Excellent Review of BREAKING POINT from J.B. SPINS: "Very Highly Recommended"
February 28, 2018
J.B. SPINS - Breaking Point: The War for Democracy in Ukraine By Joe Bendel
Review: Positive
http://jbspins.blogspot.com/2018/02/breaking-point-war-for-democracy-in.html
monday, february 26, 2018
Breaking Point: The War for Democracy in Ukraine
Today, a lot of people are justly concerned about Russian interference in the 2016 election, but they do not seem particularly interested about anything that came before. Where were they in 2014 and 2015? Had America & the West responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine more forcefully, the world might look like a very different place today. Hopefully, it is not too late for Ukraine, if we finally rally to the embattled democracy. Viewers will get a field report on the state of the Ukrainian state & a step-by-step chronicle laying out how we reached this point in Mark Jonathan Harris & Oles Sanin’s invaluable Breaking Point: The War for Democracy in Ukraine, which opens this Friday in New York.
Democracy is a fragile thing. Ukraine won it during the Orange Revolution, only to lose it again due to the new government’s incompetence. Putin’s loyal puppet Viktor Yanukovych was duly elected president in 2010, even though everyone knew he tried to steal the election in 2004. However, that did not mean he could ignore the will of the people. When he refused to sign a trade treaty with the EU, at Moscow’s bidding, the people took to the streets. When he used violence against peaceful protesters, he lost any remaining claims to legitimacy.
That is exactly what the Maidan movement was about. Russian propaganda suggested otherwise, causing doubt in Western media. In contrast, Harris & Sanin reveal the true nature of Maidan through their primary POV figures: an Afghan-born journalist & democracy activist; an investigative journalist badly beaten by Yanukovych’s thugs; a rabbi who became an officer in the volunteer Ukrainian army; & the director of a children’s theater school, who defended Donetsk Airport from Russian invaders. Russia would have us believe they were anti-Semitic militants—and the media bought their propaganda just enough to give it legs.
In fact, Harris (an Oscar winner for Into the Arms of Strangers and The Long Way Home), Sanin & their expert commentators spend a good deal of time analyzing Russian propaganda. Especially galling is the actress who pops up at least 3 times pretending to be a local who duly spouts the Kremlin’s party line. Again, if the media had done their jobs properly in 2014-2015, maybe Putin would have been less inclined to meddle in other nations affairs & perhaps they wouldn’t now have to deal with Trump, who they so vociferously despise.
The point is made that it is far more motivating to be for something good & noble than merely against unpalatable. Despite Ukraine’s various setbacks, Breaking Point vividly captures the idealism & resolution of the Maidan movement. Hope is not dead in Ukraine, it is just getting shelled daily by Russia. Watching this documentary confirms the strategic significance of Ukraine as a line in the sand. If it falls, it would be a decisive loss for constitutional democracy & a major victory for Soviet-style kleptocracy. Somehow, Breaking Point is both inspiring & disheartening in equal measure, but it should be required viewing for anyone who cares about the future state of the world. Very highly recommended, Breaking Point opens this Friday (3/2) in New York, at the Cinema Village.
Labels: Documentary, Euromaidan, Ukraine