‘Battlefield’: Film Review | Tribute 2022

Some of the most powerful and visually emotional films of recent months have been Abortion Rights, the French drama of the sixties. it happens Documentary Jane, About the clandestine network of illegal abortion providers.

Cynthia Lowen takes the opposite approach in her brilliant pro-brain election documentary, Battle field, Who travels in the anti-abortion movement to show reproductive rights activists what they face today. With the subjects’ voluntary participation and without expressing the public’s opinion, the filmmakers go unnoticed at rallies, listen to strategic sessions and interview leaders of the main anti-abortion groups. The results are far from cheap and simple designs. Lowen (documentary director Rapist s network users, On Online Harassment of Women) Angry fans cannot be found, but sincere, media-savvy, well-organized women who have been respected, who have played the long game for years and see victory.

Of course, the documentary is more timely than ever, with an impending Supreme Court decision that will effectively overturn Roe v. Wade should arrive any day. And immersing the film in the anti-abortion movement, intertwined with pro-choice voices, is constantly fascinating. But Lowen’s measured approach also begs the question: how loud should a warning cry for the record be? However, it is sometimes evident. Battle field Muted by charging.

Lowen’s statement as director reveals that he is calling for action in the film, which asks, “How did we get to the end of Roy when 7 out of 10 Americans support abortion? He said the film crew “does not want to dominate America, where women’s lives are at stake for political gain… it means changing the culture, engaging the next generation with the same energy as the anti-abortion movement.” The movie takes a long time to come to the same conclusion. Although it ends with a text that asks for “order”, Battle field It’s never strong enough or contextualized enough to suit Lowen’s goals.

A documentary about political strategy, however, is smart and informative. This approach is highlighted early on, through the audio recording of a meeting between Donald Trump and his adviser Steve Bennon with right-wing Christian leaders 40 days before the 2016 election. Benon says Trump will win or lose the election depending on the election. activity of evangelicals and Catholics.

From there, the documentary advances chronologically to 2020, starting in January, when a bus arrives in Washington, D.C., for the March of Life, where a typical sign reads, “Abortion is a sacrifice to Satan.” The unexpected participants on the bus are college-age women, members of the national organization Students for Life of America. In the interviews, the students are more passionate and enthusiastic than the thinkers, but they speak to one of the main points of the film: that the anti-abortion movement is broader than what the media often portrays. “Are we a bunch of old white people?” asks a young woman.

The group’s president and founder, Christian Hawkins, is one of the film’s two most prominent women. Speaking at the National Pro-Life Summit, he says his team always asks the question: “How quickly can we mobilize students to skip classes to lobby state houses? She’s a lively and persuasive speaker who plans for the “post-roe world,” she says, making it one of the group’s priorities to help mothers.

The film’s other main character is Marjorie Dennfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, a group that helps select lawmakers who, in turn, vote against abortion judges, to create what she calls a “revolution.” . Dannenfelser admits that Trump was the last candidate he wanted in 2016, but when he received the Republican nomination, her group endorsed him for promising to appoint anti-abortion Supreme Court justices. In one of the scenes revealed, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks to the group, bragging about how strong he was “witnessing when I decided not to fill a seat on the ladder.”

All this is clear, but more context could be used. Hawkins says his organization has campus chapters at 1,200 universities and is present in all 50 states, but how big are those chapters and how do they compare to other groups?

The third woman the film focuses on is particularly difficult to measure. Terry Bukovinac, founder and CEO of the group Pro-Life San Francisco, is a self-proclaimed Democrat who believes in equal pay for the sexes and civil rights, but opposes abortion. Battle field You have no idea how this can be differentiated.

Half an hour into the film, the voice of first choice is heard as a woman who became pregnant as a result of rape and had an abortion speaks on the Planned Parenthood election forum. Later, the documentary tells the story of a Texas woman who flies to Colorado during the worst period of the COVID pandemic, when changes to the laws in her state make it impossible to have an abortion close to home. There are some comments from pro-election leaders at Planned Parenthood and the Reproductive Rights Center, though leftists really don’t have more context here than right-wingers.

Since the 2020 documentary and the death of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September 2020, his methodical approach has achieved a certain cumulative power. Anti-abortion figures on camera feel some Supreme Court victory, while pro-abortion viewers are likely to feel the gravity of inevitability.

But the most revealing information comes after that. Denenfelser, speaking about his post-roo strategy, says his group is already mobilized in Arizona and other key battlegrounds to ensure that if or when abortion rights are returned to the states, elected officials will be there. . . In your quiet and unrestrained way, Battle field It provides valuable information that allows the viewer to assess and take some action or not.