Writer / director Jean-Philippe Tremblay’s constructed a highly persuasive chronology of how America’s hallowed tenet of a free, unbiased press – enshrined in the U.S. Constitution – is on its way to a minor clause.
Critics will likely brand the film as socialist propaganda, but Tremblay swiftly builds his case using publicized incidents where a journalist’s freedom to investigate and report the truth was quashed, ridiculed, or suppressed. Articulate testimonies by the affected – including former CBS reporter Roberta Baskin – also illustrate the gradual commoditization of news as just another commercial product, if not journalists being branded with sponsor logos and strict reporting guidelines.
None of this is a magical revelation, but Shadows is an affecting warning to any small town and major city to beware of the trends that signal when a monopolistic bully is on the loose. Tremblay’s use of sounds, music, and gorgeously shot images (on the Red camera) make Shadows quite slick, but there’s plenty of disturbing substance in this unsettling visual essay.
© 2012 Mark R. Hasan
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