Fulvue Drive-In.com
Current Reviews
In Stores Soon
 
In Stores Now
 
DVD Reviews, SACD Reviews Essays Interviews Contact Us Meet the Staff
An Explanation of Our Rating System Search  
Category:    Home > Reviews > Documentary > Political > Media > Orwell Turns In His Grave (Documentary)

Orwell Turns In His Grave (Documentary)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: B+     Documentary: B+

 

 

This site has been lucky and fortunate enough to cover many more of the political documentaries that have come out of the boom spearheaded by Michael Moore, but there have been a few that have been so outstanding that they deserve special note.  Joining Unprecedented, Horns & Halos and any disc with Noam Chomsky in dealing with current politics, Robert Kane Pappas’ amazing Orwell Turns In His Grave (2004) is the best examination of how the media has failed the American people and Democracy.  It asks how Orwellian the media’s behavior is today, when did it begin to turn for the worse for news and journalism and why.

 

Mark Crispin Miller, Michael Moore, Vincent Bugliosi, and many more names you should quickly become familiar with the rest of the interviewees, as you may want to revisit, read, reread and reference them again.  Using quotes throughout, often from Orwell’s 1984 and a few from his Animal Farm, punctuates all the vital points made and hardcore questions asked.  Where Moore used humor and bends his facts for effect, what is being presented and exposed here is far more inarguable.  Pappas edited and produced the intense, densely loaded, 105 minutes that is more informative than entire calendar years of 24-hour TV networks.

 

This is an amazing examination of media today and its concentration (if not over-concentration) of ownership and how the media is constructed.  I was impressed in how thorough the program was in deconstructing the myths, vicious lies and brainwashed/force-fed ideas to susceptible persons when confronted with any idea that challenges the status quo or things that are just too disturbing for overly comfortable people to want to even start to think about.  Do broadcasters have free speech rights?  Does the Fifth Amendment cover corporations all of the sudden over the individual?  Is the Internet really that much of a threat against the big media companies and is that Internet guaranteed to always be free?  For those who like free thought, a free society and have not B.S.-ed themselves into brain death, Orwell Turns In His Grave is an amazing, smart, mature, very well rounded political documentary program that is a must-see and must-hear for those who are honestly concerned and believe in a free America and free world.

 

The full frame 1.33 X 1 image is varied throughout as the video footage goes back to old black and white tape from 1979!  With that said, this does look good and is exceptionally edited.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 is a simple, clear stereo at its best and is as clean and clear as Pappas could get it.  The combination is intriguing, gritty and like few documentaries like nothing you have seen before.  The newer footage looks as good as analog NTSC video is going to look.  Extras include extended clips and interviews with various sources, including political scholars going into further detail about the problems and solutions to what is a crisis against ideas being heard.  This runs 75 minutes and is as strong as the main program.  This could have gone on for days and that is how much you will think on it after you have seen it.  Catch it as soon as possible.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


Marketplace


 
 Copyright © MMIII through MMX fulvuedrive-in.com