Review of No (2012) by Marzuki A — 27 Jun 2013

Even if it is a fictionalized account of the No campaign of 1988 during Pinochet's plebiscite, this is a pretty damn fascinating and entertaining movie. In many ways I expected the film to be more than it ended up being, but it is still a great movie with a great visual style.

Since it was filmed with a U-matic magnetic tape, the film has that look that news broadcasts in Chile had at this time, so in some ways it adds some realism to the proceedings as it looks like it's a behind-the-scenes look at this campaign rather than something fictional.

They also do some really cool stuff when they get the real people that contributed to this campaign, whether through news broadcasts or commercials or interviews, obviously much older in this film, and then they transition to the actual footage.

I thought that was actually really cool. Since the film does use a lot of footage, that gives the film a lot more weight than it would've otherwise because you can feel that there is a social and governmental change that Chile really needed or else they would face 8 more years of Pinochet's dictatorship with human rights abuses still being rampant.

Another aspect of the film I really enjoyed was Gael Garcia Bernal's performance. He's always been a really good actor so this should be no surprise, but he was great here I thought. And it's completely different than what I was expecting because you're expecting a guy who truly wants to bring change to Chile because of the abuses of power he, or his family, has faced, and his father was exiled, but his character is actually completely detached from the fact that the campaign he's heading is going to change the future of Chile.

He looks at it as if it was just another job and his performance reflects that. It almost is like it never really hit Rene that what he was doing was going to change the face of the country. There's also the fact that he is a citizen that has, in fact, benefited from Pinochet's dictatorship as he is privileged and can afford to buy expensive toys for his son whereas others can't even afford to buy food.

So there's a good contrast between Rene's fairly privileged life and what he's working for with this No campaign. Even if the film was fictionalized, I think it does deal with a very important time in the history of Chile because, even the film made up its drama, I'm sure that when Pinochet allowed this plebiscite to take place I'm sure he had all the intention in doing this just for show and that he'd easily win and he'd continue to rule over Chile.

So the fact that he did lose the plebiscite and would have to turn his country back into a democracy with free and fair elections really has to be considered a historic moment. This film highlights that fight against tyranny, even if it is a highly fictionalized manner, but it is still an excellent movie and it is worth watching.