The Panama Deception (1992)

A film about the true reasons for the 1989 US invasion of Panama and big media complicity in these activities.

Director:

Barbara Trent

Writer:

David Kasper

Stars:

Elizabeth Montgomery, Abraham Alvarez, Carlos Cantú

Won 1 Oscar.

Cast

Credited cast:
Elizabeth Montgomery	...	Herself - Narrator (voice)
Abraham Alvarez	...	English Voice-over (voice)
Carlos Cantú	...	English Voice-over (voice) (as Carlos Cantu)
Diviana Ingravallo	...	English Voice-over (voice)
Alma Martinez	...	English Voice-over (voice)
Lou Diamond Phillips	...	English Voice-over (voice)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ashton Bancroft	...	Himself - President: Refugee Committee
Manuel Becker	...	Himself - Panamanian Cameraman
Larry Birns	...	Himself - Council on Hemispheric Affairs
Esmeralda Brown	...	Herself - UN Methodist Office
Humberto Brown	...	Himself - Former Panamanian Diplomat
Eugene Carroll	...	Himself - Center for Defense Information (as Rear Admiral Eugene Carroll)
Julio Cesar Guerra	...	Himself - Panamanian Photojournalist
Ramsey Clark	...	Himself
Jeff Cohen	...	Himself - Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting

Storyline

This documentary details the case that the 1989 invasion of Panama by the US was motivated not by the need to protect American soldiers, restore democracy or even capture Noriega. It was to force Panama to submit the will of the United States after Noriega had exhausted his usefulness.

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Plot Keywords:

panama | invasion | media | america | photograph | 

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Taglines:

Exposing The Cover Up!

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Genres:

Documentary | History | War

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Details

Country:

USA UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 July 1992 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Panama Deception: Exposing the Cover Up!

Box Office

Gross:

$309,596 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Empowerment Project, Channel 4 Television Corporation, Rhino Home Video

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Oscar menee Meksikoon (2009)

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Soundtracks

"Bomba de Navidad"
Written by Louie Ramirez
Performed by Ismael Rivera
Courtesy of VEV Publishing-Sonido, Inc.

User Reviews

Good Documentary on the Subject

The Panama Deception (1992)

*** (out of 4)

Oscar-winning documentary takes a look at the American invasion of Panama in 1989. Through archival footage from all the major networks, we see that the majority of Americans and all of the media were behind this invasion even though overtime it became clear that they were mislead about the real reasons. People were told that it was for American safety but this documentary tries to show a more malicious reason, which resulted in hundreds, if not thousands, of Panama citizens being killed. When viewing this film today I think many people will connect it to events that are going on within the last few years. Overall this is a pretty impressive documentary and you can tell that the director really has a passion and anger over what happened. There's some pretty graphic material here and especially towards the end when we're told about all the mass graves and we see some brutal footage of them being dug up where we see many of the bodies that were thrown in there. We also get some photographs of dead civilians who were shot and just left on the streets. Throughout all of this we get footage from the major news broadcasts and we see how they were all behind the invasion and not too many questions were asked and not much detail was given to anything except showing the Americans who were killed. As impressed as I was with the film, the one thing I'd hold against it (and many documentaries) is that they only show one side of the story. It's really too bad someone who supported what happened wasn't interviewed to give their opinions on why this invasion was needed. Many sources here are Panama newspapers and I'm really not sure if we can trust them any more than we can trust American newspapers. With that said, THE PANAMA DECPTION does a very good job at getting its point across and history buffs will certainly want to check this out.