Pluskylang
Great Film overall
Joanna Mccarty
Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
Kirandeep Yoder
The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.
Cockeymofo76
The film is based around the 2002 Bolivian Presidential Election and the Gonzalo "Goni" Sanchez de Lozada Campaign.The movie starts by introducing us to "Goni" and his flailing campaign and then quickly brings in GCS, Greenberg Carville Shrum, (yes, the James Carville) is an international political consulting firm. The film starts off kind of awkwardly and there is really nothing special about the first 3rd of the documentary.But the movie quickly kicks into gear about 30 min. in and never pulls up. Rachel Boynton, the director, does a good job of just presenting facts, never bashing the audience in the head with something that can be seen. She asks pretty good, not great, questions of those she interviews and presents people fairly throughout the film. The movie centers on the topic of how can international consulting firms participate in a democracy that isn't their own. The movie shows the personal feelings of the consultants for GCS and the effects GCS has had on Boilivia.That all being said I didn't like the camera angles or the audio. The audio was inconsistent; interviewer's voice was not miked so her questions were almost impossible to hear. The camera, at times, makes you feel not a part of the action.The movie is for anyone who watches the news or would like to consider themselves "well informed." – 8/10
smax21
I think it's a universally known fact that many Americans actually don't know a lot about other nations and cultures. For me, I thought the focus was more about how clueless the Americans were trying to run this campaign for a country they knew little about and seemed to simply do what they could to get Goni in office then fail to help follow through with the promises they made. I blame the Americans for Goni achieving the presidency and then his demise for never coming through. I do believe without the Americans Goni would not have won and therefore the issued that followed would not have happened.I felt the film showed the power the people hold in Bolivia and how significant their opinions are as well as their ability to be heard.I suppose each person will see this film in their own way, but if you don't know a lot about Bolivia or the recent politics, this is a good film to watch to learn about the recent presidential topics.
cadmandu
This film is a documentary about how a group of American political consultants, led by James Carville, helped elect a president in Bolivia.It is a cliché that colonialism is a natural byproduct of the industrial revolution. The need for export to foreign markets seems to include our political machinations. What else are political consultants going to do in off years? This film is outstanding if only for the fact that the cameras rolled everywhere; we get to see some very private moments with both the consultants and their clients.What is most shocking about this film is how out of touch their candidate is, a fact which seems to phase the consultants not at all. Their advice to him is right on ("You have to act quickly after the election") but the obvious incompetence of their man does not really register with the Americans. Once he's elected, he raises taxes on the poor masses, who have already been protesting in the streets for months, and who then riot, burn buildings, and get massacred by the army. Duh! It's a real Marie Antoinette moment.The only thing I felt was lacking from the film itself is some information on the second candidate (Manfred Reyes) though technically the filmmakers were not responsible for reporting on the other candidats. The third candidate was an obvious sleazeball (advocates the coca trade as a solution to Bolivia's problems) but the middle man was a mystery. Was he really a fascist? Where did his money come from? How sincere was he about anything? We don't really know. I wouldn't trust any of these creeps to watch my 50 cents while I left the room. So if you want a good dose of how disastrous and pathetic Americans are when it comes to foreign countries, this film is a gold mine. In the age of Iraq it's kinda tame, but the principles are the same. It made a big impact on me. I walked around for a few days wondering what it would actually take to turn around a country as messed as Bolivia. I was also annoyed by how dependent Bolivians seem to be, looking to the government as their only solution. It's a different world out there, amigo.
vernon-35
The film maker and movie are NOT patronizing in any way. The only patronizing is done by the GCC (consulting agency which James Carville is a member). For the most part, it is a great inside look into political campaigns and the consultants who run them. Although campaigns are mostly a game to GCC, it shows how who wins or loses can have serious consequences. Even though some of GCC may be sobered by the end of the movie, they state that they would probably not change their practices.Unfortunately, the film maker does little to challenge GCC and its members which state that they support democratization and globalization - as if one has anything to do with the other. In fact, one of the members of GCC states that maybe Bolivian's didn't want democracy because they reject globalization. The film maker does nothing to challenge this view. As a result, the film maker missed an extremely important part of the story.
