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Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes

Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: December 7, 2018

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

71	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critics

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Peter TraversDec 11, 2018

A well-researched and richly observant documentary from Alexis Bloom about the climate of lies and systemic abuse that nurtured Ailes and allowed his behavior to flourish. Read full review

David EdelsteinDec 10, 2018

What emerges is a portrait of a man whose fall was precipitous but whose sensibility and techniques outlive him and continue to evolve. This is the acid test for a good journalistic documentary: No matter how far back it reaches, Divide and Conquer always feels as if it’s in the present tense. Read full review

Owen GleibermanDec 6, 2018

In the piercing and perceptive documentary Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, it’s fascinating, in an outrageous and distressing way, to witness the moment when Ailes transformed the nation’s political landscape virtually overnight. Read full review

Ben KenigsbergDec 6, 2018

It conveys a credible sense of Ailes’s psychology through the testimony of peers and co-workers who witnessed his ruthlessness firsthand. Read full review

Kenneth TuranDec 6, 2018

The result is a compelling but chilling film, one that is inevitably disheartening and disturbing as it details both how Ailes came to understand the nature and power of fear and how he honed his craft until he could sell fear to his fellow citizens like it was going out of style. Read full review

Kimber MyersJan 3, 2019

Even for those who do know Ailes’ history of profound power abuse and sexual harassment, Divide & Conquer is engrossing. Read full review

RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyDec 7, 2018

Amid all the jaw-dropping tales of bullying behavior, there is a constant and almost mordant acknowledgement of the one thing that Ailes was scarily right about: that no public official will ever again be elected “without the skillful use of television.” Read full review

Simon HouptDec 6, 2018

It’s naive to blame the current cancerous state of American politics on a single carcinogen, but don’t let that stop you from pointing fingers at Roger Ailes. Read full review

David EhrlichDec 6, 2018

"Divide and Conquer” illustrates the similarities between Ailes and Trump so well that the documentary’s happy ending can’t help but leave behind a queasy aftertaste: Ailes may be dead, but he’s still the most powerful man in the world. Read full review

Michael O'SullivanDec 5, 2018

Ultimately, Divide and Conquer offers useful lessons — and maybe even a little hope — for people on both sides of the national divide, about just how we came to this terrible, but not irreversible, place. Read full review

Movie NationRoger MooreNov 30, 2018

“Divide” is a damning film, with just enough new material to entice the curious. Read full review

Chris BarsantiNov 29, 2018

Alexis Bloom’s keenly insightful and deeply depressing documentary is probably best viewed not as a record of the past but a document of what’s to come. Read full review

Robert AbeleDec 6, 2018

If you’re looking for a quick medicinal shot of how we got to Trump in the White House, the bracing “Divide and Conquer” feels like one of the more alarming civics courses you’ll ever take. Read full review

Stephen DaltonDec 6, 2018

Alexis Bloom's damning documentary is a competent but conventional affair, highly watchable but low on fresh angles or bombshell revelations. Read full review

Ty BurrDec 5, 2018

A brisk and reasonably thorough dog trot through a life that was simultaneously invisible and all powerful, and it’s goosed along with slick production techniques that more than once get in the way. Read full review

Liam LaceyDec 6, 2018

There’s one illuminating segment in Alexis Bloom’s documentary, Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, which might have made a fascinating stand-alone short doc. Read full review

The Film StageDaniel SchindelDec 6, 2018

It’s always frustrating when a documentary is so intent on one story that it plainly misses a more interesting one that’s, just… right there. Read full review

Walter AddiegoDec 5, 2018

Although it’s good to have a critical accounting of his role in modern American politics, most of what we see here has been reported elsewhere, and this documentary seems aimed at rallying the troops. Read full review