One of the strengths of the HBO documentary Exterminate All The Brutes bringing to light little-remembered events like the early 20th Century Herero Revolt in German Southwest Africa.
I gave it my best shot. Truly.
All four hours of Raoul Peck’s sprawling HBO documentary Exterminate All The Brutes. It is, as I expected, a full-throated indictment of Western Civilization. If you are inclined to believe that the “settler-colonialism” of the West is fundamentally genocidal and evil — and that that is pretty much all Western Civilization has to offer — Peck’s epic work will fuel that perception. And, perhaps, a sense of righteous rage and loathing, properly directed at white males. That’s where the whole thing points.
There are some compelling aspects to Peck’s work. It is enormously ambitious in scale, covering 500 years of history and a vast geography. Events that scarcely anybody has heard of — like the Herero Revolt in southwest Africa — get coverage. There is some exceptional archival footage.
Some of Peck’s techniques hit home. For me, a montage of rarely-seen historical photographs of European men, mostly in Africa and Southeast Asia, smugly leering at and feeling up native women, elicits the kind of disgust that makes you want to reach through the screen and across centuries to punch them in the face. Juxtaposing these photographs with lurid pulp magazine covers depicting wild eyed Black men leering at and/or assaulting white women is quite effective at driving home a certain point about reality and constructed narrative.
Much of the history is quite good (though I have to say, dating the start of the American Revolution at 1763 is either an egregious error or a bit perverse).
I was impressed with the detailed rendering of the Battle of Omdurman in the Sudan in 1898 as a watershed moment in which “whatever happens we have got/the Maxim gun and they have not” played out in the slaughter of a massive Mahdist army. The technological capability of “killing at a distance” enabled the imperialists of the day to hasten what they believed to be the ultimate demise and disappearance of “lesser” peoples.
Of course, Peck makes no mention of the sanguinary cruelties of the early Islamic militants, who were building an empire of their own.
That’s a fundamental weakness of the thesis that Western Civilization is somehow unique in its tendency toward slaughter. Our civilization is exceptionally capable in that arena — because of unprecedented technological advancement. We also have extraordinary capabilities in other technological arenas — medicine for example, or engineering.
As my friend Craig Rullman points out, the thesis can’t account for the likes of Genghis Khan or Tamerlane with his pyramid of skulls. And the narrative won’t account for them.
In the end, Exterminate All The Brutes is undone by Peck’s self-indulgence. It caroms around like a billiard ball, jolting in seconds from the Monroe Doctrine to Hiroshima. There is no context other than the driving narrative, which is that Western Civilization is racist, murderous and evil. That civilization is presented as monolithic, as if there were no cross-currents.
And, again as expected, the native peoples are portrayed entirely as victims, with little or no agency. I’d like to ask Peck who actually killed Sitting Bull and why. He knows, of that I am certain — but the answer doesn’t fit the narrative.
The scripted dramatic vignettes are just dire. Peck deliberately introduces wild anachronisms; to what purpose is obscure. Marilyn walked in on one and thought it was some sort of Monty Pythonesque satire. He puts words into peoples mouths that they never said, and overlays it all with bizarrely out-of-place musical accompaniment. A slaughter of a Spanish shore party in the surf by (presumably) Arawaks wearing board shorts, with a jazz soundtrack. Yeah.
I really lost patience with the depiction of a press conference with (a caricature of) William Tecumseh Sherman, slagging off on “fake news.” Bah! As I told Marilyn, Peck’s self-indulgence renders his serious work silly.
Peck really has it in for the Scots-Irish — and their descendants, whom, we’re told, lead the charge in Second Amendment activism, defending a constitutionally-enshrined guarantee of a right purpose-built to allow white men to kill Indians and keep slaves in check.
So… that’s what Exterminate All The Brutes is. In a sense, it’s an evolution of my Native American history classes at UC Santa Cruz. As with those, I’m not sorry I experienced them, but I can’t recommend the experience, either.
Matthew says
Well, I’m not watching this. I try not to judge what I don’t see but I think this article is proof enough that I can skip this.
I do wonder what goes through the heads of people who make things like this. As you often say man is a killing angel, so why do they focus on the sins of Western Civilization and ignore those of others? It could be racism toward white males. Though it certainly seems deeming to those who they portray as victims. I think a lot of it is the desire to think themselves virtuous without having to go to the trouble of being virtuous.
JimC says
“I think a lot of it is the desire to think themselves virtuous without having to go to the trouble of being virtuous.”
Rick Schwertfeger says
I just read this morning a review of Andrea Lee’s “Red Island House,” a novel about Madagascar, and about the power imbalances there: “First World money in a Third World Country, one of the poorest on Earth.” Reviewer Mark Athitakis says, “Her novel is a savvy exploration of the many ways that plundering is done.” And it includes the effects on the plunderers.
While “Red Island House” may not focus on physical violence, “Lee offers snapshots of rivalries and conflicts WITHIN and across cultures on the island.” (my emphasis added) Athitakis makes a statement the truth of which we may struggle to accept, but which seems to be reality across civilizations and throughout world history: “One person’s paradise is built on somebody else’s back.”
JimC says
Exactly. And most people are desperate to exempt themselves from that complicity. On somebody else’s back.
David Wrolson says
Did he mention the fact that the Sioux were waiting on the west side of the Mississippi River to slaughter the remnants of the Sauk as they fled the aftermath of Black Hawk’s War?
If he didn’t, I am sure he would have if time had permitted.-LOL
JimC says
Right.
Quixotic Mainer says
The reality of history is so complex that it’s simple; “Times were tough and nobody was much of an acceptably postmodern picnic.” But that would make a very short thesis paper or documentary. It also doesn’t allow for pursuing grievances against the ancestors of the victors of ancient struggles.
Works like this always make me thing of a great scene in “Son of the Morning Star”. General Terry gives an exasperated rant about the Sioux claiming a grievance over losing ground that they themselves took as conquerors from other tribes just a few years before that. I’m sure you’ve seen that one, but it’s a great film if you haven’t.
JimC says
Yes indeed. There’s also a scene in HBO’s Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee with Miles confronting Sitting Bull on the same grounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1y_0NfhF9c
Said the Romans to the British Celts, said the Saxons to the Celts, said the Danes to the Saxons and on and on.
Quixotic Mainer says
Wow, that’s a great scene! I’ve read the Dee Brown book, but haven’t seen the movie. I know what I’m doing with my next rainy day off!
It’s definitely a cyclical tale of victor and vanquished. Though, if we’re wrong, maybe Harry and Megan Markle will help me get back all the kine those pesky redcoats drove off.
Greg Walker says
Ken Burns’ recent documentary about Ernest Hemingway reflects the same goals and objectives.
“Great writer – nasty racist mysogonist white man”.
But, as Hemingway wrote “Man can be defeated but never destroyed”.
Great review, Jim.
JimC says
I’ve only watched the first part of the Burns documentary. I’ve got very ambivalent feelings about Hemingway. I love several of his short stories and For Whom The Bell Tolls. The Green Hills of Africa made me want to give him an ass-kicking. His vindictive nastiness toward people who had championed him is truly despicable. That behavior is reducible to the self-loathing that comes with profound alcoholism. What he did to himself and his talent with alcohol makes my skin crawl.
This right here is fascinating…
https://www.thedailybeast.com/novelist-james-jones-showed-grace-in-the-face-of-hemingways-cruelty?ref=home
Lee Logue says
I appreciate your profound and thought provoking comments above…..
Sometimes I feel like being born a child of two fathers.
All of us, black or white, brown or yellow have a common history
of conquest, subjugation or just plain ole disregard for any thing that is
different from the modus that was handed down to us from our ancestors.
Today’s victor may be tomorrow’s conquered. Who is to say what really is right,
moral or expedient?