THE GATE OF HEAVENLY PEACE
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1996 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2
"On the night of June third of 1989, tanks
and armored vehicles of The People's Liberation
Army moved into Beijing and put an end to seven
weeks of peaceful protest."
-The Narrator (Deborah Amos)
The eye opening documentary THE GATE OF HEAVENLY PEACE by directors Richard Gordon and Carma Hinton has the now famous 1989 Tiananmen Square tragedy as its central theme, but actually the movie paints evil across a much wider canvas covering the entire Communist Chinese era. Even if you naively believe that you have kept up with twentieth century Chinese history, I suspect that watching this movie you will be like me and find yourself learning one fascinating incident after another so that you soon lose count. Let me skip to the recommendation of this review and say that this is one of those films that not only will people enjoy, but everyone should see it. When it comes to your area, it will probably pass through like a freight train and then disappear into the night. Keep an eye out for it.
The movie starts with the now famous scene of the unknown student blocking an entire line of tanks with merely his body. This film is about courage, not cowboy style bravado, but strong, dedicated and steadfast determination to insist on democracy and nothing less than democracy. The documentary has a linear structure with flashbacks used to put events in the proper historical perspective.
The student protest movement is shown to have been a long Chinese tradition until Mao came into power. The old newsreel and other film footage are mesmerizing. You can see how natural student protest used to be, plus you see the reverential way students viewed Mao when he first came to power. The irony is that in 1989 students gathered in Tiananmen Square around a monument built by the Communists themselves to celebrate a 1919 student protest at that very spot.
Mao liked a society in constant turmoil declaring, "Chaos can't harm us; it can only harm our enemies." He kept the students churned up against the bureaucrats which solidified Mao's position as the one supreme power. He expected students to stay dogmatically Communist.
The film makes liberal but effect use of talking heads. The directors managed to locate a dozen or so of the key instigators of the Chinese Democracy movement, and each of them prove both articulate and thought-provoking. You get to know these people and thereby empathize with their plight. Wu Guoguang, a former government official, tells us that, "The only option for a pure idealist is to commit suicide." He rejected that approach and so worked his way into the government in order to change it from within. When China opened up to the West, its leaders were hypocrites, explains the narrator (Deborah Amos). "To get rich is glorious said the leaders," but she said only the leaders got rich.
The whole Tiananmen Square episode is shown to be a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. The students firmly, but humbly took their requests to discuss with the leaders of the government, but even kneeling in front of their doors did not help. As student Chai Ling put it, "When we saw our classmates there holding our petition with raised arms, everyone cried."
Not only was protest acceptable from an historical perspective, it was also legal since their constitution specifically gives people the right of freedom of speech. The government, on the other hand, was able to sentence people to seventeen years in prison if they did not like what was being said, ipso facto it was therefore counter-revolutionary and hence criminal. As Wang Dan, who served almost 5 years in prison for these thought crimes put it, "The crime of counter-revolution is very unusual. What is being punished is not your actions but your intentions."
This is reminiscent of the PC (politically correct) movement in American Universities today where students possess complete freedom to say whatever they like unless some group finds it offensive. Students speaking thus can be dealt with harshly and even expelled. Thought crimes are dangerous things and can not be tolerated as Winston Smith learned in NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR.
The People's Liberation Army was idealized and idolized by the people. The government churned out movies, ballets, and many other propaganda devices to make this so. THE GATE OF HEAVENLY PEACE shows many of them. The students believed that The People's Liberation Army truly was their army, so when the tanks rolled and the bullets were fired directly into the harmless crowds, the students were nonplused.
Actually, many students were beginning to have doubts long before 1989. As famous pop singer Hou Dejian put it, "Patriotism and Collectivism are used to make the majority serve the few," and they had stopped believing.
I am not going to tell any more of what happens since the film works as a mystery as well as a documentary. I confidently predict you will be constantly surprised.
To make the film more accessible, it has no subtitles. The people start speaking in Chinese, and then their voices get lower and the interviewer (Carma Hinton) begins to tell us in English what her interviewee is saying. The narration, based on the script by Geremie Barme and John Crowley, is effective and moving without ever being manipulative. They use the story and the interviews to drive the energy of the picture. The careful and seamless editing by David Carnochan and Charles Phied Churchill is beautifully done.
THE GATE OF HEAVENLY PEACE runs 3:00, and as great as it is, it would have been better and more focused at about a half hour less. Movies must be careful when they approach the three hour mark. Better for the show to be widely seen by large numbers of people who know little of the incident than be longer and end up only increasing the knowledge of the already knowledgeable on the subject. The film is unrated, but would probably be PG-13. Although there are some violent scenes, I am strongly recommending the film to anyone old enough to care at all about the subject. Finally, I give it *** 1/2.
**** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: May 4, 1996
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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