AllMovie

Filmmaker Johan Grimonprez explores the history of airline hijacking, from media spectacle to terrorist mainstay, in this powerful documentary. Dial H-i-s-t-o-r-y begins with the first wave of hijackings in the '60s, generally used to point the focus of newspapers and television towards a variety of radical leftist causes, and moves on into the '90s, when airline bombings became less colorful and more deadly, using human lives as gambling chips for political extremists. Grimonprez uses both newsreel footage and his own imagery to offers a creative commentary on the issues and their implications.