When filmmaker David Holbrooke was a wee boy over forty years, his dad, Richard Holbrooke, was somewhat of an absent father, but given his role as the dominant American diplomat of his generation that was almost understandable. Even in the early years of his career the senior Holbrooke’s ambition burned hot, as did his confidence - Vice President Joseph R. Biden once called him “the most egotistical bastard I’ve ever met”.
A fantastic documentary by the younger Holbrooke, THE DIPLOMAT tells the remarkable story of the life and legacy of the Ambassador, whose impressive career spans fifty years of American foreign policy – as in, from Vietnam to Afghanistan. Told through the perspective of those that worked with him and his eldest son David, the film takes you behind the scenes of high stakes diplomacy where peace is waged and wars are ended. Utter compelling, to put it mildly.
When filmmaker David Holbrooke was a wee boy over forty years, his dad, Richard Holbrooke, was somewhat of an absent father, but given his role as the dominant American diplomat of his generation that was almost understandable. Even in the early years of his career the senior Holbrooke’s ambition burned hot, as did his confidence - Vice President Joseph R. Biden once called him “the most egotistical bastard I’ve ever met”.
A fantastic documentary by the younger Holbrooke, THE DIPLOMAT tells the remarkable story of the life and legacy of the Ambassador, whose impressive career spans fifty years of American foreign policy – as in, from Vietnam to Afghanistan. Told through the perspective of those that worked with him and his eldest son David, the film takes you behind the scenes of high stakes diplomacy where peace is waged and wars are ended. Utter compelling, to put it mildly.
David Holbrooke is the perfect person to present both sides of the late diplomat, and there was no nepotism involved either –he is a former network-television news producer and, since 2007, the director of the Telluride Mountain documentary-film festival, so well equipped to tell a mesmerising and topical tale. He meticulously retraces his father’s career, from his earliest days as a young Foreign Service officer in Vietnam through his work for every Democratic president since Lyndon Johnson, using personal and professional letters, recorded audio diaries, and interviews with longtime friends, rivals, and colleagues. He even revisits the scenes of Holbrooke’s triumphs and defeats around the globe, from Vietnam and Bosnia to Afghanistan. David has said that THE DIPLOMAT is somewhat of an attempt to understand his late father "better in death than I ever knew him in life”, and it is all the more poignant for it.
Holbrooke’s most successful undertaking is thought to be the brokering of the 1995 peace accords that ended the war in the aforementioned Bosnia, where tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims had been massacred by Serbians. The agreement has been called “a hallmark of the Holbrooke approach: attack a problem from every angle, shake it as hard as you can, never give up, never let go”. The negotiations are recounted in vivid detail by surviving participants, and make for fantastic viewing.
Having said that, the documentary’s true emotional climax is the tale of the ageing diplomat’s last, losing battle to untangle the quagmire of Afghanistan. President Barack Obama reportedly rebuffed his efforts to negotiate with the Taliban and repeatedly sidelined him in favor of military advisers and White House aides more in sync with the president’s own approach. Holbrooke was confused, frustrated and devastated in turn, and it shows.
I loved seeing the personal interviews with and comment from the people who loved the sometimes-gruff negotiator, in particular Hillary Clinton, whose fondness for the man once called a “bulldozer” for his blunt approach is almost palpable. Richard Holbrooke was sitting across from Clinton, then the secretary of state when his heart gave way on Dec. 10, 2010. He died three days later.