Kristine
Posts: 3061
Joined: Sep. 2006
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Garbled message on intelligent design, but another bad review: | Quote | I went into Expelled with an attitude that a certain ex-girlfriend of mine would have called condescending. The prospect of a pro-Intelligent Design documentary sounded so batsh*t crazy, it had to be awesome, watching intellectuals spin a story about how they're persecuted for their beliefs. Not to say I didn't give it a fair chance, but they made it really easy for me..
The film opens with shots of oppression, from the construction of the Berlin Wall, Eastern European politicians, guillotines and gangsters. That's the Triumph of the Will technique right there. They even get Planet of the Apes in there at one point. When the gunslinger speaks in a grizzled dubbed voice, "Creationists," it's outrageous.
Ben Stein's point of view is not a religious one. It's about freedom, so that's hopeful. Of course people should have the freedom to explore any belief. You can instantly feel his bias though. He plays devil's advocate with total insincerity, blatantly leading his interviews. My issue is not with a documentarian leading interviews, it is the blatant part.
First of all, I would have gone to greater lengths to verify the reasons for Richard Sternberg's firing. Someone suggests there's more to it than a single paper mentioning Intelligent Design, but they are dismissed. For another terminated professor, they do include some soundbites from her superior.
Stein tries to be Michael Moore, staging an difficult search for the Discovery Institute to demonstrate how minimized it is. Is a shot of Stein scratching his back supposed to be humor? There's even a Bowling for Columbine style animated segment, which is a total agenda piece and it just feels like an A-hole bully.
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Which came first: the shimmy, or the hip?
AtBC Poet Laureate
"I happen to think that this prerequisite criterion of empirical evidence is itself not empirical." - Clive
"Damn you. This means a trip to the library. Again." -- fnxtr
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