“A Night at the Garden” (2017)

There’s not much here. It’s just archival footage of a mostly forgotten rally, regarding an interesting period in American history. There’s no narration explaining any of the context or background information of what’s happening. Probably because if one understood the full context of what was going on, namely that the people at the rally had no clue about the sheer level of atrocities and degradation that was happening and (obviously) was to come in Europe, then it wouldn’t be nearly as “scary,” which is what the filmmakers are going for. And at one point the director adds a slow-motion shot with scary horror music, which was just distracting and unnecessary. Also, calling this a “documentary” is generous. This seems like something someone would make in one week for a school project; not a professional documentary filmmaker. There is an interesting and thought-provoking documentary to be made about the support that some Americans had for the Nazi regime in the 30s and 40s. This is not that documentary.

Rating: 1.5/5