Average Rating: 7.5/10
Reviews Counted: 42
Fresh: 36 | Rotten: 6
Terror's Advocate is a fascinating portrayal of a controversial political figure; both morally unsettling and emotionally gripping.
Average Rating: 8/10
Critic Reviews: 13
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 1
Terror's Advocate is a fascinating portrayal of a controversial political figure; both morally unsettling and emotionally gripping.
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Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 1,874
Filmmaker Barbet Schroeder transcends the borders of the political and judiciary arenas to explore the mystery of a man who stands up for some of society's most deplorable figures. Enigmatic lawyer Jacques Vergès began his career by defending Djamila Bouhired -- an activist who became the manifestation of the people's hunger for freedom -- during the Algerian War of Independence. Later, after marrying his client and adopting an anti-colonialist stance, Vergès disappeared from the public eye for
May 18, 2007 Wide
Feb 19, 2008
Magnolia Pictures
All Critics (44) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (36) | Rotten (7) | DVD (2)
The movie functions crackingly well as a non-fiction international thriller.
The lawyer's intense isolation, his solitary, perverse rage against the world, against France, against conventional opinion, is felt most deeply.
For just a moment, ignore politics. Consider Jacques Vergès simply as star. The radical French lawyer is an absolutely compelling figure onscreen: exotic, resolute, beguilingly smug.
Jacques Vergès makes for compelling documentary film fodder: He is arrogant, cosmopolitan, politically unpredictable and enmeshed in the roots of modern international terrorism.
A panorama of European radicalism.
A brilliant study in the link between moral corruption and narcissism.
Ainda que falhe em decifrar seu complexo protagonista, o documentário estabelece um intrigante retrato de um homem cujos princípios morais e ideológicos eventualmente se tornam tão flexíveis quanto o espectro alcançado por sua clientela.
At its best, the documentary shows us an unsavory character answering a bunch of softball questions and whose best logic is to play the Third World race card.
As riveting as it is dizzying, Schroeder's documentary thriller takes a mesmerising ad hominem approach to twentieth century terror, offering up for our judgement an advocate whose views ought to be indefensible.
A documentary built on guilt by association. . . . no more interested in questioning the loaded word "terrorist" than Verges is in making distinctions between his clients. . . . leads us on a tour full of dark, mysterious purpose and not much of a payoff.
Though the film comes with a warning that it expresses only the point of view of its director, in reality, what Schroeder seems to offer is a portrait of a glib man who simply defies any conclusive description.
If Terror's Advocate doesn't precisely interrogate the rise of terrorism, it does look at its romance and consider its effectiveness.
Schroeder's approach to this controversial figure is more plodding than it should be.
[I]ntriguing enough, if a bit dry. But then a flick that seemed newsy, almost wonky, turns riveting...
If you want to see a who's who in terror, just take a peek at this guy's client list.
Barbet Schroeder's astonishing documentary is a glimpse into another world, and not one you would necessarily want to visit for too long.
Schroeder's film, which combines interviews with many of the key figures in Vergès' career with grainy historical footage, lets its subject speak for itself but leaves little doubt of where the filmmaker stands.
While the man [Vergès] has a snappy aphorism for every question, he remains as imponderable and enigmatic as the Sphinx.
Once upon a time, Barbet Schroeder directed a movie called "Reversal of Fortune" starring Jeremy Irons, Ron Silver and Glenn Close about lawyer Alan Dershowitz appealing the attempted murder conviction of Claus von Bulow. At one point in the movie, Dershowitz remarks that the one thing they have going for them is that
October 13, 2007Super Reviewer
This is as close to amazing as a life can get. Mind blowing documentary on a controverted character and the relationship with his unorthodox clients, as well as that white line that a lawyer must not pass in order to keep him or herself neutral about specific cases. It depicts the relation and divorce of a character
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