We Are Many (2014)

We Are Many This documentary is a heavily edited collection of interviews and footage from during the time period of the invasion of Iraq. The documentary is a strong piece that shows the build up to the invasion with a countdown by months, which creates a powerful effect of impending doom, and even though I knew what the outcome was, the documentary set up events as though there was hope and I even found myself gutted by the end, even though I already knew what had happened. The documentary attempted to create a strong and informative set of events that shows and tells the audience of the struggles of those who opposed the war and their efforts to prevent such a disaster. I feel that any audience member who would watch this film could find enjoyment and benefit with educational motives, due to the focus on hope rather than despair of failure, by learning from the invasion of Iraq to prevent further wars. The documentary is a quick paced countdown to the invasion of Iraq; it sets up a strong theme of defiance against government acting on their behalf without consent. The film has high points and massive downs, not of quality but of the struggles experienced by the protesters. This film has many interesting points such as the individuals involved in the documentary such as the future leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn who was a strong activist in the opposition to the Iraq war, another individual was the business entrepreneur Richard Branston, and even the American actor Danny Glover who appeared in a brief clip. The central focus of the attempt to prevent the invasion of Iraq created an effect of showing large numbers of crowds storming the streets in peaceful protest; the effect is created by the underlining theme of hope that seeps through the footage every so often keeping the audience invested. The overall quality of the footage often seems to create a bleak reality, and this was just unfortunately the real mood during that year of constant protesting. The quality of the sound and the limited capacity of high quality cameras during that time period made it difficult to offer high quality footage with perfect sound available for the documentary. I felt after watching this documentary that is played on the emotional tone of the subject matter, which I actually liked, mostly because it didn't shy away from creating an emotional narrative with actual footage. The set up to use a countdown of months and days to constantly remind the audience that the war is coming closer and closer, but the theme always reverts back to hope, even when the invasion occurs and the details are shown of that particular war and the devastating results of civilian crossfire. The documentary reflects on the numbers with a heavy emotional focus, this ultimately creates a sense of dread and immense failure, even though I already knew the outcome, the style of the documentary shows the mind-set of the protesters before the invasion and thrives on the theme of hope, to create a larger blow when it finally happens. But the even with the horrors of the war shown to the audience, the hope once again rises through the despair and shows that the values learnt from the experience was able to prevent the bombing of Syria and ends with the staggering statistics of the war, the number of deaths, property damage and national debt, which was in the trillions.