Car Bomb doesn’t know what it wants to be. Part examination of the history of using the car bomb and part advocacy piece, Car Bomb is equally boring to match. As interesting as the history behind the material is, and the actual history where exploding automobiles have made the difference, its choice of host winds up being the exact wrong person to bring out the history behind this all.
Focusing on the use of the car bomb throughout history, from its first documented use by anarchists in the U.S in 1920 to its current use in the war on terror, the documentary is guided by former CIA operative Robert Baer. Baer has some fame in Hollywood, as his memoirs formed part of the basis for the film Syriana and George Clooney’s Oscar winning performance was based off of Baer, and seems to be channeling his 15 minutes of fame into being the man in front of the camera for documentaries.
And as a documentary host he’s a great CIA operative.
Baer isn’t the right guy to be conducting interviews, et al, from the outset for the genre. He doesn’t have the sort of gravitas for the film and it becomes a bit of a painful exercise. Baer seems disinterested half the time and extremely engaged in others; it is if the history behind the car bomb is rather boring but its current use in certain areas of the world seems to intrigue him noticeably. It doesn’t help that the film doesn’t know whether it wants to use subtitles or voiceovers during interviews where the language barrier shows itself. It’s almost painful at times.
Where the film really hums is when it gets into the history behind the use of the car bomb and why it was such a valuable weapon for various factions. This is the real meat behind the documentary but unfortunately the film doesn’t go into this as much as it could. This is by far the most interesting aspect of the film and the film doesn’t spend nearly as much time as it could.
Car Bomb, then, remains a very flawed documentary with bursts of brilliance.
Presented with a widescreen format and a Dolby surround, this would fall into the “perfectly acceptable” category. This isn’t a documentary that requires a brilliant transfer and as such doesn’t have one. Everything of note is clear and clean but not sparkling.
None.
There are lots of great documentaries that have come out in the past couple years. This isn’t one of them.
Disinformation presents Car Bomb. Written and Directed by Kevin Toolis. Starring Robert Baer. Running time: 102 minutes. Not Rated. Released on DVD: November 9, 2010.
