The Constant Gardener

[Beetrootfultoyourself]

what an ammazing film. Fantastically shot. breathtaking. Sickening that this really goes on..testing drugs on people in Africa and covering up the negative results.

A must!

It doesn't really go on - not in the same way as in the film. I saw a review with a very balanced report which said, 'don't forget that in essence this is a WORK OF FICTION' - it's just that presenting it in this way makes for a compelling story...

do you think? I beleive it is worse than that. Just look at Nestle to see how bad the third world is treated

I think there has probably been some bad practice in years gone by, but I genuinely think that the drugs industry has cleaned up its act in a major way in the last decade or so.

I haven't seen the film (just read the book) but like all these sorts of stories, it has to be sensationalised to draw the crowds.

I think it's sad that people take it at face value and accept it as undisputed truth.

I think that it is a way of looking at these issues. I beleive that the drug companies are corupt. I beleive that the government is corrupt. Storys like these just get people discussing the issues.

I am shocked that people beleive otherwise these days.

But it's such a sweeping generalisation isn't it? Governments are corrupt?

I think a number of individuals who find themselves in power get drawn into activities which might be considered corrupt. But I actually don't believe it's universally true for ALL individuals in ALL governments.

What's so difficult is to get a genuinely balanced perspective from the media. The media likes to rally on behalf of the so-called underdog (either real or fictitious)in pursuit of a good story. "New drug saves 100,000 lives a week" is simply not sensational enough these days.

I think that power generally corrupts. That and money.

At the end of the film, the didication said that nobody in the film was true and it ewas not based on real events. But that the relaity was far worse....

But isn't that just one of those "the truth is out there" sort of statements

In other words, a director saying, "I want you to believe this, in the same way that some directors want you to believe that aliens exist or that all big corporate firms are spying on their employees (e.g. John Grisham's The Firm)?

I think film's can be useful, as you say, if they raise important social and political issues into everyday discussion, but they have to be counterbalanced with some real fact and comment.
I certainly haven't seen anything substantial to support the Constant Gardener story...

(and nor have I been able to find another world through the back of our wardrobe either, which I'm most disappointed about )

here is an interesting book

bbc here

Brathwaite

very interstingarticle linked to the Constant Gardener

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