Director Report Card: Errol Morris (2018)

13. American Dharma

In 2017, Errol Morris filmed “American Dharma,” one of his trademark interview documentaries with notorious alt-right hellraiser/Trump adviser Steve Bannon. The film received mixed reviews on the festival circuit. While there were some positive notices, others criticized Morris for not interrogating Bannon enough. Yet others were aghast that Morris gave someone like Bannon a “platform” at all. The film was slow to pick up a distributor, perhaps because of this. Or perhaps because, even then, it was a hundred controversies ago in the Trump presidency. By the time the film got a general release late last year, Bannon's name had completely fallen out of the news cycle. And now I'm getting around to covering the movie, as the country is knee deep in the smoking wreckage of the administration Bannon helped bring to life.

Through a long conversation with Bannon, Errol Morris tracks the man’s rise and fall. He discusses his roots as a filmmaker of right-wing political documentaries, how he came to be involved with alt-right propaganda site Breitbart, and how he eventually became the primary architect of Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Bannon reveals the brute force tactics, such as a naked appeal to populism, that navigated Trump through countless controversies to the White House. Through the conversation, Bannon also reveals his frequently contradictory personal philosophies. 

Something compelling about Bannon, that sets him apart from other political pundits, is his open obsession with pop culture. Morris structures "American Dharma" after "Twelve O'Clock High," one of Bannon's favorite films that he uses to explain his belief in destiny and dharma. Throughout the conversation, movies like "The Searchers" and "Bridge on the River Kwai" are discussed. What's really interesting about this is the way Bannon's willful misinterpretation of these classic films reflect on him. He re-contextualizes a key moment from "Chimes at Midnight" to reflect his own expulsion from the Trump White House. (Which also makes Bannon seem like a massive fucking bootlickers who likes that his boss kicked him out.) He reads "Paths of Glory" as a metaphor for the experiences of the "deplorables," an interpretation so off-target it's funny. Bannon is, in fact, a fan of Errol Morris, citing "The Fog of War" as another influence but so completely misunderstood the film that he's surprised its director voted for Hillary Clinton. It's about the level of critical analysis that you'd expect from someone who unironically lists Darth Vader and Satan as his fictional idols. 

Something Morris seems especially interested in exploring is the blatant contradictions in Bannon's philosophies. Or, rather, showing Bannon's disinterest in examining these contradictions. Steve explains his admiration of Andrew Breitbart, describing someone he sees as decisive and not driven by emotion. Morris follows this with footage of Breitbart screaming at Occupy protestors in a totally unhinged fashion. Bannon dismisses the Nazi rallies that sprung up in the aftermath of Trump's election. Morris then shows stories from Bannon's websites, using all sorts of xenophobic and white supremacy-aligned phrases, Bannon goes on at-length about his nationalist, isolationist politics. He decries "the elite" and "globalists." When Morris grills Bannon and why he thought helping a billionaire become president was a blow against "the elite," he rambles out his usual list of buzz words.

So the question emerges: How full of shit is Steve Bannon? Does he even know he's full of shit? Bannon describes the origin story of his nationalist beliefs, of growing up in the spectre of the Vietnam War and seeing "Made in Vietnam" on a crate of school uniforms for his kids. That certainly seems sincere enough. As does his clear hatred of Muslims and foreigners. And his continued use of antisemitic code words like "globalists" and "the elite" makes his opinions on the Jewish people less than ambiguous. It seems to me that extending his philosophy of America First isolationism, and barely coded white supremacy, is Bannon's primary concern. He sees the tax cuts for the rich the mainstream Republican Party, which Bannon repeatedly disparages, insists on as a compromise worth making. 

Then again, greed is always a factor to consider. Bannon describes part of how he came to power. He made part of his fortune by noticing the real life money people were willing to pay for fake money and items in "World of Warcraft." Though expressing ignorance about video games, Bannon is clearly savvy about how to take advantage of new media. He brings up Twitter and Breitbart's comment sections as ways to rally support. 4Chan and Reddit even get brief mentions. "American Dharma" clearly concludes that, in 2016, the Democrats were less able to use the Internet to rally support. 

Bannon knew how to reach out to people with a clear message that resonated. He targeted his isolationist philosophy at disenfranchised Americans, unemployed and scared and susceptible to fears about illegal immigrants and Islamic extremists. (That his policies focused more on excluding brown people than striking back at corporations, the "elites" he's always railing against, is another contradiction Bannon doesn't address.) All throughout the campaign, he never wavered from that approach. When the first of many sex scandals threatened to derail Trump's presidential chances, Bannon doubled down on his techniques. He - proudly - calls it populism. I call it zeroing in on America's racist heart and never letting go. 

Either way, it worked. "American Dharma" succulently depicts how Bannon and the Trump campaign took advantage of America's ugliest and most ingrained beliefs - and a media totally unprepared to counter Trump's attention-grabbing theatrics - to pave their own path to power. Bannon repeatedly refers to it as "going to war," which Morris emphasizes with bullet and bombshell sound effects while pasting new stories and tweets to the screen. This aggressive determination to never drift away from this message, to always play to the bases, strikes me as the most obvious reason Trump secured his narrow victory. This says a lot about America in general but is, in my opinion, the clearest answer of how we got into this mess. And Morris' film depicts that well.

"American Dharma" also represents a change in style for Errol Morris. The director does not utilize his typical interrogation visual approach much this time. The film is not composed of Bannon explaining his story and experiences, with infographic blowback as Morris did with Robert McNamara and Donald Rumsfeld in "The Fog of War" and "The Unknown Known." Instead, it's more of a conversation between Bannon and Morris. Morris, though still kept mostly off-screen, repeatedly inserts himself into the film. He challenges Bannon's actions and worldview, questioning his self-described "apocalyptic" politics. This ties in with Morris' perhaps more showy-than-usual visuals. We have lots of dramatic shots of Bannon wandering around a Quonset hut – inspired by “Twelve O'Clock High” – or even meandering sequences of him walking through a half-completed house. The score, by Paul Leonard-Morgan, is also rather dramatic. 

If "American Dharma" had been made more recently, it could've had a far more cinematic ending. Bannon is currently awaiting trial for fraud involved with a bullshit con to keep building Trump's failed border wall. (Which certainly re-enforces the possibility that Bannon sees right-wing fear-mongering as a way to line his own pockets.) Instead, Morris had to settle for Bannon being ejected from Trump's White House and his weak sauce attempt to spread his venomous philosophies to Europe. Because Morris is so focused on Bannon, he doesn't explore the interplay of fragile male ego and optics that most likely led to Trump kicking Bannon out.

I can see why the movie didn't receive an especially enthusiastic reception. The last four years have been awash in media attempting to figure out how the hell this happened. It's possible nobody was much interested in yet another postmortem of the 2016 election in 2018. Bannon's staunch refusal to explore the inconsistencies in his own beliefs prevents “American Dharma” from having any “gotcha!” moments. Yet as an examination of how Bannon, and people like him, can drum up support and control the media narrative, it's valuable. Because Trump was bad and the next Trump will be worst. “American Dharma” is worth seeing for that reason alone. [Grade: B]