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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Author
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Topic: 2016 - Obama's America (2012)
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 08-31-2012 08:46 AM
Let's forget about Obama for a moment, and consider the situation. A film about a president is released just a few months before that president is standing for re-election. We don't know what the result of that election will be, but the result is likely to be quite close; persuading a quite small number of votors in certain states could be enough to swing the Electoral College one way or the other. It doesn't matter who the president is, what party they are from, or whether the film is pro or anti his policies, I would want to check everything the film said. Maybe the film is telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, or maybe it isn't; I can't tell, I haven't seen it but under the circumstances until I could check several sources, and sources which held different points of view, I'd reserve judgement on it. It's the same with news media, read reports from several different sources, check what they say, and at least as important, watch out for what they don't say.
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Edward Havens
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 614
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Mar 2008
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posted 08-31-2012 11:35 AM
See, Stephen, that's the problem. The filmmakers know its target audience will not checks the points of view presented in the film to see how truthful they are. And that's what pisses me off about this film and its intended audience.
I don't accept what Michael Moore says in his movies at face value, when I even go to see them. If there are points he makes that don't sound right, I seek out information to see how truthful it is.
The truth should be paramount to decides to be a citizen and exercise their right to vote. If you hate Obama, fine, but hate him because of truthful reasons. Anyone who thinks he has done a horrible job running the country the past four years, I'm wondering what you honestly think McCain and Palin would have done better. What do you think Romney and Ryan will do better, especially considering even Fox News called Ryan's speech at the RNC "deceiving" and "distracting," and took the time to disprove several key points of his speech. Fox News calling out the GOP VP candidate... ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
And yes, the truth is unbiased. The truth does not come with points of view. We call ideas with biased points of view "opinions," and opinions, like the ones espoused during Obama's America, concerning our sitting President and what they believe his thoughts may be, must absolutely be fact-checked, and if they are distortions or outright lies, they must be exposed.
I apologize if you feel I have hijacked the thread, although to be honest, the one-sentence post that started this thread is not much of a review. Consider my posts a hybrid review for the new social media. 2016 is nothing more than a ninety minute argumentum ad hominem and deserves stronger scrutiny than a movie like The Oogieloves.
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Pravin Ratnam
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 844
From: Atlanta, GA,USA
Registered: Sep 2002
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posted 08-31-2012 11:33 PM
Let's get back to the movie. So I watch Dark Knight in real IMAX. After that, I was walking back towards the exit doors, and I couldn't resist just checking out a part of this movie. It was nearly 30 min past start time(though trailers were probably half of that) So I walk in and see in the audience the opposite of what one sees in a TYler Perry movie and the demographic was pretty old.
I walked in during the scene where DSouza narrates the timeline of Obama's dad's birth. So I probably missed only 15 min or so. I wasn't sure how much of the doc I would watch. Plan was to watch only 15 min and leave. But I sat longer because I was shocked at how even handed the first 45 min were. I was saying to myself "is this the real D Souza?" No birther crap in the remotest. I did not agree with everything D Souza was concluding , but at least he presents the facts as they were and we have the right to disagree. I am thinking to myself "man I must have prejudged this doc too harshly". I even didn't mind the Michael Moore type interview of Obama's half brother. Liberal docs do that too and that is fair game. Obama's dad comes across very negatively and I see nothing wrong with the doc pointing that out. Obama's mom comes across as a one note activist type. I am not sure how true it is, but I wouldn't be surprised if this were true. So so far , I am fine with the doc.
But then the last half hour struck and what was a documentary became a shameless propaganda piece.It wasn't even FOX NEWS entertaining. He interviews the likes of Daniel Pipes - one of the neocons who got us into a messy Iraq war which contributed mightily to the deficit DSouza harps on(the checks for that war are still being cashed). He has a montage of Obama's founding fathers set to sinister music and ties that into the belief that Obama is not only influenced by it, but somehow he follows the same ideology. He takes diplomatic foreign speak Obama pandering to the islamic countries (which Bush and other Presidents have done in the past too. Hell, Reagan famously called islamic dictator Zia his buddy" . He doesn't try to explain how Obama hired Geithner despite having a communist as one of his mentors. Hiring Geithner angered not only the Ron paul types, it angered Obama's supporters too. So right there, everything D Souza talks about goes to waste.
D Souza's theory of islamic pandering and Obama being apologetic for some of America's past rings hollow when he tries to tie that into Obama's foreign policy governance because it was Obama who took the islamic terroristic shenanigans of Pakistan's ISI to greater task than Bush did. It is Obama who did not bother to view islamic Pakistan as someone he was willing to respect and entrust with knowledge of the Osama raid. The whole doc tries to arrive at the conclusion that Obama would kowtow more to islamic countries because of past connections. Yet, the disrespect Obama showed Pakistan and Karzai in Afghanistan prove otherwise. One could make montages of Bush praising Pakistan of being our ally when in reality Pakistan was guiltier than Iran of spreading Islamic terrorism in the region. So should D Souza try to understand Bush's father issues(I know Moore tried that, but I felt that was stretching it back then to).
Grade B for the first hour . Grade F for the next 25 min.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 09-01-2012 12:01 AM
quote: Lyle Romer
I don't understand why you keep bringing up the bias of this movie. Of course it is biased. It is meant to be an anti-Obama documentary. It doesn't pretend to be neutral in advertising.
Agreed completely. The whole point of making documentaries for the theatre is that you're not going for the John Grierson/Ken Burns/PBS/BBC 'we must treat both sides equally and weigh up the arguments' approach - it's a format in which the gloves are off, you're allowed to rant at your audience, and when your audience pays their $7 (or whatever), they know what they can expect.
While remaining absolutely neutral on the content of these movies on this board, one thing that strikes me is that the political left have been doing this, and very well (in terms of entertainment value, at any rate) for many years now: Michael Moore being the obvious example, but other movies have followed in his wake, e.g. An Inconvenient Truth, Outfoxed, Inside Job etc. The right have been slower to take to the medium, but now seem to be playing catch-up with the occasional theatrical feature documentary such as Taking Liberties a few years ago, and now this one.
However much you do or don't buy the arguments put forward in these movies, the fact that the feature documentary in general seems to be thriving is good news, IMHO.
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