The End Of Poverty (2008)
Average Rating: 5.9/10
Reviews Counted: 22
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 10
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 5.4/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 4
No consensus yet.
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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 260
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The aphorism "The poor are always with us" dates back to the New Testament, but while the phrase is still sadly apt in the 21st century, few seem to be able to explain why poverty is so widespread. Activist filmmaker Philippe Diaz examines the history and impact of economic inequality in the third world in the documentary The End of Poverty?, and makes the compelling argument that it's not an accident or simple bad luck that has created a growing underclass around the world. Diaz traces the
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All Critics (22) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (13) | Rotten (10) | DVD (1)
Even if you're convinced by the many well-spoken interviewees, the film's conclusion is almost as depressing as the historical indictment that precedes it.
Top CriticBecause Diaz constructs his movie like a classroom tutorial, we expect something more from him than an appeal to end privatization.
Powerful and upsetting.
Why Philippe Diaz has titled his new documentary The End of Poverty? is unclear, because this guilt trip/history lesson is really about the beginning of poverty.
It's heartbreaking, of course, but also crassly manipulative and blandly shot, too.
For all his film's sober analysis, Diaz never loses sight of the human cost of global capitalism.
A confrontational documentary by neo-Marxist director Phillippe Diaz that explores the inconvenient truth that the gears of capitalism are greased by the exploitation of the weak.
In essence, this damning documentary is a history lesson uncovering the ugly underbelly of Western Civilization from 1492 up to the present.
so stuck in the self-importance of covering the economically disadvantaged that it thoroughly loses the ability to show how the circumstances evolved to such a state.
A didactic documentary that covers ground already trampled to death by countless other films, books, magazine articles, and grad-student theses.
The most articulate film to date describing the modern means and methods of the free market enslavement of undeveloped countries.
A hard-hitting documentary that presents the voices and concerns of the poor along with suggested ways out of the abyss between the rich and poor.
A timely and provocative documentary, but it's rather dull, poorly synthesized and fails to keep you engaged with an overload of information and a disorganized variety of interviews.
Documentary takes a unique and ambitious big-picture approach to a daunting, seemingly endless problem.
...uncharacteristically revolutionary among today's issue documentaries, and all the more refreshing for its bluntness.
The film plays "blame Whitey" by insisting that all economic problems currently facing the people in Latin America, Africa and Asia were created by Western interference.
The End Of Poverty? offers simplistic answers to many of the most pressing questions of our time.
It's startling to realize that locales supplying most resources we consider most valuable are Earth's most poverty-stricken spots. The film makes a compelling argument that our economic system is the equivalent of human doom.
In essence, this damning documentary is a history lesson uncovering the ugly underbelly of Western Civilization from 1492 up to the present.
Perhaps most surprising of all are the parallels Diaz accidentally draws between the "evil" First World and the "innocent" Third.
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November 12, 2009:
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Foreign Titles
- The End of Poverty? (DE)
- The End of Poverty? (UK)
In reality, a movement has been working on two fronts to challenge the IMF/World bank hegemony that Rebecca Solnit recapped in a recent article. Activists starting in Seattle in 1999 have been bringing huge protests to the bankers' front door, demanding debt forgiveness(Which is mentioned once in the film. It might have a chance if we slashed the military budget), while leaders are elected in South America that are responsive to their citizens' needs, especially in Venezuela and Bolivia.(The documentary talks to most of Evo Morales' government but does not mention his historic win.) And it would have been interesting to compare Cuba to the other countries mentioned in this film which I think has it sort of right. This is not an end, just a new beginning.