Advertisement

Movies & TV News & Features

Pax Americana

PAX AMERICANA (Denis Delestrac) Rating: NN


I agree with most of what Pax Americana is saying – really I do. The weaponization of space would be a bad thing, and the nations of the world should avoid sending killer satellites and missile platforms into orbit.

[rssbreak]

It’s the manner in which Denis Delestrac presents his arguments that I can’t abide. His documentary is constructed entirely out of scary what-if scenarios, with interview subjects describing the worst-case outcome of a given process as though it were an inevitable reality. It’s the Dick Cheney approach to speculation: start with the worst possible development, assume it’s already happening and proceed to hump it until your audience wets itself in terror.

Delestrac loads up his documentary with one dire prediction after another, lining up various military experts, peace activists, think-tank talking heads and perennial lefty doomsayer Noam Chomsky to prophesy the extinction of life on Earth if the U.S. doesn’t abandon its pursuit of an effective missile shield – which, by the way, is really an anti-satellite weapon designed to cripple enemy nations’ electronic infrastructure. (The fact that America’s missile-defence shield has yet to be proven effective in any real way is brushed under the rug.)

The interviews are intercut with zippy digital animations of satellites crashing into each other in orbit, ultimately fodder for the argument that a full-on orbital war might clog the Earth’s atmosphere with so much space junk that it could be impossible to get a rocket through the debris. Note the use of “might” and “could” in my phrasing. You won’t find it in Delestrac’s.

Opens Friday (July 2) at the Royal.

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

Recently Posted