Bhutto

There is nothing to see in this movie. Benazir was a corruption queen who looted Pakistan. Stashed corruption money in Swiss bank accounts. She was equally involved in corruption along with her husband Zardari who is known as Mr. Ten Percent in Pakistan for his non stop corruption.

A fascinating story of a woman and a family whose lives, like the Kennedy's in the US took on the dimensions of Greek myth or Shakespeare.

The film-making itself is a little sedate and conventional, and the film feels a bit too much like hero worship (questions about Bhutto's failures and possible corruption are raised, but then raced by without much explanation).

But whatever the complete truth of the politics (I'm no expert on Pakistan, I will admit) there's no question that this charismatic family changed history in Pakistan, with Benazir Bhutto being a truly revolutionary figure – the first female leader of a Muslim country (and one of the very short list of woman to ascend to power on the world stage).

She championed both democracy and equal rights for women, saw her arraigned marriage bloom into real romance, all the while enduring terrible hardships and losses; seeing her family arrested, tortured and worse.

She set an example for a moderate approach to Islam and government that seemed to give hope (to an outside observer at least) for a peaceful, non patriarchal, egalitarian future.

I saw an advance screening of this. I had remembered Duane Baughman producing a play on Robert Kennedy that was surprisingly good, so I checked it out.

There are no spoilers in these comments:

As a typical American unaware of most of what goes on in other parts of the world, I knew almost nothing about Benazir Bhutto. This is a fascinating story not just about her life as a woman in power in a Muslim extremist society, but her entire family history and the history of Pakistan play roles in this film and it's truly engrossing. I highly recommend it.

I've always been fascinated by Benazir Bhutto. It's hard not to be. She was certainly stunningly beautiful. But it's more than that with Bhutto. She was a woman who was elected prime minister of an officially Islamic nation. You could read her calculating intelligence and her steely determination on her exquisitely beautiful face. You can also read there the great tragedy that stalked her family, and her nation.

Bhutto also gave off an air of idealism. Bhutto believed in something bigger than herself, something for which she was willing to sacrifice her life. Sacrifice she did – Bhutto endured prison, and returned to Pakistan from exile knowing the nation she loved so much would probably kill her. It did. But there's great complexity in Bhutto's life, as well. She did some things that were not at all admirable. Her own niece accuses her of murder.

The talking heads in this documentary compare the Bhutto family saga to a Shakespearean plot or a Greek tragedy. It's actually more high opera. Benazir Bhutto was a great beauty who renounced a personal life so she could pursue politics. She realized she would need a man to get over in a Muslim country, so she submitted to an arranged marriage with a very handsome playboy polo player. Bhutto stated publicly that were she not a woman politician in a Muslim country, she would not have submitted to an arranged marriage. Muslim norms prevented her from meeting a man she might fall in love with on her own. As in an opera, she fell in love with the husband her mother picked out for her. Some say he betrayed her by accepting graft; others say this is a political smear.

"Bhutto" the documentary certainly presents the drama of Bhutto's life. Talking heads include her personal friends, her husband, her children, her sister, and her niece. Her friends speak of Bhutto in the most glowing of terms. Exactly because this is the realm of politics, one cannot take anything that anyone on screen says at face value. One thing I wish this documentary had offered was a reliable navigator, an authoritative voice helping me to sort politically expedient comments from solid facts.

The film does provide contradictory voices on the question of corruption. A New York Times reporter insists on the accuracy of the Times' charges of the Bhutto family's corruption. Bhutto's friend insists that her lifestyle was not that of someone with the alleged unlimited funds. Another friend points out that Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's husband, was kept in prison but never convicted.

There's a lot of tragic and regrettable history up on the screen. Pakistan gets a nuclear bomb, fights wars with Bangladesh and India, supports the Taliban, hosts Osama bin Laden. The Bhutto family is depleted by one assassination after another. Benazir keeps trying to get and keep power in Pakistan. Her friends insist that this is so she can build schools, end polio, and provide clean water. Bhutto had other noble goals. She wanted to avenge her father's assassination. She stated that "Democracy is the best revenge." She wanted to serve as a liberatory example to women and girls – while maintaining a public, feminine, nurturing face. She wanted to reconcile Islam and the West, to prove that Islam and democracy are compatible.

The documentary does not linger on horrific aspects of the Bhutto legacy. The Bhuttos, father and daughter, made sure Pakistan developed nuclear weapons and shared that technology with North Korea. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was president of Pakistan during the war with Bangladesh, a war that included massive human rights violations so severe some labeled them "genocide." Bhutto declared Ahmadis "non-Muslims." There was deadly persecution of Ahmadis in 1974, under Bhutto. Benazir Bhutto recognized the Taliban in Afghanistan. She didn't repeal the hudood ordinances.

Pakistan has lots of problems, problems the United States didn't cause. The talking heads in "Bhutto" insist that America's eagerness to stem the spread of communism screwed up Pakistan. But the US was involved in Poland during the Cold War, and Poland did not turn into a country where any prominent person, from Benazir Bhutto to a schoolgirl who just wants to learn to read – Malala Yousafzai – risks assassination.

America didn't cause the huge gap in literacy in Pakistan between women and men. It doesn't promote child marriage or hatred of Ahmadis and Christians. Benazir Bhutto tried to open schools and end polio. Pakistan's schools are now "ghosts" that take government funds and education no one. Polio workers are shot by Muslims who insist that the polio vaccine is an American plot to sterilize Muslims.

Concerned observers often point out that India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh were all created at the same time from the same raw material: the former British subcontinental empire. India is doing relatively well. Pakistan is floundering. Why? One possible explanation frequently offered by geopolitical observers. Pakistan was founded as an Islamic state. Bhutto is shown taking the oath of office; she must swear that she is a Muslim in order to do so. Maybe Pakistan would be better off if it had not been founded on Islam. Maybe Pakistan would be better off if it were a secular state.

Maybe Benazir Bhutto, for all her intelligence, was on a doomed mission. Maybe Pakistan as it exists today is not reformable. Maybe it would take an Ataturk, a Mao, or an Ann Coulter (invade their countries, kill their leaders, convert them) to make Pakistan a place where democratically elected leaders who improve their citizens' lives can peacefully hand over power to a succession of other democratically elected leaders, all of whom die peacefully in their sleep.

I just had the honor and pleasure of attending the screening in Washington DC in the National Geographic Theater.

After opening remarks from Speaker Nancy Pelosi to a capacity crowd of 400+ made up of members of Congress, State, USAID, press and the Ambassador of Pakistan and Benazir's sister we experienced a a film that I think exceeded all our expectations.

Currently playing in London and Pakistan, it is about to be released nationwide in 70 theaters across the US.

Additionally, it will air on PBS in 2011 as part of a Women's Week series of programming.

Judy Woodruff held a Q & A with the Director and Producer and did a write up here: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2010/06/bhutto-doc.html <---go see the trailer.