The Battle Of Chile

This a rare and interesting documentary about one of the most controversial military coups in history! It was the first time an elected communist government had been overthrown by force and this alone polarised opinion with much of the factual data being lost in the process. Guzmán was a recently graduated student from Spain and clearly one holding extreme left wing views, (not unusual for students at that time!) This long documentary tells the story from this point of view. There is hardly a word anywhere that makes any attempt to show why the coup took place from the point of view of the right. I have relatives in Chile who were in Santiago at this time and to make my position clear, we were and remain supporters of the coup, despite strongly condemning the many excesses that took place after the event. The dialogue in this film is full of classic left wing propaganda. I spent time in China during and after the Cultural Revolution and such repetitive extreme political comments, against which it is pointless to argue, were daily fare! Disc 3 is particularly bad in this regard and I found it just too much.Despite this reservation, the factual camera work is very dramatic and the first two discs are excellent value. Disc 4 is a later, (color), documentary about the Battle of Chile. Guzmán has both aged and matured and the views expressed a little more moderate.The sub-titles are very good and the sound and picture quality remarkable considering the conditions under which the filming took place.Pinochet will always be controversial, but there are those that feel this was the coup that stopped communism in its tracks in latin America and was the first shot that led in due course to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Allende comes across as a rather decent fellow, somewhat naïve perhaps, with strong principles but with no ability to control his extreme left wing. He paid the ultimate price for this shortcoming. Not all the facts claimed in the film are correct: After the coup Pinochet published his side of the story in "El Libro Blanco". Even if only half of the facts claimed in that book are true, then Allende had to go. All in all this is well worth buying whichever side of the political platform you support. Just be clear that in no way is it a balanced and objective picture of the coup, but bearing in mind the polarisation of feelings at that time and even up to the present day, such a view would be very hard to get and even harder to publish. Better look at the coup from both sides and make up your own mind. This is a good start.

This 4-disc box set contains the three separate parts of the original feature film made in the immediate years after the events of 1973, and released at different times rather than together, each part to a disc (they are quite lengthy) plus a 4th disc made from footage shot in 1996 when the surviving filmmakers went back to Chile to update what happened after the coup d'etat of 1973 and how events were viewed then, both by some of those who were around at the time and interestingly by some high school-girls who were born 6-7 years afterwards. Even 23 years after 1973, the filmmakers had to be surrepticious in filming in some places, such as the Presidential Palace.Director Patricio Guzmán is clearly sympathetic to the cause of the Popular Unity (the left wing alliance 1970-1973) and bias in material presented show, but this is understandable given the nature of the Pinochet junta and its human rights abuses. From a centrist viewpoint, however, there are some things that should be pointed out - Salvador Allende received only 37% of the vote in September 1970, so the claim that he was 'democratically' elected is quite tenuous - constitutionally, sure. This point is downplayed. The negative consequences of his economic policies (without consideration of the US sanctions) such as 140% inflation in 1972 and a huge deterioration in the country's trade balance, get ignored. Allende didn't just nationalize the land holdings of big agriculturalists, all farms above a mere 80 hectares or 200 acres were nationalized. Experience in countries such as Russia, Ukraine and most recently Zimbabwe show that this is disastrous. Likewise, experience throughout the Eastern Bloc showed that state owned enterprises in a centrally planned economy can't compete with private enterprise and the market system for efficiency, productivity and innovation. If Allende had wanted to redistribute wealth, he could have done it best through the tax and welfare systems which is what all western governments do successfully. But Allende was dogmatic, determined and uncompromising to the end - that comes through clearly.The films clearly show the highly confrontational nature of both sides involved in the 'battle', which was mostly ideological rather than physical, and this is quite important in the understanding of why it all happened, although there are some dramatic 'action' moments too - none less than when a Swedish cameraman is shot dead by the soldier he is filming in the distance, who fires his rifle at him.It all provides good insight into the nature of superpower politics in the 1970s and much food for thought.

So what can I say about "The Battle of Chile"? Well, I have to say that I was very taken away by the series of films put together about what happened in Chile in the 1970's as the democratically-elected President of that country named Salvador Allende was heading for both his and his government's demise and paving the way for a criminal dictator on the rise named Augusto Pinochet. I was glad to have learned about the Chilean perspective on the events from 1970 to 1973 than ANYTHING from an American perspective and it was because the CIA was complicit in having sponsored the bloody coup that had put Pinochet into power for the next 17 years. It is unfortunate that the U.S. had never apologized for what it did to Chile as it had done to other countries for many decades under the excuses of U.S. national security. So I have been impressed with "The Battle of Chile" and I hope you do too.

I first saw this film many years ago, not long after it was made (and not long after the coup in Chile) and have been trying to find a copy of it for years. For anyone interested in Chilean history, it is a must, but it is also a moving and instructive record of how a democractic government can be destroyed. I defy anyone watching the last film in the set, "Chile: the obstinate memory", not to end up in tears as they watch young Chileans, ignorant of much of this period of their country's past, realise how incredibly brave the people of Chile were in this blackest moment of their history.

For anyone interested in left wing politics this ia an essential viewing. It chronicles the attempt to introduce socialism via parliamentary methods in Chile in the late 1960s and until the military coup in 1973. What is most striking is the degree of class consciousness and understanding of the attack on working people shown by the ordinary workers, and the bulk of the DVD concerns the responses of workers and peasants to the developing crisis.Many of those interviewed will have been murdered after the coup.There are many details of the involvement of the US government in initiating the coup.

The Battle of Chile is the documentary story by Chilean film maker Patricio Guzman of the 1973 military and social/political coup, launched by the Chilean establishment and armed forces (and encouraged, aided and abetted by Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger) against Salvadore Allende's democratically elected left-of-centre government. Shot by Guzman from the time preceding the actual coup until after its takeover by the army , the film is rough, intense and explicit in its depiction of the deterioration and collapse of Chile's democratic society. The documentary film and package are excellent and include additional materials beyond the discs that help contextualize the story. I think its a tremendous document for those interested in the development and roller coaster of the postWW2 world. It remains timely today.

Excellent documentary, very objective, let you understand between lines what happened in Chile. Arrived in time and in very good condition. I would really recommend it.

Hard going