Reel Reviews | U.N. and Me

by Tim Gordon

Crime, corruption and wide-spread apathy are routine staples of existence in of all places, the United Nations in the revealing documentary, U.N. and Me.

Since the creation of the organization, the United Nations has had its share of victories and successes but in this doc directed by first filmmaker, Ami Horowitz exposes the U.N.’s dirty secrets and illicit activities on the global scale. For an organization that was created to secure global security and protect human rights, the current U.N., unfortunately, has done either activity particularly well.

Horowitz documents an alarming amount of damning evidence illustrating the organization’s lack of discipline and moral authority among its peacekeepers that is evident of trouble at the top. Case in point, there’s the reports of trafficking illegal goods, rampant sexual abuse, the shooting of unarmed civilians in Cote ‘d Voire, the embarrassment of botched Oil for Food program run by the late Iraqi dictator Sadaam Hussein to not preventing the genocides first in Rwanda and later in Darfur. Horowitz introduces us to an organization with overpaid, under worked fat cats from around the world who spend more time partying, drinking, aiding terrorists and looking the other way rather than helping those who need their assistance the most.

Horowitz feeds the audience an unbelievable amount of information but manages to mix in enough light moments so that you don’t feel overwhelmed. That the film’s tone resembles the style of Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock is not an accident since many of the people who have worked with both of those celebrated directors assisted Horowitz on this film. If the U.N. is responsible for global security than the take home question is this – who polices the world’s police? Unfortunately, that answer is not in U.N. Me, and that is the real problem.

Grade: B