Review of the film 'No'.

When 'No' really did mean No'.
Film review of 'No' starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Antonia Zegers. Directed by Pablo Larrain. In Spanish with English subtitles.


   In the 1970's one Latin American country after another succumbed to brutal right wing military dictatorships. Left wing critics claim that these events happened because of 'Operation Condor', a joint U.S. military plan to snuff out democracy all over Latin America.
    Right wingers disagree. "Latin America has often been ruled by generals," they say, "and the U.S. played no part in any anti-democratic plan."
    Whatever the truth, Chile in 1988 was ruled by a brutal military dictator called General Augusto Pinochet. He came to power in 1973 when he and his army overthrew the left leaning government of democratic President Salvador Allende and killed Allende and other leftists besides. Suddenly in 1988 Pinochet decided to hold a referundum on his 15 year rule of Chile.
     The film 'No' is about this referundum.Gaul Garcia Bernal who plays the advertising executive Rene Saavedra sets up the advertisements for the 'No', the anti-Pinochet side. His boss ends up heading the 'Yes' side. "The election campaign is completely fixed," Saavedra tells the co-ordinator of the 'No' campaign.
    Still, Saavedra stays on the campagin although he assumes that Pinochet will fix and win the outcome."The point of U.S. support of military governments," writes Noam Chomsky, "is to crush independent nationalism and popular forces that bring about meaningful democracy."
     But the U.S. did fail sometimes, as did Pinochet. 'No" shows us how. But the movie ends up as a contest between advertising executives namely Saavedra and his boss at the ad agency. Meanwhile the protesting Chilean people, who provided the basis of the 'No' campaign, serve as just a backdrop to the two ad men. And the bearded Saavedra remains a detached observer of the whole campagin, until his wife, played by Antonia Zegers gets horribly beaten up by the police.Maybe that's how all ad executives,  who weigh in on political campaigns, feel and  act. But I found this kind of strange.
     Director Pablo Larrain shot 'No' in a 1983 U-matic videocassette camera. So the film matches newsreel shots of the day and the commercials back then. 'No' is a fine film but it should have included more people from the 'No' side. Not all of these people were politicians or ad company executives.