| Mar162008 | Review: Zeitgeist |
Have you heard of Zeitgeist – The Movie? It is film aptly described as “internet bullshit“. Long story short: I am greatly intrigued by the film’s content but I absolutely detest the film itself.
Zeitgeist is a big conspiracy movie that is meant to make you outraged and fight the power. Open your eyes. It plays out in three acts: 1) Modern Christianity is mostly plagiarised and exercised as political power 2) 9/11 was a staged event to justify starting wars 3) Megalomaniacal bankers at the Federal Reserve and other places are enslaving the world with debt.
I don’t know about you but those three points could certainly be unnerving. I shall retreat to common ground, here’s how I agree with the movie:
- Religion can be a brutal and dangerous form of control. The Bible as a book is a pretty crappy read until you start digging into how it arrived in its current state and the invisible hands behind it all. I went through as much of a Da Vinci Code phase as everybody else.
- 9/11 provided more than enough fuel to start these insane wars. The Bush administration abused the trust that its citizens gave them in a time of crisis. Military contractors are getting stinking rich off all of this.
- There is far too much personal debt in America. The dollar is in a very bad place.
Aaaand… there’s a whole bunch of crackpot shit that I don’t agree with. Well, ok, I don’t necessarily disagree but this movie has all the tact of the homeless guy ranting about how the government microchipped him so they could use a satellite to rig his lottery tickets and count his poops. If there is a real argument that 9/11 was a false flag operation then that argument is diminished by this movie.
Seriously, Zeitgeist is a complete and utter failure as a movie. It is frustrating and hypocritical, using the same bullshit tactics that the government uses to terrorise you into hating all Arabs, the same propoganda that religion delivers to scare you into letting them dictate your sex life. The movie assaults you with sensationalist arguments, replays the same footage of planes crashing into the towers for dramatic effect (Seriously? Fuck you guys.) and presents little to any response from the other side. This movie makes you think Michael Moore ain’t such a bad filmmaker.
I watched this movie with a group of friends at at various times, we all kind of scoffed at their technique. Whether it was three straight minutes of sound bites repeating the word “explosion” or a picture of the Earth with a badly drawn cage around it. Or newspaper clippings and photos presented in negative colour with lots of ominous music playing. Or the stock footage of a disembodied eye, shown opening wide as if we have finally realised the truth. The truth!
The movie appeals to the same vulnerabilities, prejudices and ignorance that drives people to become religious nuts or to surrender to a totalitarian government. Like in Life Of Brian when Brian tells everyone they are all individuals.
I don’t completely reject the ideas presented in the movie. I want to know more about the historical origins of Christianity. I want to know how it was abused by Roman politicians and whatnot. I want to hear the conspiracies about 9/11. I want a way to fix the crimes of the current administration. I’d love to hear what all the fat cats are doing with my tax money. But this movie is an insult to our intelligence. To believe the arguments put forth in Zeitgeist is like taking up Kabbalah on Madonna’s advice.
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