Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1997)

• 76%
• 1997
• Crime
• Documentary
• History
• Johan Grimonprez

Buckle up for dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, the acclaimed hijacking documentary that eerily foreshadowed 9-11. We meet the romantic skyjackers who fought their revolutions and won airtime on the passenger planes of the 1960's. By the 1990s, such characters apparently are no more, replaced on our TV screens by stories of state-sponsored suitcase bombs. Director Johan Grimonprez investigates the politics behind this change, at the same time unwrapping our own complicity in the urge for ultimate disaster. Playing on Don DeLillo's riff in the novel MAO II: 'what terrorists gain, novelists lose' and 'home is a failed idea', he blends archive hijackings with surreal and banal themes including fast food, pet statistics, disco and his quirky home movies. David Shea wrote the superb soundtrack to this roller coaster through history, best described in the words of one hijacked Pepsi executive as: "running the gamut of many emotions: from surprise to shock, to fear, to joy, to laughter and then again, fear.