Poison DUst (Documentary)
Picture: C+
Sound: C Extras: C+ Documentary: B
We hear all the time about “dirty bombs” (among other
horrors) that terrorists would like to use in The United States. These bombs would add nuclear waste and
other deadly radiation elements to standard bombs, but what if the U.S.
Government is already doing them one better?
Sue Harris is the lead director of Poison DUst, a new 2005
documentary that claims very convincingly that since at least the first Gulf
War back in the early 1990s, The Pentagon and other related military
institutions have been adding metals contaminated with ultra-deadly depleted
uranium (the capital “DU” in the title) by mixing them into the actual shells
of military shells used to shoot and attack opponents.
Not even lead can stop al the radiation (!!!) and soldiers
are coming home sick (if not already sick “in country” in the field of combat)
in what may be the beginning of what we now know as Gulf War Syndrome. Of course, the military has done this before
and the U.S. is not the only one practicing this insanity. The documentary runs about 90 minutes and
could have been longer. The argument is
convincing and evidence, including going back to the first WWII-era nuclear
tests and the pattern that followed with the use of napalm and Agent Orange,
this work hopes to start a movement to find out the truth and get it into the
mainstream press.
Of course, any such work could have the tendency to get
carried away and become ideologically lopsided, but the series of eyewitnesses,
those who claim with some weight to be affected and the many medical persons
interviewed (we have seen Dr. Michio Kaku before) plus the likes of former U.S.
Attorney General Ramsey Clark talking about the situation. It is not the most well-rounded work, though
the DVD extras help, but the fact this was made at all is an achievement and
the kind of key political, medical and vital newsworthy story you will not hear
about until more outside sources push the mainstream media into at least
acknowledging something is wrong. The
more this is ignored, the more people are going to suffer and die, though it is
darkly suggested the government is ignoring the needs of those suffering to
their grave so they do not have to pay medical bills or other monetary
compensation. Just the information
about DU itself is a must see!
The 1.33 X 1 image was shot in various circumstances and
when you add the archival footage (film and video) to the new interviews, you
get a pastiche of analog NTSC formats, some of which are a generation or two
down. With that, it looks good and is
typical of what one would expect from such a documentary work, though
definitely the kind that is independently made and unusual in its look. The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is monophonic at
best and sometimes more compressed-sounding than it should be, due to simple
location audio limits in the older video format. Extras include the trailer to promote the project, a nearly
8-minutes-long piece on DU in Vieques, Puerto Rico and four documents meant for
DVD-ROM use that you can print out. Two
are PDF format only, while the other two can be accessed as simple Word text,
all of which are worth having. Poison
DUst is a must-see documentary in a continuing series of Left-leaning works
with something to say.
- Nicholas Sheffo
