This is a truly fascinating but deeply flawed 6-part documentary on, it would appear, the strained relations between the individual and the collective, particularly in our media-dominant world. I say 'it would appear' here because one of the many huge flaws of this series is that it's never really clear what is supposed to be the organising theme or structure that brings together all of its disparate stories, told much like those of a rambling uncle at a family gathering: heavy in the bloodshed and drama but vague when it comes to making meaningful points or revelations.
Of all of the auteur's documentaries this is perhaps the best served by wonderful and evocative (and often very rare) historical footage - but it's also his least coherent, most repetitive, most rambling, worst structured and most indulgent. Driven by a kind of 'I told you so' tone, it nevertheless tells us little that is not already well known (about Chairman Mao's revenge-driven wife, about the moles that infiltrated and diverted the Black Panthers from their rightful aims), and has such an odd obsession with central characters that end up committing suicide that perhaps that could have been the theme (the weight of disappointment and disillusion), were there just two and not 6 sprawling episodes to wade through.
And therein lies the problem. The excesses of capitalism (one possible theme) are only mirrored by the excesses of the production itself, on whose cutting room floor the auteur would be able to eat his dinner. Was nothing left out, cut back, clipped and trimmed in order that an overall narrative could be glimpsed and followed?
If we are, as the series appears to argue, enslaved by invisible forces (the internet being only the latest of same) surely a production like this has a responsibility to clarify, to risk detail and precision and conclusion and not to simply hop from subject to subject (many admittedly very interesting) as if the virtuosity of the research and the vitality if the performance was sufficient reason for the show to go on. It's not.
Of all of the auteur's documentaries this is perhaps the best served by wonderful and evocative (and often very rare) historical footage - but it's also his least coherent, most repetitive, most rambling, worst structured and most indulgent. Driven by a kind of 'I told you so' tone, it nevertheless tells us little that is not already well known (about Chairman Mao's revenge-driven wife, about the moles that infiltrated and diverted the Black Panthers from their rightful aims), and has such an odd obsession with central characters that end up committing suicide that perhaps that could have been the theme (the weight of disappointment and disillusion), were there just two and not 6 sprawling episodes to wade through.
And therein lies the problem. The excesses of capitalism (one possible theme) are only mirrored by the excesses of the production itself, on whose cutting room floor the auteur would be able to eat his dinner. Was nothing left out, cut back, clipped and trimmed in order that an overall narrative could be glimpsed and followed?
If we are, as the series appears to argue, enslaved by invisible forces (the internet being only the latest of same) surely a production like this has a responsibility to clarify, to risk detail and precision and conclusion and not to simply hop from subject to subject (many admittedly very interesting) as if the virtuosity of the research and the vitality if the performance was sufficient reason for the show to go on. It's not.