GRAVE ALLEGATIONS REGARDING HENRY.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

TAKING THEIR CUE from (and offering a lot of screen time to) left-wing political writer Christopher Hitchens, director Eugene Jarecki and writer Alex Gibney try to convince us with their documentary ``The Trials of Henry Kissinger'' that the ex-secretary of state and Nobel Peace Prize winner is an international war criminal.

If you wish to be so persuaded, the filmmakers marshal many self-assured talking heads and damning stretches of archive footage that may do the trick. If you're against the whole enterprise, little in the film will make you disagree with former Kissinger aide Alexander Haig's heartfelt assertion regarding Hitchens: ``He's a sewer-pipe sucker!''

Those not in the mood to vilify anybody, but who are still interested in a very complicated political era, will get the most out of this short but densely packed survey of one very shrewd, perhaps conscienceless man's path to and deployment of power. Viewed free of outrage and partisanship, Kissinger is a pretty fascinating guy.

A brilliant child in his native Germany, Kissinger escaped the Holocaust to become, by the mid-1950s, a highly respected Harvard policy wonk. The film makes it abundantly clear that Kissinger, although he leaned to the right, would have served any party that would give him real power. It just so happened that helping Richard Nixon win the presidency during the height of the Vietnam War became his ticket.

The movie paints Kissinger as callously advising Nixon and, later, President Ford to put U.S. geopolitical advantage over human suffering. The extension of the Vietnam conflict, its devastating spillover into Cambodia, the coup against elected Marxist President Salvador Allende in Chile and Indonesia's depravities in East Timor are all laid at Kissinger's door, some more convincingly (and/or tediously documented, which doesn't necessarily add to a given argument's persuasiveness) than others.

Whatever blame is justified, though, getting the deep background on these international tragedies is a kick. And Jarecki and Gibney, though hardly objective, offer a grudgingly admiring assessment of what might be called Kissinger's metapolitical skills: How he intuitively manipulated the media, turned himself into a celebrity, appeared to enjoy (and probably did) his unlikely reign as an intellectual sex symbol - but all to the purpose of protecting and expanding his influence.

Something of the psychic cost of Kissinger's heartless dealings is hinted at. Most recent footage of the aging ex-puppetmaster shows signs of self-doubt and paranoia (there are summonses out for him in five countries, for questioning related to the pursued Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who replaced the assassinated Allende). Maybe, though, he's just getting old and tired. If anything, ``Trials'' proves that Kissinger has never, ever been without quick rationalizations and excuses for anything he's done. Even if you don't think he's any more guilty of criminal activity than most contemporary statesmen, he'd sure make a courtroom trial great fun to watch.

Tonight and Saturday, Jarecki and Gibney will appear at the 7:30 p.m. Nuart screenings of their movie.

THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER - Three stars

(Not rated: violence)

Director: Eugene Jarecki.

Running time: 1 hr. 20 min.

Playing: Nuart, West L.A.

In a nutshell: Argues that the former secretary of state should be prosecuted for war crimes. Won't convince you unless you're already inclined to agree, but provides valuable historical information.