Corona Cork Film Festival - The War On Democracy

In his second inauguration address, President Bush pledged to bring democracy to the world. In a speech lasting 23 minutes, he mentioned the words ‘democracy’ and ‘liberty’ twenty-one times. Most of the world, it is fair to say, will have recoiled, many in fear…

Bush’s speech was significant because it finally emptied noble concepts like democracy of their true meaning –
government, for, by and of the people. Never before have people in the west shown such disenchantment with the democracy they vote for and the version they get. Never before has most of humanity registered such alarm at the ambitions of a great power.

The War on Democracy demonstrates the brutal reality of the America’s notion of ‘spreading democracy’; that, in fact, America is actually conducting a war on democracy, and that true popular democracy is now more likely to be found among the poorest of Latin America whose grassroots movements are often ignored in the west.

The message of John Pilger’s latest film is a constant theme in all his work: that great, rapacious power is far from invincibleand that people power is enduring.

[This is] powerfully argued stuff, benefiting from a warmly sympathetic interview with President Hugo Chávez, counterpointed by the pantomime creepiness of representatives of the CIA and their ilk... Heartfelt, sincere, and often enlightening viewing. – The Observer