Propaganda
(2013 English Translation/North Korea/MVD Visual DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: C+
Showing
that you never know what you might land up seeing besides the usual
outright stupidity, we have Propaganda,
a 2013 English translation of a documentary allegedly smuggled out of
North Korea telling the viewer (the majority of the isolated North
Korean people) how the West is evil and they use something called
propaganda to stay in power. Of course, this is a very slanted work
and from the many things I know about geopolitics, I believe it to be
authentic. If not, those who made it are not fans of North Korea.
Running
96 minutes, the work seems like an act of desperation by the country
which squeezes much into its screen time. It starts by attacking
America, then moves onto Israel (!?!) as evil by saying they abuse
The Holocaust (this is never a very original work) to keep power,
then make the equivalent of a racist statement by saying Jewish
people lived in harmony for centuries among Arabs and only because of
America, the founder and the man who would be the first Prime
Minister of the country and the rich Rothschild family, Jews
suddenly wanted land.
That is among the many slips that shows it too is propaganda and
labeling itself as an expose on propaganda does little to inoculate
it from the slanted document it is.
Another
twist is how it manages to coddle and avoid criticizing anything Arab
or Islamic, all the way to misidentifying the three Semite religions
it says are manufactured by The West to control the world. In real
life, it is Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but this is twisted into
Judaism, Christianity and Catholicism, despite the fact that
Catholics are Christians too. The agenda of annihilation and making
The West as feared as possible is non-stop, no matter how inaccurate.
After
more of its so-called history lesson about WWI, WWII, Vietnam and the
division of Korea in two (they refer to South Koreas as limp-wristed,
so why would they want reunification if they are so bad?), they move
onto their ideas of Globalization, World Economy and after many ugly
visual moments, an unintentionally funny segment where they attack
U.S. Pop Culture (though it has some ugly, bloody footage of its own)
where they really fall on their face and seem clueless. Despite the
flaws, it has moments worthy of Triumph
Of The Will,
Battleship
Potemkin
and other propaganda classics if not as consistent, but it is more
effective than the usual KKK/Arian Nation formula. They know not to
take on Arabs, but can they think Arabs,Islam and Islamic Extremists
would be their allies? This one is worth a look, especially those
interested in politics.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image has its mix of old and new
footage, but it is in decent shape, consistent in its editing, but
nothing too much more impressive. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 sound
is simple stereo at best, but to make this more amusing, a woman with
a British (or Australian) accent translates throughout and that makes
it even funnier unintentionally.
There
are no extras, but this is more than enough.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
