Don’t believe the hype. Despite winning Best Picture, Ben Affleck’s vapid Hollywood leanings lead Argo into ludicrousness. No, the Oscar-nominated fictionalization of the real-life ad campaign to convince the Chilean people to overthrow the brutal Pinochet regime via the ballot box, is far better art. Nonetheless, a smidgen of Hollywood slickness might have made it better still.
A few monhts after a 1973 coup, junta leader General Augusto Pinochet became Chile’s president, heading a government that would come to be known for brutal oppression of political opponents—torture, murder, “disappearances.” His government achieved a façade of legitimacy via a 1980 plebiscite in which the Chilean people supposedly ratified the Pinochet-proposed constitution. But that constitution called for a 1988 referendum on Pinochet’s government. Which brings us to our tale.
No centers on the ad campaign—and that’s exactly what it was—to get the populace, which had by then suffered from 15 years of state-controlled media and “a process of learned helplessness,” to mark NO on their ballots, which would result in Pinochet’s removal from the presidency (at least that was the hope). With the whole world watching, the government felt compelled to give the opposition the same 15 TV minutes per night for a month that it would give itself (never mind that it otherwise already controlled the airwaves). A golden opportunity, to be sure, and a rainbow of opposition groups came together as the Concertación de Partidos por el NO to make the most of it.
No personalizes the story by fabricating the character of René Saavedra (Gael García Bernal), a young hotshot ad man who is initially brought on as a consultant to the Concertación but ends of as one of its driving forces, in the process crossing swords with his ad-exec boss (Alfredo Castro) in the latter’s role as the main architect of the Sí side’s campaign; and government heavies who threaten not only his well-being, but also that of his young son (Pascal Montero).
Bernal does fine, subtle work, but we’re never especially invested in René’s story. Rather, No‘s hook is the campaign. Whether or not the truth is stranger than fiction, in art it’s sometimes far more compelling than the side of artifice served up with it.
Those of us not inside the campaign don’t know exactly how it came together, but we do know that it turned out to be as much pure commercial—complete with a jingle and the slogan “Happiness is coming”—as political statement. The film’s main intrigue is in how the Concertación hones its message, and how the two sides parry and riposte in their advertorial fencing match. Scriptwriters Pedro Peirano and Antonio Skármeta do particularly well with a sardonic view that the purpose and process of marketing is no different for soft drinks and soap operas than for freedom.
No is put together with a lo-fi choppiness and a bit too much shakiness in many handheld shots. Clearly the intent is to achieve a certain verisimilitude, although with many incongruous edits. Director Pablo Larraín might have done well to take a page out of Ben Affleck’s book concerning the film’s cohesiveness. But just the one page. No, a nominee for the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar justly won by Amour, far outclasses Argo, and does so telling a story of far greater historical significance.[1]
No is playing at the Art Theatre of Long Beach (2025 E. 4th Street) for a limited engagement. For info on show times, call (562) 438.5435 or visit arttheatrelongbeach.com.
[1] Postscript: 2012 was a big year for films touching upon questionable (to put it politely) choices by the U.S. government. Argo relates to Iranian hatred for the U.S. due to our support for the Shah of Iran, whose regime practiced torture; the early portion of Zero Dark Thirty concerns the U.S. torture of detainees; and No concerns the U.S.-backed Pinochet regime. Call it a side-on view of recent American history.
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