Our Brand Is Crisis

I'm sometimes asked why I enjoy foreign films, documentaries and independent cinema. The answer is simple, I love learning most things international, and I'm always in search of a different perspective. And you should already know, I have little use for a Hollywood blockbuster.

The documentary "Our Brand of Crisis" is a wonderful example of what gets me excited. It archives the behind-the-scenes strategy of a presidential campaign in the Latin American country of Bolivia. The American consulting firm Greenberg, Carville and Strum (GCS) has been hired to assist a former Bolivian president ('93-'97) in winning the 2003 election. The U.S. raised and educated candidate, Gonzales "Goni" Sanchez de Lozada demonstrates little concern for the people. At first Goni is seen by most voters as being cold and arrogant and one who takes no responsibility for the mistakes made in his earlier term in office. GCS coaches him, monitors the polls, produces negative ads against the front-runner and uses test-groups in their quest to win the election. The polls slowly begin to turn thanks to the skills of GSC. At one point, even the U.S. Ambassador throws a road block in Goni' campaign.

This gritty film swings the door wide open on the honest feelings of people during political strife, even as they hold onto hope for a better tomorrow. As GCS frequently conducts focus groups with average citizens to obtain their feelings about the candidate and the issues, you find yourself becoming part of the election. The documentary goes a step further by returning to Bolivia at different times after the election. The results clearly define the hazards of exporting American-style campaign strategy abroad.

If you enjoyed the Oscar nominated documentary, The War Room, a behind-the-scenes look at a 1993 U.S. political campaign, this film should not be missed.

9 of 10. This documentary has gotten better and more insightful and relevant without changing a thing.

I had forgotten about it until the recently released 2015 film by the same name. That film is more of an action/suspense/comedy version that should be enjoyable by everyone regardless of whether they're into the hidden secrets of politics.

Besides capturing the actual crisis and disaster that happened in Bolivia with the aid of what amount to marketing and advertising gurus for hire recklessly selling a candidate without regard to who the candidate is or what they are capable of.

The elephant in the room, alluded to but never addressed specifically, is that Bolivia is one of those countries targeted by the "war on drugs". The campaigners didn't think to ask why their group was bought and brought in for this particular candidate as opposed to one of the others.

Today's brand: Yes Your Country Can be Taken Over by Focus Groups.

Want a reminder of why so many people around the world think Americans are clueless, ignorant and narrow-minded? Go see "Our Brand is Crisis." Rachel Boynton seems shocked that Bolivians use modern campaign techniques: polls, focus groups, etc. Who would have thought, huh? I have news for Boynton: they also have highways, email, television and movie theaters. Yes, I know it must come as a shock to you.

The whole tone of the film is so patronizing (poor little people being helped by big-shot Americans) I cringed most of the time. At the movie theater where I saw this film there were many South Americans and once the lights went on, I could see them rolling their eyes and hear their comments: shallow, patronizing, clueless. I could not have agreed more.

The film maker and movie are NOT patronizing in any way. The only patronizing is done by the GCC (consulting agency which James Carville is a member). For the most part, it is a great inside look into political campaigns and the consultants who run them. Although campaigns are mostly a game to GCC, it shows how who wins or loses can have serious consequences. Even though some of GCC may be sobered by the end of the movie, they state that they would probably not change their practices.

Unfortunately, the film maker does little to challenge GCC and its members which state that they support democratization and globalization - as if one has anything to do with the other. In fact, one of the members of GCC states that maybe Bolivian's didn't want democracy because they reject globalization. The film maker does nothing to challenge this view. As a result, the film maker missed an extremely important part of the story.

This is one of the least compelling documentaries I've ever watched. I was going to just pop onto IMDb and vote 2 and leave. But when I saw the number of positive reviews, I felt I must have missed something, so I watched it again. But was revealed nothing new from the first viewing.

The first purpose of a documentary is to inform, to reveal information not yet known to the public, or to present old information in a new light. There is also propaganda that passes for documentary... this is closer to propaganda than to documentary. We herein learn absolutely nothing about the socio-political context of Bolivia, the presidential elections are presented outside of any factual reality context. The documentarist seems to view the election process within a vacuum.

I suppose there are youth who watch this movie, who are inexperienced enough to not realise that electoral victories are purchased with money and statistical analysis of critical demographics, but the rest of the adult world already knows this. If this documentary was meant for those youth, it would have had to spend a little less time watching boring speeches, and more time giving a bit of context and history.

As for the adults watching this, there is simply no content, nothing that we all haven't already experienced in North America. In fact, the documentarist, more than any other sentiment, seems to side with the consultants, asking non weak questions, observing them doing what the candidate pays them for, without questioning their presence, their cost, their previous achievements, and the expenses/actions of the other candidates. No history of Goni is presented, he looks like an idiot, behaves like an idiot, and the documentarist does not question any of this.

What's the point of this documentary, it has no world context, no Bolivian context, no N.American context. Frankly it looks almost more like a sales pitch for those poor "good guy" consultants than anything else. Hire us, we'll get you elected... This is neocon propaganda disguised as "unbiased" docudrama. Blah