'ReMastered: Massacre At The Stadium' Is Powerful Expose Of Singer's Murder Amidst Chile's 1973 Coup

By Benjamin H. Smith @bhsmithnyc
Jan 25, 2019 at 3:45pm



Since premiering this past October, the Netflix series ReMastered has aspired to crossbreed music documentaries with investigative journalism, shining a light on moments when popular music intersected with politics, culture and crime. While its high production values has made it a consistently enjoyable viewing experience, its journalistic aspirations have fallen short, often relying on conjecture and conspiracy theories over cold hard facts. Its latest episode, “Massacre At The Stadium,” finally delivers on its promise, crafting a gripping narrative of Chile’s 1973 military coup d’état and the murder of Chilean folk singer and political activist Víctor Jara.

Born to peasant farmers in 1932, Jara became an important figure in Chilean theater and helped jumpstart the Nueva Canción Chilena (translated as “New Chilean Song”) movement, which merged traditional folk music with socially conscious lyrics about the struggles of the nation’s poor and working class. Talking heads at the episode’s beginning describe Jara as, “A cross between Bob Dylan and Martin Luther King,” and say, “One song by Victor Jara is more dangerous than 100 machine guns.”

In 1970, Jara and other figures in Nueva Canción Chilena aligned themselves with the leftist Unidad Popular (Popular Unity) coalition and the presidential campaign of Salvador Allende, a socialist who promised to end Chile’s widespread income disparity. Allende himself said, “There is no revolution without songs.” He was elected in 1970, much to the horror of the United States government of the time and their friends in Chile’s military.

As Allende’s presidency was challenged by strikes and inflation, Chile’s right wing formed paramilitary groups. Meanwhile, its actual military seethed with resentment over budget cuts and nurtured relations with the fiercely anti-communist Nixon White House, who encouraged a coup and, through the C.I.A., helped undermine Allende’s government. An attempted putsch in the summer of ’73 failed, but by that autumn, the forces had aligned for the military to depose Allende and assume power.

More:
https://decider.com/2019/01/25/remastered-massacre-at-the-stadium-netflix/