Palme Reviews

I am not one for historical-political documentaries but this was very, very well done. Going into it I was like do I really care about some rich while male politician and all the political bullshit and ugh the boredom that will surely begin. But I was wrong. The film doesn't just cover Palme's life (a man who in contrast to US politicians seemed to legitimately stand for what he believed) but the history of his time period: The assassinations of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy, Vietnam, Chile, social change, the works. It was fascinating to watch the world literally changing before your eyes and very informative.
The movie starts with Palme in an interview saying he believes his goal and the purpose of politics is to make life on earth decent for people. Having a movie start by echoing your own closely held beliefs is a pretty good sign.
Palme was anti-racism, pro-immigrant, absolutely anti-violence and he fought for peace. He was a charismatic socialist known for getting himself involved in one too many issues.
It's a bit ironic that they had Desmond Tutu in the documentary- a man who's famously said that to be neutral in times of oppression is to side with the oppressors.
The movie comments that Palme was very much hated by a great many but doesn't delve too deeply into the justification for such hate, simply passing it off as a fad to hate the prime minister. The part where the sons are talking about how their classmates told them they hoped their father would die was quite horrible. But the most shocking was definitely the images from the US bombing Vietnam.
I wondered over the ending for a little but I understand it now as him saying that no matter how prejudice is couched in intellectual theory or ideology, prejudice is prejudice is prejudice.
It was a very good movie.