Practically Political In Every Way (3/4) By Jo Allison

(1/4), (2/4), (3/4), (3/4).

During this time 150 bands and 1250 music artists played across the globe to tell people not to give their money, but instead, to give their name. With the help of emotionally electric sets from U2, Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney, over 30 million people from all around the world gave their names for the Live8 list which was presented to our Tony. This musical demonstration couldn't have made it clearer what we expect from the politicians of our generation.

After Live 8, the leaders did take steps to increase aid and cancel debt for some of the poorest countries in the world, and they also agreed to look at damaging trade policies when they meet later this year and next. However only time will tell if this musical summit was actually historic or not. Its not just our ears that politics has musically invaded, it has our TV, cinema and theatre screens as well. Film screens have recently been inundated with Hollywood stars showing their slightly more political tendencies, The Constant Gardener, Tsotsi, Crash, to name a few. Recently one film, which has been acclaimed for its political content, is Syriana.

There's nothing like a torture scene to let you know who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, (if only politicians were so easy to decipher). There's a pretty full-on torture scene in Syriana, with an American CIA agent (George Clooney) being tortured by an Arab, a loaded political statement it would seem.

This film is already famous for being provokingly liberal, and the whole film, may be inspired by the Valerie Plame affair of 2003, in which Bush administration officials allegedly leaked Plame's identity as a CIA agent to the press in retribution for her husband Joseph C Wilson, a US diplomat, who criticised the Iraq war. What complicates the political plot is writer-director Stephen Gaghan's reluctance to criticise America too much, he holds a kind of complacent political correctness. Even a film trying to give an unbiased view about politics cannot be totally fair, Good Night and Good Luck is another such example.

Anti-Communist crusader Senator Joseph McCarthy rose to prominence in the early 1950s with the accusation that 200 Communist Party members were employed in the United States government. When attacked for his methods of badgering witnesses, making false statements, and promoting hysteria, he responded that his attackers were allied with international communism. So who brought down McCarthy? A popular impression at the time was that Boston attorney Joseph Welch did so. However, Good Night, and Good Luck, directed by George Clooney, corrects that impression.

Good Night, and Good Luck uses tapes from the past, however the film seems relevant to events of the twenty-first century, when detainees are being held in various locations without the benefit of counsel. In America the press prefers to cosy up to political authorities in Washington rather than taking a critical stance, and television entertains with scandal and trivialities. For a window into the past from which to view the present the Political Film Society nominated Good Night, and Good Luck for an award as best film expose of 2005. Politics however isn't always so eloquently handled by the media, and has also leaked into the tabloid inspired trivial television programmes such as 'Big Bother' and 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here"

Continued...... Next Page (4/4)

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