Documentary Review

The documentary I watched for this assignment called "Pray the Devil Back to Hell". My dad brought the DVD to me from his work at the United States Institute of Peace. It was about Liberian women and their fight for freedom. During the Liberian revolution, it was President Charles Taylor against the warlords and the LURD. They were tired of being raped, seeing their children get raped, seeing their children starve, seeing their children fight, and seeing them die. So they decided to take matters into their own hands. Leymah Gbowee, noble peace prize winner, organized the women at her church to sit out at a protest and get President Taylor to go to peace talks with the warlords. They sat outside in the sun and rain, singing and dancing, for weeks. They made and even bigger impact by joining up with the Muslim women of Liberia as well.

Together, the Muslim and Christian women of Liberia were able to get President Taylor and the Warlords to go to Nigeria for peace talks. It took forever for them to finally agree on something. Taylor was exiled to Nigeria and the UN took over a transitional government with many warlords in high positions of the new government. The women continued to help with the disarmament of the country. Also, once the first democratic elections rolled around, a women was elected to be president. It was the Liberian women who ended the bloody civil war and brought peace to their country. The documentary was their story.




The documentary, though short at only 72 minutes, was perfectly paced. It outlined the bloody war and all the women's struggles. The way it was filmed made the struggle seem very real and upsetting. I would recommend this documentary to everyone, because I really enjoyed watching it.

To touch upon the three aspects of film, I think is kind of difficult with a documentary. The cinematic aspects were very good. The clips were mixed with the women talking now, and older clips of the actual protests and peace talks. The plot was very simple, they just showed the conflict and how it was solved. All the characters were very empowering and made you want to do more good in the world.

Overall, the Documentary was fantastic in my opinion and everyone should watch it. It was very powerful and moving. So go watch "Pray the Devil Back to Hell".