Steve Bannon: le grand manipulateur

I think Ms Klayman did a triffic job on this documentary. I look forward to her future work. She let the subject speak for himself - in all his abhorrent, idiotic glory. It's scary to see, but we all need to understand how insidious Bannon and his ilk are.

This is ok but if you're interested in Bannon as a subject American Dharma is a much better film.

We follow Steve Bannon though a profanity embedded journey as he first joins Trump during his campaign espousing populist views (using fear/hate to divide the working class) & economic nationalism (a form of greed in which national productivity is pushed as local, but working poor pay w/higher costs for goods/services & wealthy get tax breaks). We follow him as he and Trump support Roy Moore's candidacy for the Senate. Odd contrast as Moore served during the Vietnam War & Trump using a family physician's waiver for what most people have & usually do not notice - a bone spur avoided that service. Next we see his popularity w/Breitbart News talk radio w/backing from very wealthy conservative families, e.g. Gun Wengui (aka Miles Kwok) wanted by the Chinese government for a variety of illegal problems. After leaving Breitbart he goes to Europe to support their unease over immigration by again espousing populism. Finally, a lot more profanity & references to George Soros.

When they say fly in the wall (in the description), they weren't kidding. The documentary goes from event to event with some of Bannon's thoughts, many of the shots don't frame him in a flattering light and the documentarian sometimes has conversations with him in which she challenges him ... but there's no coherent narrative. And maybe that is a useful piece of media in it's own right but it sure is very boring for someone who's only tangentially interested, or something who's looking for some kind of synthesis or commentary. I certainly didn't get that here.

Did I learn much about Steve Bannon? Maybe a little bit. I think I have some sense of what kind of a person he is. But that's about it.

Like many populist supporters hoping for their own identity, Bannon found himself discarded and unable to continue as a hanger-on. Oh well, at least he was able to drain the expense accounts of right wing in Europe (albeit while demoting one of his own staffers of being interested only in the same). This movie has some weak areas, but is worthwhile just for the The Guardian's Paul Lewis' demolition of Bannon, Meloni, and a planted 'translator'. This shows how easily these figures are mismatched against a real journalist even in a rigged venue.