Grade: B+
Get Me Roger Stone…Roger Stone is the ultimate dirty trickster and arguably the figure most responsible for getting Donald J. Trump elected President outside of Vladimir Putin. So some might have a problem watching a documentary about this guy who’s been working for every major Republican scumbag of the last half century (Roger does work for Nixon, Roy Cohn, Reagan, the Bushes, etc. before Trump), but you’ll learn a lot about the rightwing’s inner-workings and thought process. And that’s part of the draw of this well-made, fast paced comic-tragedy since it all but asks “Do you want to see the devil up close?” Stone delights in his notorious reputation, and even traded on it when he started a lobbying firm—the beginning of the “mega-lobbyist” age of Super-PACs and corporate takeover of politics—that represented some of the world’s worst dictators. In seeing Stone’s defense of these violent tyrants, you may wonder if he even really believes they’re the right people to fight terrorism or cares at all. It’s that blurring of “they’re paying me to say it, so it must be so” that has defined a Republican Party that no longer even cares what the truth is from climate crisis to taxes to WMDs to Trump. Grade: A-
Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press…Even if this documentary isn’t as well made as “Get Me Roger Stone,” it’s a much more important story–pun intended, since it’s about no less than the fate of American journalism and a free press. It starts off about the trial between Hulk Hogan and Gawker over his sex tape, and this puts the doc in the queasy position of having to defend the hideous Gawker (complete with the sleazy, snarky British owner you just knew it had without ever looking it up) but it turns out to be a springboard into larger stories about Trump’s antagonism towards journalists (threatening government retaliation against them like some petty tyrant), the co-opting of independent newspapers, and especially neo-fascist billionaire Peter Thiel’s one man war on journalism he doesn’t like. Thiel just stands in for a billionaire class increasingly hostile towards journalism that doesn’t kiss their ass, and Silicon Valley “visionaries” that are buying out or putting out of business traditional media that won’t call them visionaries. Grade: A-
Loved the article! I always love your movie reviews because they are spot on.