Salvador Allende | DVD Review

Salvador Allende is a bitter and mournful documentary that at times seems more like a romantic ghost story than a biography. According to filmmaker Patricio Guzman, the tortured shade of the former President still roams Chile’s bustling city streets and dusty country roads. Allende’s reformist ideals, along with the hopes of a generation, were crushed by a coup d’état on September 11, 1973. As Guzman makes clear, Allende’s ouster left a cavernous void in the Chilean psyche, and the reign of repression that followed cut the painful wound even deeper.

Guzman does not spout a mere recounting of Allende’s amazing life and career, although that would certainly be sufficient to hold our interest. Instead, he attempts to capture the true spirit of the times, both the mounting frustrations that led to Allende’s election, and the tremendous sense of loss left in his wake. Through historical fragments in museum displays, we get an icy look at how the Chilean military attempted a total annihilation; not just of Allende the man, but of any physical artifact that proved his very existence. Layers of peeling gray paint, applied by the cruel successor Pinochet, hide the hopeful murals that covered Santiago’s walls following Allende’s election. As Guzman lightly taps with a rock, the bland mask chips away, revealing brightly colored images of joyful celebration. For Chile’s long oppressed, Allende represented a dawning of justice and opportunity, and these murals were critical to spreading the news to the illiterate masses.

Through interviews and archival footage, Guzman sets the stage for Allende’s ascendance. Chile’s story is a familiar one of class struggle; the nation’s levers of power controlled by an oligarchy of a few monied individuals, with a right-wing military establishment ensuring its supremacy. With virtually no middle class, survival was a desperate struggle for ordinary Chileans, with little hope of economic advancement. A soft-spoken doctor from Valparaiso, and scion of one of Chile’s leading families, Salvador Allende, promised to change all that. He ran for President three times on a platform that promised economic reform and greater opportunity for all. He promised return of peasant lands stolen by Chile’s rancher barons. And above all, he promised an administration that would listen to all the people, not just the elite. By 1970, and Allende’s fourth presidential campaign, the frustration of the nation’s poverty stricken was finally manifested in votes. Salvador Allende was elected President.

But 1970 was also part of a period when the United States government felt it had a divine right to meddle in the affairs of every nation on Earth. Interviews with former US ambassador Edward Korry make it quite clear that Richard Nixon considered Allende a second coming of Castro, and the paranoid U.S. president instructed the CIA to spare no effort in derailing Allende’s socialist agenda. Meanwhile, Guzman includes footage of an extraordinary meeting where a businessman disperses his vast holdings back to the original peasant owners, in compliance with Allende’s new directives. But not all of Chile’s landowners are as cooperative however, and a shadowy array of powerful forces conspires to violently bring the new President’s reign to an end.

Guzman is very close to this story, and at times seems emotionally overwhelmed with the subject matter. His presentation could have been improved with a bit of tightening, and more straight forward reportage. There’s an emphasis on feelings and opinions, and it dilutes the impact of this harrowing period of Chilean history. But Guzman did not set out to make a news story, but rather a personal essay on what Salvador Allende meant, both good and bad, to his generation. But it’s a complex, sprawling tale that’s not well suited for reduction to personal terms; at least not within this format. There’s a sense that Guzman’s experiential gaze would be a better fit for a dramatic lens than a documentary one.

DISC REVIEW
Presented in 16:9, the disc looks sharp and clean. The original footage is shot in standard definition video, with a liberal dose of b/w archival footage. The production is information driven, and not intended as a visual or aural feast. And as such, the transfer and stereo mix are certainly adequate for the film’s objectives.

BONUS MATERIAL
Guzman worked as a still photographer during the 60s and 70s, and a gallery of his images is included. These b/w still photos of Chilean life are photojournalistic in nature, possibly taken for magazines and wire services. The images are quite interesting and Guzman shows a real flair for capturing poignant moments.

There are cards containing the filmmaker’s biography and filmography, along with a trailer of Nostalgia for the Light, a new documentary by Guzman releasing later in 2011.

Salvador Allende attempts to balance an account of history with a highly subjective personal memoir, and the results are a fascinating, if uneven presentation. Guzman’s approach is sort of an amalgam of the sharp historical focus of Ken Burns with the quirky humanity of Frederick Wiseman. The downfall of Allende nearly 40 years ago still haunts the citizens of Chile to this day, and has left an emotional void that, to Patricio Guzman, has only gotten deeper in the interim. Hidden amid the joy and horror of Allende’s story is a chilling parable for our times, as a popular young President, elected on a platform of hope, ironically unleashes the worst elements and instincts of the nation he has sworn to serve.

Reviewed by David Anderson

Movie rating – 3.5

Disc Rating – 3