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Our Brand Is Crisis (2005)
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Reviews Counted:38
Fresh:35
Rotten:3
Average Rating:7.3/10
Theatrical Release:Mar 1, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: Rachel Boynton's excellent, probing documentary goes behind-the-scenes to show the manipulation and orchestration that is involved in big-time political campaigning. OUR BRAND IS CRISIS follows... Rachel Boynton's excellent, probing documentary goes behind-the-scenes to show the manipulation and orchestration that is involved in big-time political campaigning. OUR BRAND IS CRISIS follows members of the consulting firm of Greenberg Carville Shrum to Bolivia, where they have been hired to help controversial candidate Gonzalo "Goni" Sanchez de Lozada reclaim the presidency. With only a few weeks left before the election, consultants Jeremy Rosner, Stan Greenberg, and James Carville work their magic, softening Goni's liberal image and shaping his message to appeal to the masses. In his typically audacious fashion, Carville delivers some of the film's most unforgettable quips. Meanwhile, the unemployment situation is threatening to spark a full-fledged national riot, raising the stakes even higher. Boynton's film is edited at a brisk, taut pace, adding drama to the already tense proceedings. An insightful after-the-fact interview with Rosner provides even greater context for the horrific situation that unfolded a year later and which, in fact, opens the film with a bang. Enlightening, engaging, and thought provoking, OUR BRAND IS CRISIS is a vital, profound work of nonfiction cinema. [More]
Starring: Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada
Starring: Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada
Director: Rachel Boynton
Director: Rachel Boynton
Producer: Rachel Boynton
Studio: Koch Lorber Films
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Release:
Sep 5, 2006
Reviews for Our Brand Is Crisis
Purporting to expose the role of American public-relations companies in foreign political campaigns, Our Brand Is Crisis is never more than a dull and confused film about Bolivia's 2003 presidential election.
Gani is certainly no hero and his American strategists come off as the worst sort of interlopers.
Boynton isn't interested in telling a story, only in the atmosphere of political consultancy. But we already knew this kind of thing happens in American politics. Why shouldn't Bolivia be entitled to sophisticated polling advice?
Boynton's main concerns are the exportation of American image advisers to other countries, and the notion that this faith in marketing is inherent in America's democratic ideology.
What the film ably shows is how a band of Washington consultants can contribute to bloodshed and near societal collapse in a Third World nation whose politics can't be reduced to the same Beltway template now being exported around the world.
Among other things, Our Brand Is Crisis is about the failure of good intentions -- a potent American theme at the moment.
Only a naïf would be surprised by Our Brand Is Crisis, but only a nihilist would not be alarmed by the endless reverberations of Boynton’s case study—and by its suggestion of a systemic separation of modern politics and the national good.
Our Brand is Crisis looks to remind well-meaning people like Carville and Rosner to put the humanity in brand marketing.
Rachel Boynton’s painfully timely film is actually a full-court tragedy -- the sorry tale of a battle won and a war lost.
Our Brand Is Crisis is not just for political junkies and should be widely seen and discussed.
Ultimately provides a vivid illustration of the not-so-hopeful future of international politics.
Boynton maintains a relatively level tone and clear eye and, thus, allows her audience to ask some hard questions about whether our democratic process translates all that clearly in other countries.
Boynton asks: That's the democracy we want to export? For well-paid political consultants like Carville, it's a rhetorical question.
Exotic location notwithstanding, Rachel Boynton's riveting political documentary Our Brand Is Crisis is a sequel to the Clinton-era campaign vérité, The War Room.
Subject matter dominates over filmmaking craft in Rachel Boynton's somewhat sloppy but otherwise riveting documentary.
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