Movie Review: The Brink

The Brink *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Alison Klayman 

 

The Brink is one of two documentaries made about Steve Bannon – the former head of Breitbart news, Trump campaign chairman, and White House Adviser for a while under Trump. The other film is Errol Morris’ American Dharma – which, like Morris’ film The Fog of War and The Unknown Known (among others) is made up of a very long interview between Morris and his subject. American Dharma still hasn’t been released (I saw it at TIFF last year) – which is a shame, because it is the better film. It allows Bannon to expose his Nationalist, Nativist, racist views, in the way that he does – wrapped up in language that tries to downplay the more incendiary aspects of the viewpoint, and the rhetoric that Breitbart or Trump uses. Morris pushes back, a little (not as much as he should have, according to some) – but visually undermines him a great deal. It allows Bannon enough space to say what he wants, but also makes it clear to those paying attention how full of shit he is.

 

The Brink takes a different tact. Director Alison Klayman followed Bannon for about a year – after he was ousted from the White House following Charlottesville, during the time when the book Fire & Fury and Bannon’s comments in it making Trump disavow him, and his ouster from Breitbart, and into the political wilderness. During the film, he spends most his time trying to organize behind Roy Moore for Alabama Senate (didn’t work) and to unite the right wing parties of Europe around the just passed European Union parliamentary elections (which happened after the movie ended – and while Bannon didn’t win, the right wing did better than expected).

 

For the most part, Klayman, like Morris, lets Bannon talk without challenging him too much. She is merely watching as he meets with people – and although she chimes in a few times, at good moments, she allows everyone enough room to make their opinions heard. But the meetings and interviews she does document tell you what her viewpoint is – she does keep in several interviews with journalists, who push Bannon on his views, on his use of dog whistles to anti-Semitism. She even allows Bannon himself to point out the contradiction in his rhetoric against elites, and his use of private planes and 5 star hotels when he travels. And she doesn’t let anyone off the hook – if you’re meeting with Bannon, she will let the audience know who you are. If you work with Bannon, and he badmouths you behind your back, that’s here as well.

 

All of this won’t be enough for some people. To some, giving Bannon any sort of platform, allowing him to expose his views to anyone, is too dangerous. Not because they themselves will be won over – but because some others will. I don’t buy that – I do think there is value in showing Bannon in this context – how he works behind the scenes, how he says one thing privately, and another publicly. How he spins the racism on display, and downplays it. And it also shows his effect on others – his Trump @ War film that he himself describes as propaganda, but his fans refer to as just facts, no propaganda. And viewed in conjunction with American Dharma is interesting – as together, they provide more context on Bannon than they do alone. I do hope that American Dharma comes out at some point – it’s a better film than The Brink. But The Brink is a very good film – and shows a different side. If you really want to stop people like Bannon, I do think you have to at least see how they operate.