Machuca

Machuca. Dir. Andr�s Wood. Chile/Spain/United Kingdom/France, 2004. 121 min.

What was particularly terrible about Gen. Augusto Pinochet's takeover of the democratic government of Chile on September 11, 1973 was not just the destruction of a constitutional democracy (albeit one that, with the connivance of the United States the right wing had already effectively destroyed). Rather, it was the revelation of the stunningly self-serving myth of several political sectors that Chile was, in fact, a democracy of long standing. Despite enormous class divisions, despite enormous economic disparities, despite a feudal oligarchy coupled with a cynical know-nothing bourgeoisie, Chile was …