Pinochet's Last Stand (2006)

BBC production, distributed domestically by HBO, Pinochet's Last Stand tells the story of how in 1998 former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was arrested in Britain while visiting for some surgery and spent 18 months fighting extradition to Spain for war crimes. Ultimately through various face saving maneuvers Pinochet was allowed to go home to Chile and never faced prosecution for his alleged crimes, including the deaths, disappearance and torture of thousands of people. Pinochet's Last Stand stars Derek Jacobi as Pinochet, Peter Capaldi as the human rights lawyer responsible for getting him arrested, and Anna Massey (in a piece of 'why didn't I think of that' casting) as Margret Thatcher, the former PM and Pinochet ally who helped get the man released.

While the story itself is interesting and even important, it was the first time an arrest of this nature had been made, that of a former head of state who was traveling legally in a foreign nation, its also pretty damn dry for a TV movie. The acting's good though restrained and there are occasionally interesting bits to it, like Pinochet's at first strained and later friendly relationship with the British police tasked with keeping him under house arrest, however on the whole its kind of a snoozer. There is probably a good article or two on this in some back issues of The Nation, I'd say read those, and don't bother with this movie. **