The Panama Deception

The dark silhouette of a woman appears on screen, taking up the entire shot.  The audience cannot help to wonder who this woman is and what story she has to tell, which is exactly what The Panama Deception sets out to do.  While we do not know much, we can tell that this woman is a civilian, and throughout her short testimony we can clearly see that she is a victim.  We barely have enough time to sympathize with her before we transition to a shot of a United States General, juxtaposing those in charge pushing their way to the front line of the battle, and those that have been in the background, yet hold the true story.  The General gives a brief testimony about his perspective of the invasion before it cuts to another civilian, this time fully visible and in distress, and finally showing the Pentagon spokesman, with an American flag proudly displayed in the background.  This sets up the documentary perfectly; although there is a strong bias, both sides are represented in an attempt to finally uncover what really happened in Panama.

Documentaries often have a main goal of persuasion and The Panama Deception easily delivers.  From the beginning the film pegs the United States as the bad guys and the citizens of Panama as the innocent victims.  During the opening testimonies, intense, dramatic music is playing, getting louder and louder as the stories become more and more harsh, but the abrupt end of this music leads in to an upbeat Latin song, producing a very happy mood as we pan through Panama pre-invasion, showing a country that was happy before the United States decided it was necessary to intervene.  The same Latin style of music plays again in the documentary, this time after the invasion has occurred, and the music is now much slower and gives off a feeling of sadness and despair, a complete turnaround from the initial song.

The film does represent both sides involved, which is a contrast necessary to become credible, especially when the basis of the documentary is interviews and personal testimony.  The use of actual footage and showing real headlines, news clips, and political documents heightens the reliability of this documentary; however, the bias and persuasion still remained throughout the film.  Trent strategically places contradicting ideas next to each other, such as actual footage of a mass burial site shown before the Pentagon spokesman flat out denies anything remotely resembling a mass burial, going as far as to indicate he is not quite sure what that term means.  Trent effortlessly makes him look both unaware and unreliable, both scary things considering his prestigious position. 

Trent may not have convinced her entire audience despite her parade of convincing evidence.  Hal Hinson, a writer for The Washington Post wonders why issues such as these have not been brought up more often in the political realm and claims that “The best explanation is that the film's allegations of misconduct, mismanagement and illegal actions by the government are without substantiation -- that is, without conclusive legal substantiation -- for a convincing case to be made,” which I understand to a point, but I cannot help to wonder if that is the real reason.  This documentary was extremely controversial and not readily picked up due to its content, which seems to strengthen the idea that there is something there we are trying to hide and cover up to prevent us from obtaining the legal substantiation necessary to make a case that can hold up in courts.  Isn’t it very possible that this topic did not come up in elections prior to the incident because it is not something we want to highlight?  Hinson does end the article by saying “Depending on a single source such as this one is always dangerous; there's the possibility that both sides are engaging in a propaganda war. But "The Panama Deception" does a superb job of documenting its case -- which if only partially true has the distinct smell of a rat.”  He is careful to cover his tracks and shy away from condemning anybody, likely because he is writing a movie review, likely to appear in the variety section, not as a headline.