Blair (DVD)

By Tristan Clark

A decent enough doco, but it only scratches the surface.

Okay, so I chose to review this DVD on a whim – I’m not sure how many NZGamer visitors are all that politically minded, but they probably don’t come to the website to read up on former British prime ministers.

Oh well.

The DVD is a collection of two documentaries that looks to summarise and analyze the reign of Tony Blair, a man who soared to huge heights of popularity – and plummeted to extreme depths as well. It follows his career from 1997, when he was first elected, but is heavily skewed towards the whole Iraq thing that happened from 2003. It’s a fair enough move, and – for better or worse – sets the tone for the whole piece.

I went into the DVD fearing it would be some cheaply made doco, but it was actually surprisingly high profile, with a long series of interviews with Blair himself, punctuated with remarks from George “Ideological” Bush to Bill Clinton, as well as a whole host of Blair’s top staff and former Labour MPs. It’s good to hear about events from the man himself, as well as those around him, rather than some no-name reporter.

Of course, this means that most of the DVD goes something like this:

Narrator: “Blair decided to push ahead and go to Iraq”
Blair: “I firmly believe it was the right thing to do”
Any interviewee who wasn’t George Bush: “I can’t believe he did that”

You could probably rename this doco “Blair Gets Defensive about Iraq for 100 Minutes”, but I admit it doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

This emphasis on Iraq becomes somewhat problematic in my opinion. While one commentator rightly points out that in spite of all the good things Blair achieved while in power, he would be remembered for going to war on flimsy grounds, it would have been nice to see a bit more focus placed on the peace talks in Ireland, or hear more details about his troubled relationship with Gordon Brown. All these events were covered, but generally only as appetizers for the main course.

Still, if you want to get a good overview of Blair’s rise and fall, this DVD will provide you with a good amount of information. If, however, you’re already acquainted with Blair’s career, you’re not likely to get much out of this. It doesn’t advance any arguments either way, with Blair appearing defensive and almost everyone else appearing mildly (or strongly) accusatory – again with the exception of Bush. But as a catch up piece, it does quite a good job – and it’s always interesting hearing words from the focal point of the piece.

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