Customer Reviews:
Very Unfocused........2007-07-01
Substantive opinions about Noam Chomsky aside, let me first say that this was an incredibly low quality documentary with very little in the way of production value. There are several black frames interspersed throughout the film for no apparent reason and the Japanese songs that make up its soundtrack are just plain weird. There's also no central narration and what it amounts to is just a sequence of clips with Mr. Chomsky speaking in his ultra-confident, detached, and low intensity voice. No unifying theme is presented and the topics stray from WWII to Nicaragua to Turkey to Israel to Britain to 9/11, but, of course, even if it is not directly stated his viewpoint can be summarized as full-time anti-Americanism. Basically, in Chomsky's mind, we're the real terrorists so we don't have the right to respond once we're attacked. That's a pretty accurate summary of this icon's opinions. Chomsky made important contributions to linguistics many years ago but has said little of substance since. He thinks he is being very clever when he says that you can't have a War on Terror, but of course you can as we can hunt down members of groups who have declared war against us and/or take responsibility for terrorist acts. Bono thinks that he's a rebel without a pause, but Chomsky's a faux rebel. There's no danger in being a citizen in American and hating your own country. Chomsky's been doing it for 40 years and nothing's ever happened to him and nothing ever will.
Exposing Western hypocracy.......2005-10-01
Chomsky speaks when others are silent. He takes on double standards seen throughout the established political spectrum. Discusses how it is inconsistent and hypocritical to support the American invasion in Afghanistan, while at the same time adhering to humanistic principles. Even though this was an invasion accepted by liberals, the US media and scholarship does not use the same standards when analyzing attrocities by (read: other) rogue regimes.
Good content, bizarre editing and interludes.......2005-08-08
The companion book for this DVD is excellent, one of the best places I could recommend one to look if they were interested in a brief but detailed account of what Chomsky's political analysis is all about. This DVD has much of that content, but there are numerous flaws.
The first flaw you will notice is the bizarre music which starts the film and recurs several times. Secondly, the editing just seems to have been done rather hastily... beyond that there is a sequence in which some random people are seemingly forced into responding to what they thought of a talk, which is kind of off putting... and there is a strange montage (interlude?) of footage of people walking around NYC, which makes little sense.
Content-wise, there are some great lines of thought offered from Chomsky himself, though the editing job sometimes doesn't allow those threads to be developed, and the jumping from one thing to another can leave an uninitiated viewer probably a bit perplexed.
The footage of Chomsky dealing with a barrage of questions and autograph requests after talks is interesting to see and the interview sections taken from his office (or some classroom) are very insightful.
A lot of what ends up in the video seems a bit focused around some quicker summarial nuggets of wisdom that Chomsky most likely elaborated on further, but the editing again seems to cut much out.
I like this of course, and there is a lot here. Still, this could have been done a lot better. It seems very rushed. And with DVDs being what they are, why not include full footage of some of the talks or interviews as extras, so that people could learn more?
It's good, but I would recommend Manufacturing Consent first, or the Distorted Morality dvd (which is one continuous talk, with bonus question and answer footage which is also insightful). The Rebel Without a Pause dvd is quite similar to this one in some respects, though I find the content of Chomsky's talks included in Power and Terror to be a bit more useful.
All are good though of course and in spite of the above criticisms, I thank the filmmakers for the opportunity to view the portions of these talks which they have collected.
If you want more info though, read the book (and his other books as well, then follow his sources and recommendations!)
Clarity in the fractal information labyrinth.......2005-05-22
Through a series of interviews and lectures, this movie provides a coherent framework for interpreting historical and contemporary events related to use of power and fear of terror by states. While the U.S. is used as a "case study", the analysis provided here remains sufficiently general and applicable to other powerful nations. The DvD commences with the basic and unambigiously clear definition of terrorism as stated in the U.S. army manual and works its way up to vague interpretations employed by powerful governments and news-hungry media. Chomsky's contribution in this DvD is to examine what happens if this unambigious definition of terrorism offered by the U.S. army manual was applied to the action of the U.S. government; or if the rationale used by the U.S. to justify a particular action were actually applied by less powerful nations. The Chomsky framework for exploring this topic goes well beyond a single nation or government, or a particular time period in history. Much of the ideas in this DvD have already been discussed in other Chomsky books; but this DvD weaves them well together. Highly recommended.
Gabriel Katul,
Definitely 5+ stars, but.... poor production.......2005-03-16
The information is outstanding and should be required viewing by ALL military personnel, especially the young and ignorant who sincerely sacrifice their lives for a trumped up war that has NOTHING to do with 9/11, Osam Ben Ladin, or Saddam Hussein, but instead it has to do with one thing: oil, oil, and then more oil and the Anglo-American need to dominate that oil.
The production is poor! It reminded me of the first attempts at recording that a highschool audiovisual club would make. The editing is worse. (And what is with the Japanese folk songs in the background????) Please!!!! (No, I am not xenophobic; I love the study of foreign languages and have an interesting collection of Asian folk music, but such music has no place in this film. I would write the same if it were Arlo Guthrie playing in the background.)
Get by the hideous production and editing goofs and pay close attention to the MESSAGE. If you are an instructor, you MUST show this to your students. If your institution bans it, tell your students to watch it through the library system.
DVD:
- Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch
- Pride and Prejudice - The Special Edition (A&E, 1996)
- Radley Meztger Collection Volume 2 (Little Mother / The Dirty Girls / Score)
- Reader's Digest - Australia the Beautiful
- Remembering Jacqueline Du Pre
- Return With Honor: The American Experience
- Reverse of the Curse of the Bambino
- Reverse of the Curse of the Bambino
- Rocked With Gina Gershon
- Search for the Great Sharks
DVD
DVD
General
| Documentary
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
Noam Chomsky - Distorted Morality: America's War on Terror?
Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media
Noam Chomsky - Rebel Without a Pause
Imperial Grand Strategy: The Conquest of Iraq And the Assault on Democracy
Howard Zinn - You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train