Ron Smith: A New Documentary In An Old Tradition

However, much of Home is of a significantly different character. It stands in an infamous tradition of propaganda films that set out to rally public sentiment via the attachment of emotions. In this, absolute conviction about the rightness of the cause washes away any qualms about the methodology. As Lenin would have had it, the end justifies the means and the end (in the case of Communism) was unquestionably good. In the case of Home, the cause, as Arthus-Bertrand and his supporters see it, is immediate action to deal with the problems of the planet: injustice, environmental degradation, poverty …and all exacerbated by the imminent disaster of global warming, which turns out to be his major focus.
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The methodology of Home is sadly familiar: a nearly two-hour torrent of exaggeration and downright lies and all beautifully, almost mesmerizingly filmed. But is this latter feature a virtue that can stand alone? Can a film built around the presentation of untruths be justified on the grounds that it is visually stunning? Leni Riefenstahl’s 1935 Triumph of the Will has been said to be a masterpiece of documentary film making but we do not appreciate it in that way because of its subject. Propaganda that is exquisitely produced is nonetheless propaganda and it is the more dangerous for it.

June 4, 2009: Al Gore issues 24-hour Clarion tweet for ‘Home’

The commentary, narrated by Glenn Close in English and Salma Hayek in Spanish, was edited by 2007 Nobel-prizewinner Al Gore and famed environmentalist Lester Brown.