Released on DVD and Digital HD on 15 August, ‘The Killing$ of Tony Blair’ is a documentary narrated, presented, and produced by George Galloway and co-directed by Sanne van den Bergh and Greg Ward. The film was crowdfunded under a Kickstarter project, and started screening in cinemas on July 27.Â
The premise of the film is simple: Tony Blair, during his time in office as UK Prime Minister, was a charming man who by default is responsible for the deaths of many in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and elsewhere, but particularly Iraq following his decision to invade. It goes into detail about his close relationship with both media magnate Rupert Murdoch, and US President at the time, George W Bush.
It’s an interesting film: sure George Galloway has several axes to grind against Tony Blair, but he presents the bare bones of the facts against Tony Blair with help from a cast of thousands of those who were there, including (among many others) Noam Chomsky, Clare Short, Ken Livingstone, David Davis, Will Self, Stephen Fry and Blair’s own sister in law, Lauren Booth. It documents the pop star appeal of Blair’s Prime Minstership, and his absolute rod of iron in parliament – anyone who was thought to want to speak out about Blair during question time was first invited to “have a chat” with him before the session started.
Since leaving politics, Blair has built up a massive business based on connections he made while in Office. And this is where his ethics are called into question: Blair is portrayed as a man who is hungry for both money and power, and has no issue with where either of them come from.
Much has been said about Galloway’s reasoning behind making this film, but in light of the Chilcot Enquiry, the timing of which this film was lined up against, it certainly does raise questions as to the extent of Tony Blair’s responsibility.
See here for tickets and further details as to where to see ‘The Killing$ Of Tony Blair’ in UK cinemas. It’s also available from Amazon on DVD and Digital Download.
