MOVIE REVIEWS : ‘HOUSES OF SMOKE’: CLOUDED VIEW

There’s ample raw material for a great and urgent documentary in “The Houses Are Full of Smoke” (at the Nuart through Saturday), but film maker Allan Francovich’s method of presentation is liable to defeat all but the most knowledgeable students of recent Central American history.

In essence, Francovich, best known for “On Company Business,” his 1980 study of the CIA, has carried detachment to the extent that it actually becomes impossible at times to distinguish the bad guys from the good guys. He eschews not only all commentary but even context and chronology, proceeding from one talking head to the next. Most of Francovich’s 50 witnesses and the organizations they represent are inadequately identified to begin with, so that by the time he cuts back and forth, ever adding further testimony and further incidents, we have an increasingly hard time remembering who’s who--and what’s what.

Apparently, his basic intention was to give the CIA and other officials of the U.S. government and military more than enough rope with which to hang themselves, but there’s just not enough consistent clarity for this tactic to work. Francovich is so obviously appalled by the role of the United States in Central America that you wish he’d come out and state where he stands and proceed forthrightly from there.

The three-hour film is divided into three parts, devoted to Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, respectively, but “The Houses Are Full of Smoke” plays like one long, seamless account of an eternal cycle of ignorance, cruelty, greed and paranoia--the people at the bottom of society finally rebel, only to be branded as Communists and be put down savagely by the rich and powerful, who he contends are backed by the United States.

“The Houses Are Full of Smoke” (Times-rated Mature) is a noble and ambitious undertaking, perhaps invaluable for historians and political scientists, but in truth many smaller-scale efforts have gotten similar messages across far more effectively.