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- HBO
- Apr 7, 2021
- HBO
- Apr 7, 2021
Summary The four-part documentary from Raoul Peck uses archival material as well as animated and dramatic scenes to explore the destructive history of European colonialism and its impact on today's world.
- HBO
- Apr 7, 2021
- HBO
- Apr 7, 2021
Summary The four-part documentary from Raoul Peck uses archival material as well as animated and dramatic scenes to explore the destructive history of European colonialism and its impact on today's world.
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Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 13 Critic Reviews
83
85% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
15% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 13 Critic Reviews
83
85% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
15% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
From a pure filmmaking perspective, Exterminate All the Brutes may be unparalleled among TV docuseries; the closest I can think of is the complexity and contextualization evident in the 2016 Oscar-winning 10-part series O.J.: Made in America. Peck doesn’t rely on tired visual tropes or techniques that would make it easy to just put on the show in the background while you’re doing something else. He demands our attention with wit, craft, and well-placed anger.
The questing, curious way in which Peck brings together inquiries and observations and potent visuals makes for a powerful and immersive experience. ... Rather than referencing the present moment to a fault, Peck is working on a grand scale and a sort of geologic time, measuring our history in acts of cruelty. He does so with a visual imagination and an unblinking-ness that will leave those viewers who are up for the challenge dazzled and, perhaps, changed.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 39 User Ratings
5.3
51% Positive
20 Ratings
20 Ratings
3% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
46% Negative
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 39 User Ratings
5.3
51% Positive
20 Ratings
20 Ratings
3% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
46% Negative
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
“To accept one’s past—one’s history—is not the same thing as drowning in it,” “it is learning how to use it.”
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SEASON 1
Hard to watch at times. European culture contributed much to the world, but it seems many of us still refuse to accept the reality of the countless less-than-glorious things (to put it mildly) that at our ancestors did, and how brutal it was. The pushback in the user reviews speaks volumes.
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SEASON 1
Part personal essay, part investigation, the docuseries “Exterminate All the Brutes” is a striking piece of nonfiction work that has the intellectual rigor of an advanced history course, and asks that viewers keep up with its many ideas and horrors over the course of its four hours.
More than 1,000 years of genocidal events are a lot to consume, but Peck creates a cohesive journey that shows how original sins manifest into present-day racial injustices.
The approach Peck takes in “Exterminate All the Brutes” is a thought-provoking and worthwhile and, yes, complex response.
Peck’s thesis is too often swaddled in obscuring and derailing discursions.
“Exterminate All the Brutes” is a dense collage of ideas, words and images that doesn’t mind circling back to a previously made point. Were it on the page, rather than the screen, you might marvel at its audacity while at the same time wishing for a tighter edit. It moves, thanks largely to the savvy media criticism provided by the movie clips, but it’s in absolutely no hurry to get anywhere.
This is the way history should be presented. Sadly, seeing the negative user reviews shows we are doomed despite such efforts to enlighten.
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SEASON 1
Whilst this 'documentary' (it's more of an opinion piece) crams many different parts of history into its episodes, it's unfortunately so hell-bent on constant, extreme vilification of Europe that it loses its ways on several occasions. It leads to the author contradicting himself, ignoring huge swathes of the global population and takes away the individuality and agency of pretty much everyone.
For example, he claims that early white populations were uncivilised and stupid but later says their superiority over the sub-Saharan nations was due to their ingenuity and advanced culture.
He tries to lead us to believe that persecutors and victims alike are simply helpless against fate and the happenstance of geographical features; the lands are ancestors originated in. This implies that we're all victims of chance and takes away the notion we are free-thinking and self-governing as a species.
Throughout all this, he cheerfully ignores the advanced civilisations that were present in Asia, the Middle-East AND Northern Africa that also exploited 'Black' Africa, instead focusing solely on 'white' people - presumably because they are the focus of his ire and the only real message is 'white people are evil'.
It's hard to take a documentary that ignores so much of the world and its contribution to advanced technologies seriously.
Lastly, he belabors points over and over, using unnecessary melodrama and grim voice overs. It's more like propaganda than academic research. For example, he'll espouse gravitas laden quotes such as, 'There are no alternate facts' even though it's mostly highly arguable opinions he's giving us. It's as if he feels the quotes mean something in and of themselves simply because they're so solemn sounding.
Simply put, this is a guilt-filled, middle-class white persons wet-dream of a documentary and will no doubt be praised to high heaven by the vast majority of critics and prove immensely popular among the young in particular. In a sense, it's the Emperor's New Clothes of documentaries; there's nothing to see here really but it'll be fashionable to cheer and applaud it like mad.
Oh, and he seems to really, REALLY dislike the Scots & the Irish.
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SEASON 1
Utterly simplistic and disgustingly sanctimonious. And quite simply as racist, if not more, as the people "the West" he accuses. To claim that white people have an ingrained sense of destruction is as dumb as to say black people can dance or jump higher than others.
Rather, the explanation lies in simple demographics and -shared- natural, human, all too human as Friedrich would say, instincts that we see in apes and other species, the will to power.
Gengis Khan, Oda Nobunaga, Idi Amin Dada, Pol Pot, Ayatholla Khomeini were not white, so they were OK I guess? The Incas and the Mayans used torture as mass entertainment, cool bruh? Muslim enslaved Africa and Europeans way before the salve trade! Oh fun fact, the ethnic "Slav" (people of Eastern Europe) is what gave the name slaves! You know white people, with blond hair!
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SEASON 1
