The People Speak

(Movie Review)

Negatives

* This isn’t really a movie so much as an audio book someone inexplicably decided to film.

* The cavalcade of celebrities is impressive, but also distracts from the message of the speeches they are reading.

* Many of these celebrities are blatantly trying to show off their acting chops, but some of these pieces might have benefited from a more subtle interpretation.

* Most of the celebrities didn’t bother to memorize their speeches, and so were constantly looking down at their lines in a manner I found distracting.

* I accept the necessity of having to dramatize any speeches made before the age of audio recording, but it is unnecessary to re-record speeches of already gifted orators like Malcolm X.

* Amerocentric—the film ignores the international aspect of many of these movements, such as the 8 hour working day, or woman’s suffrage.

Positives

* I learned a lot.

* The selected readings were very well chosen, and very powerful.

* Despite the fact that this should be really boring, it’s actually not half that bad.

* Well-paced.

The Review

          In spite of all its flaws, a very powerful and moving film. And very informative.  But I probably would have gotten just as much out of it if it had been an audiobook  instead of a movie.

Rating:

4 out of 10 stars (The message of the film gets a 10 in my book, but the rating is based purely on watchability, and not on the message of the film.)

Link of the Day

Noam Chomsky: Apathy and Anarchy 2/9/93

And on a completely different note... From cracked.com 7 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Outbreak Would Fail (Quickly)
In a previous post, I wrote that I couldn't get into The Walking Dead because I just couldn't suspend disbelief about the zombie apocalypse, and this  article sums up my views nicely.  Whenever I watch The Walking Dead, I just can never quite figure out where all the zombies are coming from and why they always manage to overrun everything.