Hostage
SBS Television
Friday, June 3
Reviewed by Barry Healy
This is a strangely uncompelling documentary about a fascinating subject — the thoughts and feelings of Terry Waite, the personal representative of the archbishop of Canterbury who won momentary fame in the mid-'80s by securing the release of kidnapped Westerners in Beirut.
Waite is one of those footnote characters of history — well known at the time but unimportant against the wider screen of events. Yet he did achieve remarkable results, and he suffered enormously for five years after he made his final, foolhardy visit to Beirut.
The problem for the film makers in portraying Waite's complex story is that he is a very reserved Englishman who strives at every turn to suppress his feelings. Even the retelling of the most dramatic events, such as his torture and close escapes from death, get reduced to the same flatness.
Attempts are made to spice up the film — dramatic night shots to illustrate the tale, editing Waite's monologue with short blackouts to try to produce tension. But to no avail. Waite appears paradoxical: a closed-off person trying to grapple publicly with the large ethical dilemmas of his past.
Waite's went back to Beirut after the news had leaked that he had dealings with Oliver North (another great footnote of history). He says he felt compelled to prove to the Hezbollah that he had been acting in good faith as a representative of the church, not working as a US agent.
His explanation is awkward, and he seems uncomfortable with it. Clearly he was not a US agent, but the more he talks the more it seems that he was defending his own standing, not that of the church. His obsession with the questions of personal honour and conscience are curiously at odds with his professed Christian morality.
For all his apparent contradictions, Waite looms as a moral giant against North, who appears towards the end of the film. Waite, trembling with emotion, asks North, "Was I used, in a sense, by the American administration?". North fixes him with his Marine Corps eyes and says bluntly: "Very much so; our government did use you. It uses people every day."
It is the most compelling moment in the film, an intriguing look behind the scenes of history and an illustration of the difference between honesty and integrity. It is a poignant moment but not enough to make an entirely satisfying documentary.