This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 1:43 pm and is filed under D, Documentaries, Drama, Movie Reviews, NEW ON VIDEO, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Director: Ricki Stern, Anne Sundberg
Starring: Brian Steadle
The Devil Came On Horseback is a relentless hard-hitting documentary about the horrible conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan, as seen through the eyes of an impartial military observer, former Marine Captain, Brian Steadle, who doesn’t feel impartial for long. The result is engaging, and is almost as hypnotic as it is powerful and disturbing and kinda made me feel guilty for not doing more to help. It was a darling of the film festival circuit, but has seen little commercial promotion.
In 2004, retired but young, Marine Captain Brian Steadle accepted a six month contract as an unarmed military observer supervising the ceasefire to a two decade long civil war in The Sudan. Soon after his arrival, he realizes that government backed thugs, known as the Janjaweed are executing a campaign of rape, murder and torture, against civilian villages in the Darfur region of the country. The film starts out with some background of the area, and its issues, and then watches and listens, as Steadle uses pictures, video, and narration to describe, and illustrate his experiences during the horrifying, and frustrating period. Next, Brian returns home and tries to tell America, and the world, what is happening in The Sudan.
The Devil Came On Horseback tells a troubling tale that is uncomfortably close to the Rwandan story from all too few years ago. It packs a punch, and I hesitate to speculate on who will ‘enjoy’ it. It is similar in tone and content to such films as The Killing Fields and Hotel Rwanda, and much like last year’s documentary feature, Shake Hands With The Devil, which focused on Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire’s experiences in Rwanda. This is a powerful project that should be seen.
