Global Haywire

Director Bruce Petty

Hopscotch Films

Subtitled “A short history of planet malfunction”, the film poses the question: Why have we have reached the present crisis point between East and West? Bruce Petty offers his own unique view of the world situation with a flair that is not often seen on documentary filmmaking. The mixture of real action, animation, cartoons and interviews with major commentators as such as Gore Vidal, Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali and Robert Fisk and character actors Robyn Nevin and Barry Otto make this riveting viewing.

It is difficult to classify this cinematic experience; part documentary, part media barrage; part comedy, part leftist commentary; all narrated by the dry voice over of Tom Baker, it offers a withering satirical look at the role of the West in generating the disaster the world is in – i.e. global haywire.

It would be too easy to write this off as a wild diatribe; Petty offers lots of solid factual evidence for the current world situation having its roots in Colonialism, religious bigotry and the imperialism of the West. He also takes a clear aim at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Throughout the program petty spends a lot of time coherently arguing his case albeit with a phantasmagoria of images, sounds and cartoons.

While it is said by many that Petty is arguing against democracy or capitalism in toto, if one listens close enough, Petty presents his argument with much care - that is that capitalism and democracy are not the problem per see but that they are only ever applied in the West. He presents the case that while the West wants democracy and freedom (i.e. the A deck in his imaginary flying ship), we sustain dictatorships and exploitative regimes (in Deck B ) so we can have the goods (especially oil) that we need. Rather than Petty offer a traditional extreme left position - out with democracy, he offers an intelligent and perceptive critique of Western hypocrisy and self centredness and proposes that if we really believe in democracy it must be a truly worldwide model not based on imperialist and nationalist prejudices.

What is so disturbingly successful about Global Haywire is the way in which Petty has made such a heavy political critique palatable. Global Haywire is fun to watch and hard to not to enjoy, even if the message is a dose of strong medicine helped with a large spoon of “sugar”.

The sheer exuberance of the imagery, the bizarreness of the characters and the power of Petty’s style make this a enjoyable and informative cinematic experience.