216. This Is Not A Movie; movie review

THIS IS NOT A MOVIE
Cert TBA
106 mins
BBFC advice: TBA

I admire those who have the bravery to report from the frontlines of war zones.
They tend not to be the types which one would imagine - no macho Jason Statham-alikes here - just writers who believe in the baton of truth.
Robert Fisk is certainly no muscle-bound superhero. Even in his youth, he looked more like a university lecturer.
Nevertheless, he has risked his life to report for British newspapers probably more times than he could count.
Fisk doesn't suffer fools - he is presented as a very serious and principled man who sees good journalism as essential to the wellbeing of the world.
He frets for the future of his industry tells how he played its part in preserving its integrity when he resigned from The Times in the mid-1980s.
Yung Chang's movie gives a light touch through Fisk's career with footage going back to the 1970s but its main focus is on him today.
He has lived in Lebanon for decades and speaks fluent Arabic and French so we see him in his home environment and then in spots of high tension such as Syria and Palestine.
Indeed, he takes one Palestinian back to land which was grabbed from him by the Israelis decades after the pair first met.
This is one of the most poignant moments in a movie which becomes a tribute to one of the world's most well-known reporters.
He is something of a throwback to the days of pads, pens, typewriters and telephone boxes.
And yet since the demise of The Independent's printed newspaper, he is writing for its website, so has to be digitally savvy.
This also means that his journalism is reaching a wider audience in terms of geography and age.
This is good - the more people who read Robert Fisk's work, the better.

Reasons to watch: A rare glimpse of frontline foreign reporting
Reasons to avoid: Upsetting scenes of dead bodies

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating:  8/10

Did you know? Between 2010 and 2019, at least 554 journalists and 49 media workers — a category that includes drivers and interpreters — were killed around the world, according to data collected by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The final word. Yung Chang: "Fisk’s dogged reporting comes through with journalistic integrity intact. The words in the published article tell an urgent and infuriating story. What you’ll never experience, though, is the behind-the-scenes of Fisk’s investigative reporting, the ‘aliveness’ of the scenarios his curiosity threw us into. It was a joy to be part of the fun of his journalistic life." Independent

Share this post