Saturday, February 09, 2008

A brilliant documentary


No End In Sight, Charles Ferguson's dissection of the roots and mismanagement of the war in Iraq, has the even temper of a Greek tragedy, letting the facts build slowly to their devastating conclusions, a far cry from the bellowing histrionics and manipulation of another documentary filmmaker in the land. Ferguson is to the other as poetry is to doggerel, as tragedy is to soap opera. This film is an extraordinary contribution to our times, as depressing as its conclusions can be.


"No End in Sight," which gets across the sheer scale and depth of this appalling failure in 100 minutes, is a model of concision and clarity. Ferguson is less a polemicist than a historian, and the power of his film has much to do with its calm, stark emphasis on facts that speak for themselves. (Dennis Lim, Los Angeles Times)

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