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Category:    Home > Reviews > Documentary > War > Armory > Bulletproof Salesman (2008/First Run Features DVD)

Bulletproof Salesman (2008/First Run Features DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: D     Documentary: B-

 

 

The subject of war profiteering is as important to consider as ever, especially since the Middle East situation was exploited for profit at any costs in the last decade when the energy should have been 100% spent on winning the war(s).  That situation has been changed by the Obama Administration for the better, but in the middle of what is still a huge mess, one of the debates has been about armor.  The officers of the U.S. military obviously do not have enough on their vehicles, but the Michael Tucker/Petra Epperlein documentary Bulletproof Salesman (2008) shows how the rich never have to go without protection.

 

That is if they get the best possible vehicles.  Enter Fidelis Cloer, the title character of our examination involving armored vehicles.  He sells to the richest people in the world and when there is war, business booms, yet his vehicles are (he claims and these seem to be demonstrated as such) are superior to competing vehicles on the market.  Some competitors sell cheaper vehicles, but Cloer rightly claims they offer limited protection.  When we see some Italian competitors (Cloer is from Germany) with track/SUV-type vehicles showing off their re-enforcements on the outside, he explains how that is inside and not secured can become a set of deadly projectiles.

 

The 70 minutes wants to at least partly indict Cloer for making money on a bad situation and in his claim “I sell a good feeling” which is called security, but also in the indictment as fun with guns and war.  If anything, some of their intent backfires and makes one wish he was hired by the U.S. to arm more vehicles for soldiers.  If anything, Cloer seems to know more about what he is doing than most and that is the most interesting side of what is meant as at least a semi-damning work.  It is worth a look and does have some interesting moments.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image has softness and motion blur throughout, shot on the fly, but maybe the editing process added image errors or not.  The footage itself is often interesting.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is weak and suffers its share of location audio limits, but talking is usually audible, but be careful of playback levels and switching.  There are no extras.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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