Arts & Manners: Agitprop and God-pop

Costa-Gavras, the talented French-bred Russo-Greek director of pedantic anti-anti-Communist films, checks in this year with State of Siege. It flows naturally from the hand that fashioned Z (1970), again subtly distorting an actual event (the murder of Agency for International Development agent Daniel Mitrione by Uruguayan Tupamaros, a Communist terror group) and glorifying the Communists without so identifying them, the better to serve his real master —not art, but agitprop. Faithfully aided by screenwriter Franco Solinas, the Marxist responsible for the script of Battle of Algiers, another prop-film that put guerrilla terrorism’s best foot forward, Costa-Gavras once more endears himself to congenital Amerika-haters and incites blood-lust among those who see no evil in anything on the right.

Here AID operative Mitrione becomes Philip Santore (Yves Montand), and the Tupamaros have been transubstantiated to squeaky-clean idealists of the Innocent Youth persuasion. AID reinforces Latin America’s peonage, you see; Americans warm to the task of training rightist dictators in latemodel torture methods; salvation for The People can come only through toppling the latino fascists, ousting the gringo capitalist sadists, and . . . To those so oriented, it is a comforting message, bluntly stated—“a cool-headed picture, written with gravity and seriousness” (Penelope Gilliatt, The New Yorker, May 12)—and you had best be braced for a nasty scene with your teenage impressionables after they’ve shelled out three bucks to imbibe the gospel according to Costa-Gavras.

DB

About the Author

David Brudnoy

Featured Tags

Costa-Gavras, the talented French-bred Russo-Greek director of pedantic anti-anti-Communist films, checks in this year with State of Siege. It flows naturally from the hand that fashioned Z (1970), again subtly distorting an actual event (the murder of Agency for International Development agent Daniel Mitrione by Uruguayan Tupamaros, a Communist terror group) and glorifying the Communists without so identifying them, the better to serve his real master —not art, but agitprop. Faithfully aided by screenwriter Franco Solinas, the Marxist responsible for the script of Battle of Algiers, another prop-film that put guerrilla terrorism’s best foot forward, Costa-Gavras once more endears himself to congenital Amerika-haters and incites blood-lust among those who see no evil in anything on the right.

Here AID operative Mitrione becomes Philip Santore (Yves Montand), and the Tupamaros have been transubstantiated to squeaky-clean idealists of the Innocent Youth persuasion. AID reinforces Latin America’s peonage, you see; Americans warm to the task of training rightist dictators in latemodel torture methods; salvation for The People can come only through toppling the latino fascists, ousting the gringo capitalist sadists, and . . . To those so oriented, it is a comforting message, bluntly stated—“a cool-headed picture, written with gravity and seriousness” (Penelope Gilliatt, The New Yorker, May 12)—and you had best be braced for a nasty scene with your teenage impressionables after they’ve shelled out three bucks to imbibe the gospel according to Costa-Gavras.