Battle of Chile- (Part 1) Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie torrent

The film opens in March 1973 with reporters asking people how they intend to vote in the coming congressional election. The election is taking place after Allende has been in office for over two years and has been trying to reorganize society along democratic socialist lines. His "Popular Unity" coalition was put into office with only a third of the popular vote. His efforts to nationalize certain industries have met with internal and foreign opposition, and Chile is suffering economic deprivations. (Narration is provided in English - a source of criticism in The New Yorker review of the film by Pauline Kael - "The film seems to give us only the public actions - and none of the inner workings. Those are supplied by an English narrator ( a woman) who keeps interpreting for us. There may be considerable truth here, but this kind of thing can drive one a little crazy. She gives us a strict ideological account - in which everything that happens is the result of the imperialists and the industrialists strategy."[2]

In the election Allende makes gains to 43.4 percent of the votes, though the opposition bloc is strong too, up to 56 percent. The film has street interviews, speeches, the violent confrontations, the mobs and meetings, the parades with workers chanting. Part One finishes with newsreel footage from an Argentine cameraman Leonardo Henrichsen Patricio Guzman in Obstinate Memory who was photographing street skirmishes. A soldier takes aim and kills the cameraman, and the image spins skyward.