We Are the Giant
Music Box Films | Release Date: December 12, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
4
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
IndieWireRobert Cameron FowlerNov 12, 2014
It turns material that could have resulted in a sporadic narrative into a profound statement that the Arab Spring is a continuation of humanity's constant efforts to make a better, more just world. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid ParkinsonDec 8, 2014
Although lacking specific context and fussily presented, this is a harrowing account of the Arab Spring as witnessed by seven reluctant and committed activists in Libya, Syria and Bahrain. The footage of the violence inflicted upon civilians is truly terrifying. Read full review
80
Total FilmSimon KinnearDec 8, 2014
Barker’s approach starts simplistic but gathers in complexity, insight and moral force with each story. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeNov 12, 2014
You’ll walk out of this electrifying documentary about the Arab Spring with your blood boiling. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireDec 12, 2014
The film commendably gives us vivid and memorable people whose personal stories strikingly illuminate their peoples’ struggles. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijDec 8, 2014
A mixture of raw, first-hand footage, shot by protesters themselves, and more self-possessed interviewees ensures that the chaos and sometimes lethal risks of protesting come across as strongly as the pressing sociopolitical reasons behind them and the effects the events have had on the participants. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 8, 2014
Greg Barker’s documentary is a heartfelt, if historically disjointed, tribute to individuals who took part in the Arab Spring. Read full review
60
VarietyDennis HarveyNov 12, 2014
A surfeit of harrowing on-the-ground footage during protest crackdowns, plus the protagonists’ testimonies, make for a frequently inspiring and exciting documentary. But helmer Greg Barker (“Ghosts of Rwanda”) also risks pretentiousness in various forms of stylistic and thematic overreach, while providing viewers scant explanatory info on the regional conflicts. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen HoldenDec 11, 2014
We Are the Giant builds up quite a rhetorical head of steam, but it doesn’t try to analyze the conflicts it observes or to fill in the history, except in the broadest sense of placing these uprisings on a list of rebellions that stretch back through millenniums. Read full review
40
The DissolveScott TobiasDec 11, 2014
One of the problems with We Are The Giant is that not all the stories carry equal weight, both in terms of effectiveness and in the sheer amount of time Barker spends on them. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesMartin TsaiDec 11, 2014
Barker just hammers home the human-interest angle with a stirring score that serves to instruct the appropriate emotional response to each scene. The tacked-on uplift in the end is beyond comprehension, given that some of its subjects remain in peril. Read full review
30
Village VoiceSimon AbramsDec 9, 2014
Barker's tactlessness wouldn't be so bad if he weren't too high on his own patchwork rhetoric to ask his subjects what specifically motivates them. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineClayton DillardDec 7, 2014
It ironically reveals its intent to suture shut any remote ambivalence regarding its own gung-ho ethos, in effect engaging the same sort of oppressively dogmatic tactics it so outwardly denigrates. Read full review
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