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- First reviewApril 20, 2008
- Last reviewApril 20, 2008
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COMPELLED
PostedApril 20, 2008
TheMovieGuy
Ben Stein, most famous for being the high school teacher asking for "Bueller... Bueller?" is the host and narrator of a new documentary about the seeming exclusion and suppression in the academic science community of Intelligent Design and its proponents.
Interviews with several hard-luck scientists, as well as prominent professors of evolutionary biology and physics, spliced together with royalty-free stock footage clips make for an entertaining and thought-provoking salvo to start a debate.
This may be a documentary, but as we all should be well aware of now, all documentaries are propaganda in one way or another, even if it's propaganda that you agree with. There's footage of wartime America, monuments in Washington DC, even an appearance by former president Reagan at the end. All of which should please the conservatives who will undoubtedly flock to this film.
But there is also a serious tone, one that can't be dismissed so easily. Comparing the exclusion of Intelligent Design from classrooms to the separation of the Berlin Wall, Stein makes his point well, without stooping to the bombastic theatrics of Michael Moore. Sure, there's shameless goofiness and plenty of clips created to intentionally elicit an emotional response, but nothing that felt over the top or (at very least) no technique we haven't seen before from modern documentaries.
It will be incredibly easy (and is probably happening right now) for scientists to blast the film and say that it's making an equal comparison with them and N a z i s m. This would be incredibly simplistic and convenient, enough to cause a stir in a hastily written article or film review in the newspaper.
But you really have to pay attention and LISTEN to what is being said so the point can be made. Just looking bold-faced at the worldview that Darwinism suggests allows you to understand how this type of thinking can have disastrous consequences. Nowhere is it saying that Darwinists are N a z i s. It is simply suggesting that this line of thinking, if left unchecked, can portend a seriously dangerous outcome.
If America is truly free and open for debate, then I would hope that a little film like this would be given time and space to breathe and exist so its subject matter can be debated publicly in a civilized manner. One can only hope.
If America is truly free and open for debate, then I would hope that a little film like this would be given time and space to breathe and exist so its subject matter can be debated publicly in a civilized manner. One can only hope.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Note: It's the utmost of irony that his site denied me use of the words N a z i s and N a z i s m in my review, calling them profanity! I was using them in an academic and historical context! I had to alter the words so they could be included. Just like this movie asks... Do you still think we have free speech in this country?
Yes, I recommend this movie.
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