THE BATTLE OF CHILE / LA BATALLA DE CHILE (1975)

Patricio Guzmán’s monumental three-part documentary on Chile’s three-years of popular, if shaky, Socialist/Marxist government under Salvador Allende in the early ‘70s and how it was systematically undermined by forces within (fickle political alliances/old money/the military) and without (international financial institutions/USA-CIA interference) is better known by reputation then by actual viewings.  (Confused with THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS/’65 which only looks like a documentary?*)   It can be a bit tricky navigating all the parties, principles and acronyms, but you don’t really need a scorecard to keep track of speeches and man-on-the-street interviews since the political range falls into three basic camps: Hard Left; Center-Right; Far Right, with Part 1 showing attempts to reorganize newly Nationalized industry, replacing top-down decision-making with ground-up collective ideas (or is it ideals?); while Part 2 tracks the loss of political backing and the military moving from center-right to hard right to coup.  Generally brought out not so much in clear thru lines of action, but in a hit-or-miss fashion according to what footage was captured.  Part 3 far less essential, going back to cover material that could have been in Part 1* though it does have the most magical shot in the whole piece as a man pulls a perfectly balanced cart loaded to the gills seeming to float above the ground, his feet hardly touching the road as he speeds along.  (Not the most memorable shot, mind you, which is obviously the cameraman filming his own death-shot.  Yet another cameraman later ‘disappeared’ by Pinochet’s military.)  Hopefully, a recent restoration (not seen here), will bring the set to new viewers.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *Unconfuse yourself by watching THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS/’65.   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/battle-of-algiers-1965.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Part 3 also contains some unfortunate talk reminiscent of Stalinist scapegoating of Ukraine’s Kulak class during his campaign of mass starvation to enforce farm collectivation policies.