DISARM - DVD review

At an International Red Cross clinic in Kabul, the manufacture of artificial limbs remains one of the country's few steady industries. Thousands of victims of landmines are fitted with new arms and legs each year, and that's only the beginning. As Dr, Alberto Cairo testifies, the need for follow-up visits, physical therapy and other medical services greatly eclipses the resources available.

"Disarm," a documentary directed by Mary Wareham and Brian Liu, takes a global approach to demonstrate the staggering cost in human suffering caused by the planting of landmines. Landmines are weapons of limited military use that kill far more civilians than enemy combatants. According to the film, 86% of all landmine victims are civilians, and 15,000-20,000 people per year are killed or wounded by them.

Many activists have led the fight both to defuse and remove old landmines and to ban the use of new ones, most famously Princess Diana in the 1990s. In 1997, Jody Williams shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the ICBL (International Campaign to Ban Landmines), and she is one of the most eloquent speakers in the film. The ICBL helped pass the Ottawa Treaty which called for a complete international ban on landmines. While more than a dozen countries have signed the ban, many of the world's largest military powers have refused to do so including, unsurprisingly the United States along with China, Russia and others.

The rationalization from the American perspective is that landmines are essential not only to national safety but to the safety of all of the countries throughout the world that we protect, and that banning landmines would place them all in mortal danger. There's also the fact that the U.S. has a stockpile of millions of landmines that it not only wants to make full use of, but most likely wouldn't want to spend the considerable money required to defuse them all.

"Disarm" is not, however, a film that merely targets America for blame. Wareham and Liu's critic is far-reaching, and they visit many locations including Myanmar (where the filmmakers had to shoot clandestinely), Afghanistan, Iraq and Colombia. In one of the film's most memorable scenes, Bosnian workers search for landmines to defuse, and we find out that many of the mine-seekers are actually the people who planted the mines in the first place. After all, they're the ones who best remember where they've been placed.

Co-director Brian Liu, also a photojournalist, serves as cinematographer on the film and his fine eye for landscape transforms "Disarm" into something more than just an earnest activist film. There's a sharp contrast between the ugly horror of landmines lurking just below the ground and the beauty of some of these locations. The film also never sinks into exploitation even when focusing on the mutilated victims of these weapons of mass destruction. Interviews are used sparingly, and the film is well-paced, allowing viewers time to look as well as to listen. It's certainly never boring.

Though there are a few signs of progress, there's little in the film to suggest that the problem is going to go away anytime soon. As long as the world's major powers cling to flimsy excuses to justify their refusal to ban landmines, these decidedly un-smart bombs will continue to destroy civilian lives while doing very little to actually protect troops or the countries they defend.

VIDEO

The DVD is presented in a 1.78:1 wide-screen format. The transfer is a solid, and I have no complaints about the image quality.

AUDIO

The DVD is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. The DVD is clearly intended to be used as an activist tool because subtitles are provided in English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

EXTRAS

The DVD includes a director's commentary and 40-minutes of Deleted Scenes. Combined with the multiple subtitle options, this is a very strong package from Indiepix Films.

FILM VALUE

"Disarm" is passionate call to action. Unfortunately, it appears that hardly anybody is listening. That's not a flaw of the film, of course, but after watching these well-argued, well-crafted movie, it's dispiriting to think that nothing meaningful is going to change until countries like China, Russia and the United States get on board with the program. To date, there isn't even the slightest hint that this is going to happen. "Disarm" is a fine documentary; I just wish it could provide a little more sense of empowerment.

You can learn more at: www.disarmfilm.org