320 minutes / B&W
Spanish / English subtitles
Release: 1998
Copyright: 1976
Now Restored in 2K!
Please note that the DVD for sale is not restored. The new version will be released on Blu-ray in September 2024.
On September 11, 1973, President Salvador Allende's democratically-elected Chilean government was overthrown in a bloody coup by General Augusto Pinochet's army.
Patricio Guzman and five colleagues had been filming the political developments in Chile throughout the nine months leading up to that day. The bombing of the Presidential Palace, during which Allende died, would now become the ending for Guzman's seminal documentary THE BATTLE OF CHILE, an epic chronicle of that country's open and peaceful socialist revolution, and of the violent counter-revolution against it.
After its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and winning eight Grand Prize awards at other international festivals, when THE BATTLE OF CHILE came to the United States it was immediately hailed by critics as "Spellbinding"1, "Overwhelming"2, and as "An epic!"3
The Village Voice called it "The major political film of our time,"4 and the San Francisco Chronicle "A landmark in the presentation of living history on film."5
Long banned in Chile after Pinochet's coup, only in 1997 could Guzman return to show THE BATTLE OF CHILE there for the first time. CHILE, OBSTINATE MEMORY (included on the fourth disc here) is the extraordinarily moving record of that homecoming, and a fitting conclusion to a "thrilling documentary double feature,"6 "the unusual opportunity to see one film artist sustain an inquiry into the life of a troubled country over the course of decades."7
About the box set: The 4-disc DVD box set includes a 16-page booklet including a new introduction to Patricio Guzman's work by Cecilia Ricciarelli, and Pauline Kael's review of the film. Plus a 22-minute interview with Patricio Guzman conducted by Brazlian film critic Jose Carlos Avellar. Released in 2009.
Links:
Attributions:
(1) Molly Haskell, New York Magazine; (2) Judith Crist, The New York Post; (3) Vincent Canby, The New York Times; (4) Tom Allen; (5) Judy Stone; (6) The Chicago Tribune; (7) Claudia Dreifus, The New York Times
The Battle of Chile
A film by Patricio Guzman, in coproduction with the Instituto Cubano del Arte y Industria Cinematograficos (ICAIC) and Chris Marker
B&W / Chile-Cuba-France / 263 min
(Part One 96 min, Part Two 88 min, Part Three 79 min) on 3 Discs
Spanish w/ optional English subtitles / An Icarus Films Release
© 1975, 1976, 1978 Patricio Guzman
Chile, Obstinate Memory
A film by Patricio Guzman
A coproduction of Les Films d'Ici, the National Film Board of Canada and La Sept ARTE
Color / Chile-Canada-France / 57 min
English & Spanish w/ English subtitles / An Icarus Films Release
© 1997 Films d'Ici / NFBC / La Sept ARTE
UPC # 8-54565-00119-0
Click here for the New York Times review.
“The Battle of Chile, Patricio Guzmán’s 264-minute account of the social whirlwind that engulfed Salvador Allende’s socialist government in the early 1970s, is an epic documentary, an openly Marxist analysis and a stunning exercise in “you are there” vérité.” —J. Hoberman, The New York Times
"Great films rarely arrive as unheralded as The Battle of Chile." —Pauline Kael, The New Yorker
"Not only the best films about Allende and the coup d'etat, but among the best documentary films every made, changing our concepts of political documentary within a framework accessible to the widest audience." —Time Out Film Guide
Select Accolades
In Chile's Atacama Desert, Patricio Guzman studies distant galaxies, ancient civilizations, and the remains of the disappeared.
Patricio Guzmán | 2011 | 90 minutes / Color | Spanish / English subtitles
The story of the landmark legal case against General Augusto Pinochet of Chile, before and after his arrest in London in 1998.
Patricio Guzmán | 2002 | 109 minutes / Color | English; Spanish / English subtitles
Patricio Guzmán (The Battle of Chile) tells Allende's story, from his youth in Valparaiso and his early career, to his presidency of Chile and death during the coup of September 11, 1973.
Patricio Guzmán | 2006 | 100 minutes / Color | Spanish / English subtitles
