Agents of Chaos

Just in time for another chaotic and frightening U.S. presidential campaign, Alex Gibney delivers an all-too-timely reminder of how the Russians tried to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election, sow discord and division, and promote Trump. Having established in Part 1 who the Russian saboteurs were (including Russian military intelligence, the GRU), Gibney and his extensive team of investigators focus this two-hour Part 2 episode on what happened in the U.S. Follow the money and the power plays. Watch Trump's sleazy campaign manager Paul Manafort in action, bouncing between Russian oligarchs, the Ukraine, and the world of Trump Inc. It's painful but riveting viewing for any patriotic American.

Sad story about where we are heading. Polarisation of the world just so the narrative will suit a few.

I loved Alex Gibney's documentary on Scientology.

His documentary on Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos was on shakier ground but still very compelling because of the sheer mountain of documentation and interviews detailing the funny business.

This "expose" on Russia's influence on the 2016 US elections is a huge comedown.

First, the positives. Information on Vladimir Putin's hold on power, is thorough. The network of Russian operatives successfully planting misinformation on world events is given some time, mostly well spent.

The "tell" - the turd in the punchbowl - comes 45 minutes into the first episode: Gibney, in his own voice, pushes the theory Putin put into play interfering in the US Presidential election because Hillary Clinton would be too tough on Putin and Russia, based on Gibney's perception of Hillary's supposed toughness as Secretary of State.

The next few minutes has Gibney talking about Trump using the very early perceptions from the Pundit Class in 2015. Five years from then through today, with perspective, fails to change his tone.

It falls apart from here.

The biggest "name" interviewed is John Podesta, one of the senior members of the Clinton campaign. That's fine; a mature viewer can clean something from Podesta.

The rest of the "experts" interviewed are ex-ambassadors, career low level bureaucrats, and tech folks who, while in government, were clueless as to Russian doings, if true, but often sounding like papering over their resumes and spinning tall tales for future work. THESE folks sound today like they knew all these alleged doings all along.

How can Russian operatives be so sloppy and yet so brilliant at the same time? For the last 3 1/4 hours, Gibney never asks, and no one has the answers.

Discussions on this may fill time on the twitterverse and on Cable talk shows, but it's empty talk.

Gibney lowered his standards to weave a story that is only somewhat true in a limited way It fails to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

"Agents of Chaos" (2020 release; 2 parts of 115 min, each) is a documentary about what Russia's been up to relative to the US elections in 2016. As Part 1 opens, we hear from the Editor-In-Chief of Russia Today, the state-run TV channel that is the master of disinformation. "That is how democracy is supposed to work", she smirks. In a voice -over, director Alex Gibney ponders: "if there is one clear conclusion from Special Counsel Mueller's report, it's that Russia interfered. But how did that work exactly?", and with that, we dive into the first of two topics that Gibey looks at in Part 1. First we get "Trolls", where Gibney examines in excruciating detail the humble origins of the infamous troll factory IRA in St. Petersburg, focusing on massively spreading disinformation into Ukraine in late 2013/early 2014, and eventually directing its attention to the US. One of the Russian talking heads interviewed for this calls it the "carousel of lies". The second topic is "Hack", where Gibney looks at how Russia relentlessly hacks into computer systems and data banks, including of course the DNC...

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from director Alex Gibney ("The Armstrong Lie", "Going Clear: Scientology and the prison of Belief"). He is without a doubt one of the more prominent documentary filmmakers of this generation, nothing short of the gold standard. Here he directs his attention to what Russia has been up to relative to spreading disinformation and hacking data banks. It is frankly utterly depressing to see how easily it all has been done. Interestingly, in this Part 1 pf the documentary, Trump is barely mentioned (the Trump campaign's interactions with Russia will be assessed in Part 2 of the documentary). "Was the IRA troll factory pro-Trump?", asks Gibney to one of the US experts interviewed for this. "It was anti-America", is the devastating response. And Gibney doesn't let off the Obama administration easily, calling into question why not more of what it knew in 2016 about the Russian tolling and the hacking was revealed to the American public." To anyone who is drinking the Trump Kool-Aid by the gallons, this documentary will of course be deemed "fake" and a "hoax", but the nuanced details with which Gibney and his team reveal what is going on show differently. That is why this documentary is utterly depressing yet must-see.

Part 1 of "Agents of Chaos" premiered earlier this week on HBO earlier this week, and is now available on HBO On Demand and other streaming services. Part 2 will follow very shortly. If you have any interest in understanding how Russia is meddling with our democracy, without any fear of retribution, I'd readily encourage you to check it out, and draw your own conclusion.

This documentary hits all the important points of Russia's involvement in interfering not only in the Ukraine, but also in the 2016 election in its myriad of ways. It paints an accurate picture of Putin and Russia's cunning propaganda campaigns. It also lays a lot of honest blame on government officials and media where it is deserved.

I only give it 9 stars because it could have been more detailed about how Russia interferes all over the West with its propaganda campaigns. There is an equally important story how Russia is generally trying to undermine the democratic West, so Putin doesn't look so bad being a dictator.