In the musical 'Chicago,' Billy Flynn sings a song about how he thinks the world works: Just wow them, and they'll fall for it. This film is a prime example.
It wows you by bombarding you over the head with images and sounds, quite shocking to the average viewer, and because of the way it is put together, it seems quite compelling. However, looking a bit closer after an initial viewing shows that the film is nothing more than paranoia-mongering.
The film starts off with an 'overture,' in which music that sounds like that of Philip Glass (that is, if Philip Glass was stupid and drunk) plays over repeated images of explosions and other stock footage, eventually coming to the image of an airplane striking the World Trade Center, along with a picture of a hand writing "2+2=4," when other hands wrench the paper away from him, and replace it with a Bible and a folded American flag. It then fades to black with what looks like a Windows Media Player backdrop, where a is talking about 'establishments' that are meant to control you. It then moves to George Carlin's "Invisible Man in the Sky" monologue, before going into the film proper.
The film consists of three parts: 1. The Greatest Story Ever Told 2. All The World's A Stage 3. Don't Mind The Men Behind the Curtain
The thing about the film is that it's very slickly edited. After it's overture, it seems to turn somewhat more mild. The very first four words of part one, spoken by the writer/composer/editor Peter Joseph: "This is the sun." From there, it moves on to talk about how Jesus was ripped off of several other deities from other civilizations, which are all identical sun gods, throwing in 'son god.' After spending time discussing Christianity and other religions, and coming to the conclusion that 'religion is the fraud of the age,' it moves to part 2, where it makes a very startling accusation indeed: The United States Government planned, carried out, and covered up the 2001 September 11th attacks. Then in part 3, it talks about the Federal Reserve, and how it has been behind all of our economic crises and wars, and how there is a 'New World Order' waiting to come and enslave us all.
But the sad fact is, there is not a single original thought in this entire film. Part 1 is essentially a pitch for authors such as Dorothy Murdoch, aka Acharya S., who has written a number of books that argue Jesus never existed and was in fact plagiarized from earlier religions, a theory that has never been accepted by mainstream scholars.
Part 2 is virtually indistinguishable from the myriad of 9/11 'Truth' Films - Loose Change, 9/11 Mysteries, etc.
And Part 3 is essentially Aaron Russo's 'America: Freedom to Fascism.' Peter Joseph even takes Russo's word about the "RFID chip" that is supposed to be used to control us.
And, it is about as factual as it is original. Here are just a few of the myriad of falsehoods in the film.
1. A large bulk of the 'Jesus sun god' line in Part 1 rests on the contention that Jesus was born on December 25th. While that is the traditional date used for Christmas, no religious source actually gives a date. There were several dates used for celebration. Even today, many Orthodox Christians around the world celebrate Christmas on dates that are not December 25th, such as in January.
2. In part 2, they make the contention that the hijackers are still alive. This was a very popular talking point for 9/11 conspiracy theorists for quite some time, but it is simply false. The source of this is a BBC article. After the list of suspected hijackers was released, some people with the same names as the suspected hijackers called in to voice their confusion. However, the fact of the matter is that they shared only the same name. The BBC later admitted that it was a case of mistaken identity. It also defies logic that these 'conspirators' would leave their 'hijackers' to blow the whistle in this manner.
3. In part 3, it claims that there is not law that requires you to pay an income tax. This is a lie, plain and simple. It is right there in the Internal Revenue Code, for anyone who isn't lazy to read. This point was proved wrong when Russo said it, and Mr. Joseph has no excuse for repeating it.
4. He says that the 16th Amendment is unconstitutional. Nobody seems to complain much about the other twenty-six Amendments, though (unless you're Ann Coulter and you think women shouldn't have the right to vote or something), which are all unconstitutional by similar standards.
5. He talks about the cause of WWI, with the Lusitania. He talks about a conversation that seems to imply that the sinking of the Lusitania was planned. He argues that the Fed and the people behind it wanted the ship to sink so they could go to war. Well, he fails to say exactly what the 'men behind the curtain' did to cause it. He says that they wanted it to happen, but he does not offer a shred of evidence to support the notion that the 'men behind the curtain' caused it. Even more egregiously, he makes no mention of the Zimmerman Telegram. As influential as the sinking of the Lusitania was, it was the Telegram that caused the US to enter war.
There are people who say that this is the most important documentary of our time, and others say that it doesn't matter if everything the film says is false, and that the point is that it makes you think about things.
Lies do matter. And when this film that purports to destroy lies is made of lies itself, you need to reconsider the merits.
It wows you by bombarding you over the head with images and sounds, quite shocking to the average viewer, and because of the way it is put together, it seems quite compelling. However, looking a bit closer after an initial viewing shows that the film is nothing more than paranoia-mongering.
The film starts off with an 'overture,' in which music that sounds like that of Philip Glass (that is, if Philip Glass was stupid and drunk) plays over repeated images of explosions and other stock footage, eventually coming to the image of an airplane striking the World Trade Center, along with a picture of a hand writing "2+2=4," when other hands wrench the paper away from him, and replace it with a Bible and a folded American flag. It then fades to black with what looks like a Windows Media Player backdrop, where a is talking about 'establishments' that are meant to control you. It then moves to George Carlin's "Invisible Man in the Sky" monologue, before going into the film proper.
The film consists of three parts: 1. The Greatest Story Ever Told 2. All The World's A Stage 3. Don't Mind The Men Behind the Curtain
The thing about the film is that it's very slickly edited. After it's overture, it seems to turn somewhat more mild. The very first four words of part one, spoken by the writer/composer/editor Peter Joseph: "This is the sun." From there, it moves on to talk about how Jesus was ripped off of several other deities from other civilizations, which are all identical sun gods, throwing in 'son god.' After spending time discussing Christianity and other religions, and coming to the conclusion that 'religion is the fraud of the age,' it moves to part 2, where it makes a very startling accusation indeed: The United States Government planned, carried out, and covered up the 2001 September 11th attacks. Then in part 3, it talks about the Federal Reserve, and how it has been behind all of our economic crises and wars, and how there is a 'New World Order' waiting to come and enslave us all.
But the sad fact is, there is not a single original thought in this entire film. Part 1 is essentially a pitch for authors such as Dorothy Murdoch, aka Acharya S., who has written a number of books that argue Jesus never existed and was in fact plagiarized from earlier religions, a theory that has never been accepted by mainstream scholars.
Part 2 is virtually indistinguishable from the myriad of 9/11 'Truth' Films - Loose Change, 9/11 Mysteries, etc.
And Part 3 is essentially Aaron Russo's 'America: Freedom to Fascism.' Peter Joseph even takes Russo's word about the "RFID chip" that is supposed to be used to control us.
And, it is about as factual as it is original. Here are just a few of the myriad of falsehoods in the film.
1. A large bulk of the 'Jesus sun god' line in Part 1 rests on the contention that Jesus was born on December 25th. While that is the traditional date used for Christmas, no religious source actually gives a date. There were several dates used for celebration. Even today, many Orthodox Christians around the world celebrate Christmas on dates that are not December 25th, such as in January.
2. In part 2, they make the contention that the hijackers are still alive. This was a very popular talking point for 9/11 conspiracy theorists for quite some time, but it is simply false. The source of this is a BBC article. After the list of suspected hijackers was released, some people with the same names as the suspected hijackers called in to voice their confusion. However, the fact of the matter is that they shared only the same name. The BBC later admitted that it was a case of mistaken identity. It also defies logic that these 'conspirators' would leave their 'hijackers' to blow the whistle in this manner.
3. In part 3, it claims that there is not law that requires you to pay an income tax. This is a lie, plain and simple. It is right there in the Internal Revenue Code, for anyone who isn't lazy to read. This point was proved wrong when Russo said it, and Mr. Joseph has no excuse for repeating it.
4. He says that the 16th Amendment is unconstitutional. Nobody seems to complain much about the other twenty-six Amendments, though (unless you're Ann Coulter and you think women shouldn't have the right to vote or something), which are all unconstitutional by similar standards.
5. He talks about the cause of WWI, with the Lusitania. He talks about a conversation that seems to imply that the sinking of the Lusitania was planned. He argues that the Fed and the people behind it wanted the ship to sink so they could go to war. Well, he fails to say exactly what the 'men behind the curtain' did to cause it. He says that they wanted it to happen, but he does not offer a shred of evidence to support the notion that the 'men behind the curtain' caused it. Even more egregiously, he makes no mention of the Zimmerman Telegram. As influential as the sinking of the Lusitania was, it was the Telegram that caused the US to enter war.
There are people who say that this is the most important documentary of our time, and others say that it doesn't matter if everything the film says is false, and that the point is that it makes you think about things.
Lies do matter. And when this film that purports to destroy lies is made of lies itself, you need to reconsider the merits.