Cold Case Hammarskjöld

Mystery, murder, conspiracy; Cold Case Hammarskjöld has it all. It will draw you to the edge of the seat, make your jaw drop and most likely leave you in awe at the end of the film. If we accept that the goal of this documentary is to call attention to the matters discussed and portrayed in this documentary, then indeed it fulfills its purpose outstandingly. If however it is to be taken as a 'mystery solved documentary', like in the case of The Thin Blue Line (Morris, 1988) , then it fails miserably. Luckily the latter, in my opinion, does not seem to be the case. Therefore I can highly recommend watching this thriller of a documentary. Hopefully the story will receive a part two, because it needs one.

"I believe that we should die with decency so that at least decency will survive." Dag Hammarskjold

In 1961 the secretary general of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjold, died in a plane crash on his way to negotiate peace for a nation torn apart by apartheid. Director Mads Brugger and co-investigator Goran Bjorkdahl in Cold Case Hammarskjold craft a fascinating documentary about that crazy world in which not only does he seem to prove a plot to kill Hammarskjold, he also suggests a military group, SAIMR, is responsible for spread of HIV as a way of eradicating blacks in Africa.

"Only the subject remains noble with this gallery of suspects: It is playing safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity." Dag Hammarskjold

This undeniably interesting doc seems to suggest rightly some of the blame for the death, but the virus motif was as recently as July debunked in part by the New York Times. At least the Times has scientifically cast doubt on any group's ability to spread clinically the virus in a whole population.

As Brugger deftly transitions from the plane disaster to the virus, more bad actors appear, and the Hammarskjold murder takes a back seat, albeit the death can be seen as a strategy to take out a major player in the anti-apartheid movement. Although the motives and characters seem to multiply dazzlingly, Brugger knows how to spin the facts into engaging drama.

See this challenging doc to bone up on your African history and gain some insight into how organizations like the CIA and SAIMR operate and get away with murder. Although Angel Has Fallen beats Cold Case cold in the box office races, it can't get close to beating a doc that keeps you guessing and sometimes really leaves you cold.

"Life only demands from you the strength that you possess. Only one feat is possible; not to run away." Dag Hammarskjold

Cold Case Hammarskjold is not a movie for the faint of heart or uninitiated to complex and hard hitting documentaries, but for this who want a satisfying mystery that will test your brainpower and one that's not only exciting and but also one that's very historically important, especially if what the filmmakers uncovered and discovered came into full effect, how different the world would be today then I can not recommend this movie enough. It has some brutal subject matter that may be disturbing to some, but the twists and just plane insanity of this documentary make it hard to find anything wrong with it. It's a true testament to you "gotta see it to believe it" but it's very true, if Cold Case Hammarskjold end up playing near you, I strongly recommend that you see it.

I really looked forward to seeing this doc, first half was actually pretty dull even though the topic is interesting to me. Of course, I already knew about the "twist" and, sure enough, when we got to that part, the film got much better and more interesting.

But the format of the documentary copied Icarus too much for me not to have alarm bells going off as I watched it. It just seemed...too much...and yet not quite enough.

The revelation in the second half, if it were to be true, would be one of the most monstrous acts any group of people have committed on another since WWII.

But how reliable is the one "witness' to all this? With no additional evidence, just fragmentary clues pieced roughly together, I cannot say.

That's why the framing of the film itself leaves me suspicious.

I'd say that about the first hour of this movie is pretty boring. It's hard to pinpoint exactly why that is, but I found myself trying to stay awake for a long time. I'm glad I did, because once you get to a certain point where he basically talks about some of the flaws of the movie, the movie becomes a whole lot more interesting and entertaining. I would say the movie is worth seeing for the second half, but you really need to be prepared for the first half not being all that great, so it's still hard to actually recommend.