FILM
THE COMING WAR ON CHINA ★★
(No classification) Selected cinemas (113 minutes)
John Pilger's new documentary The Coming War on China ought to be a film of urgent interest, given the not insubstantial possibility that the war in question might wind up killing us all. But even by Pilger's standards, this is a vague, blustery polemic, wandering from one subject to another in a disorientating way.
As with Michael Moore's Where To Invade Next, the title is deliberately misleading. Though a portion of the film was shot in China, Pilger has little of substance to say about the current political situation there – and though he supplies a brief history of racist US attitudes towards the Chinese, his real interest lies in mounting a broader critique of American foreign policy in the Pacific and beyond over the past half century.
Roughly a quarter of the running time is devoted to the US nuclear tests conducted at Bikini Atoll after World War II, and to claims that islanders were used as "human guinea pigs". This ghastly, shameful episode merits a feature documentary of its own: in fact, one was made a few years ago, Adam Horowitz's Nuclear Savage.
But it's unclear what Pilger hopes to gain by retelling the story at such length, besides reminding us of the devastation wrought by nukes and of the US government's capacity for evil – two subjects which most of his viewers probably don't need to be persuaded about.
It's possible to agree with much of what Pilger has to say and still find him unpleasantly smarmy and holier-than-thou, invariably editing his on-camera debates with authority figures to give himself the last word. He's not someone you go to for film art, or for subtlety of any sort: his idea of an ironic flourish is using America the Beautiful as the soundtrack for a montage of nuclear explosions.
That said, a willingness to belabour the obvious can be a virtue, especially when the obvious truths in question are the kind we might be tempted to forget – such as the literal meaning of the phrase "nuclear winter", and the disconnect between rhetoric and action evidenced in the US nuclear weapons program under former president Barack Obama.
Two years in the making, the film in one sense has been overtaken by events: Pilger clearly didn't see the US election result coming, which possibly lessens his credibility as a prophet.
John Pilger will take part in a Q&A; at Cinema Nova after a screening of his film from 6.30pm on Friday, February 10. The Coming War on China will screen on SBS TV in April.