Has anyone seen the film "America: Imagine the World Without Her?"

[Matt Collins]

Has anyone seen the film "America: Imagine the World Without Her?"






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6de9J8_YJF4

[Bastiat's The Law]

Yeah, isn't it pro interventionalism?

[Matt Collins]

Yeah, isn't it pro interventionalism?
I dunno, I haven't seen it. That's kind of what I want to know without having to actually watch the entire thing.

[presence]

http://www.americathemovie.com/

rated 6.6/10 by 2500 people
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2785390/

"overwhelming dislike"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America:_Imagine_the_World_Without_Her

[satchelmcqueen]

im not sure, i hope im dead wrong, bu id have to guess this will be a movie advancing the "conservative" status quo. if rush limbaugh and hannity are begging their audience to go see it, i think i might have my answer.

[RonPaulFanInGA]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 11% approval rating, based on the reviews of 18 critics. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 14 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike". However, CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend revealed the average grade from cinemagoers who viewed the movie was A+ on an A+ to F scale". From 1982 to 2011 only 52 movies received an A+ score from CinemaScore, as films are usually given a lower grade.

Critics hated it; people who saw it in theaters loved it.

[Feeding the Abscess]

Critics hated it; people who saw it in theaters loved it.

People who went to go see it agree with the agenda presented in the movie and are the target audience. People who reviewed it aren't the target audience.

[Matt Collins]

People who went to go see it agree with the agenda presented in the movie and are the target audience.And that's exactly what I am trying to find out without taking the time to actually watch it: what is the agenda?

[Tod]

I saw it Friday afternoon with my Mom and am in the process of writing a review for the rest of my family.

In short, I found it pretty disappointing. I would rate the movie as not much more than a feel-good for superficial flag-wavers and neocons. Probably the highlight of the movie was the portrayal of capitalism which, unfortunately, completely omitted the very important topic of crony capitalism/fascism in America.

[Bastiat's The Law]

The part on Saul Alinsky is supposed to be worth watching alone.

[DamianTV]

Havent seen it. Not available at home or digitally yet?

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Who the hell calls the place he lives "her," let alone a movie title. What a dipshit.

[mad cow]

Who the hell calls the place he lives "her," let alone a movie title.

Kate Smith.

[VIDEODROME]

I heard it has a low production value and relies on StrawMan arguments. I've seen Dinesh in some YouTube debates and I'm not sure I want to sit through a full feature film based on his meandering arguments.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sPspnyS7Wk

[RDM]

Yeah, isn't it pro interventionalism?

Also pro-propaganda: Touts Columbus as finding America and Lincoln as a great President.

[Tod]

Also pro-propaganda: Touts Columbus as finding America and Lincoln as a great President.

It says that liberals bash Columbus but points out that he didn't even land in America as a rebuttal to that topic.

It does hold Lincoln in reverence, which it can do because it discusses the Civil War only in terms of freeing the slaves. :rolleyes:

[Tod]

Here is the review I sent my family:

Overall, I found the movie pretty disappointing. For one thing, the topic is way too involved for a two hour movie and the topics of discussion, such as the Civil War, were heavily mischaracterized. Objectionable episodes in history, such as the "Trail of Tears" (Cherokee Indians) were downplayed and made to appear as little glitches in perfection. “After all, look at how good the Native Americans and the Blacks now have it, living in the land of opportunity. “A few years of forced Reservation life and the destruction of their culture or a few years of slavery are more than offset by having the good life today!”, seems to be the line of thinking.

The film lists a number of issues in the history of the country, starting with the takeover of the land from the Native Americans. The issues are minimized with the help of straw man arguments and the benefits of being part of the nation today are touted as offsetting any wrongs.

The Civil War – the War of Northern Aggression – was discussed as though the whole point of the war was to end slavery, which is of course way off base. No mention was made of the tariffs that had unfairly penalized the southern states for years, motivating them to secede from the Union, and there was no discussion of the rights of states to secede; that freedom of association was forbidden by Lincoln. To paraphrase the song, “Welcome to the United States; your state can check in to the Union any time it likes, but it can never leave.”

The Declaration of Independence says, in part, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government”. Disallowing secession is a violation of the basic premise of government described in the Declaration, that of governance with the consent of the governed. “Awww, but we don’t want to break up the Union” is not an acceptable line of reasoning. All the same, the people in the Federal Government, backed up by large numbers of citizens in states that benefited from the unfair tariff structure, believed that the deaths of about three quarters of a million people was acceptable in order just to keep people from separating themselves from Washington, D.C. after they felt that the government was no longer fairly representing them.

The very fact that a war was fought which resulted in the freeing of the slaves was talked about in the movie as though that were a good thing, that it represented some kind of moral superiority, when in fact it represents a colossal failure – virtually every other country in the world freed their slaves without having to fight a war. The British managed to do it peacefully, and they did it way before the US, in 1833. Brazil was the last country in the west to outlaw it – again, peacefully – in 1888.

The movie completely failed to discuss the modern version of slavery, taxation, and how abolishing the original form of slavery, which lead to considerable productivity gains with mechanization, and then instituting the income tax allowed the federal government to grow and oppress Americans today to the extent that now a large percentage of the labor of Americans is taken to support the non-productive sector. Tax Freedom Day is not until the latter half of April. A hundred years ago it was in January. It is no wonder taxes are withheld from pay; if they didn’t, a whole lot more people would be up in arms about the amount of taxes they are being forced to pay.

In discussing the theft of resources from other countries, D’souza points to Iraq, saying that the US could have taken their oil but didn’t. He fails to discuss the long history of exploitation of foreign resources by American and multinational corporations, often with the aid of the U.S. government which frequently sought to install a local government that was friendly to the exploitation. No mention of the Banana Wars, Anaconda Copper, the relationship between the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, the CIA, and the overthrow of democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Mosaddegh), or countless other cases of intrigue that put the U.S. in a position of control….at least temporarily, and caused the most highly decorated Marine of all time, Major General Smedley Butler, to proclaim that “War is a Racket” (What??!? America only goes to war for noble reasons!!!). Such stories are completely at odds with Jefferson’s vision of “peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations” and they represent a failure, caused by the collusion of big corporations and big government – fascism. Instead, overseas involvements such as the Viet Nam War are celebrated by D’souza as noble attempts to save the South Vietnamese from the dastardly commies; founder’s advice to avoid entangling alliances be damned.

Capitalism and the free market are properly shown, but without any examples of how they have been perverted, of how there is no free market or true capitalism, thanks to corrupt politicians with too much power to dole out benefits and special favors to corporations in exchange for support and money. No discussion of “too big to fail” bailouts, the socialization of losses/the privatization of profits. No discussion of how the Federal Reserve has been fleecing us, no discussion of the massive debt being accumulated in our name.

Instead of acknowledging the error of our ways, pointing out the current problems, and showing the path we should be taking if our country is to begin to live up to the folklore, the myth, D’souza ignores the problems and, instead tries to make the viewer feel good; that all is wonderful, that America has the moral high ground. That doesn’t help matters at all. Pretending one does not have cancer does not improve the situation.

I would rate the movie as not much more than a warm and fuzzy feel-good pat on the back for superficial flag-wavers and to remove any doubt in the minds of borderline Neoconservatives who might be questioning the correctness of foreign entanglements after decades of near non-stop war. What the American public needs is most certainly NOT a warm and fuzzy movie. What the American public needs is a movie that will light a fire under them and get them to think about the icebergs ahead if we don’t avoid this rapid descent into totalitarianism at the hands of BOTH political parties.

[AngryCanadian]

Saw this movie and its a hardcore NeoCon Flick. Just look at the Comments in that YouTube section.



America has giving more, done more, created more wealth, along with western civilization has created nearly everything on the planet, defeated dictators, etc. and yet these people see only their own history as America's totally.. unreal



America is the "Evil Empire" yet, you will NEVER EVER EVER see some dipshit leftist "Activist" give up their passport and citizenship.

So what is worse, a country and people that in their history 160 years ago did some bad things that they have spent the past 150 years trying to make right through legislation, or the hypocrites who hate America who still live in this "Evil Empire" and benefit from what this "Evil Empire" is able to provide them?



Anti Americanism has reached it's zenith under the anti American President Obama. Disgusting. 

Anti Americanism around the world? Obama's Fault :rolleyes:
Did the world showed any love to America udner Bushy boy? no, so its not surprising that this movie is turning people's opinions into an John McCain state of mind.

[Snew]

Who the hell calls the place he lives "her," let alone a movie title. What a dipshit.

Seriously. It's the epitome of state-worship.

[Dary]

Here is the review I sent my family:...

I found this review helpful.

[AuH20]

America has been in severe decline for the last 100 years or so. I wonder if D'Souza can reconcile this fact? I have no problem with the formative ideals of this nation, but they have been abandoned for feel good narcissism.

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

America has been in severe decline for the last 100 years or so.

I was thinking the same thing, except my marker would be decline since about 1960. Guess that can vary depending on one's criteria.

Anyway, I observed people in the 1980s reliving the glory years of the 1950s. Decline had been happening for a generation, but they chose to deny it. Here it is 30 years later and these people now are reliving what they somehow think was a great 1980s time period.

Some people refuse to see the typhoon wave crashing down on them until they actually get wet.

[chudrockz]

That was playing at the theater we went to yesterday but the wife and I saw "Sex Tape" instead. It was pretty funny.

[Koz]

I just saw it yesterday. Yes, it does leave a lot to be desired, and skims over items like Lincoln's abuse of the Constitution, and only touches on the abuse of Native Americans. The Alinsky stuff is good. It does a decent job of covering some revisionist history. Overall I'm glad I saw it. I did have an AMC gift card.

I did learn some stuff that I didn't know of, like black slave owners in the South. I did like how America was referred to as an idea, which to many it is.

Just my two cents.