Dan Coplan's 8 Winds is a contemporary masterpiece, yet it is underappreciated by the masses. This 2021 release can be viewed as a cinematic relative of Samuel Fuller's Pickup on South Street and Roman Polanski's Chinatown. All three films give its audience a look inside the veil of both big business and government. From the opening lines between two villainous characters in Southern California saying "control the water, you control the economy" you immediately know that you are in for an expose on the state of power.
Mr. Coplan, who wrote, directed and starred in this movie, takes the viewer for a deep dive into the "Post-Truth Era" which has engulfed American politics for the nearly last decade. By setting the film against the backdrop of Russian interference, it is hard not to see how this film reflected on the 2016 U. S. Presidential Election and foresaw aspects of the current Russian-Ukraine war. Moreover, in about nine months, voters in the United States will be going to the polls to choose how collectively we want this country to be governed. As we reflect on the state of democracy, 8 Winds is the perfect film for our own moral contemplations on our current state of affairs.