Control Room
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Movie Reviews of Control Room
Movie Review: "People like victory, not justifications."
Summary: 5 Stars
Imagine the following scenario:
Washington D.C. has been attacked by an invading army. After intense bombing and thousands of civilian deaths, our nation's Capital is occupied and our government overthrown. Now, I wonder how unbiased the western press would be in this situation. What is unbiased in this situation?
After watching Control Room, I find Al Jazeera's coverage of this invasion to be far superior to that of any western network. Why? Because they are actually covering it. What the hell happened to the media in this country? They have lost their backbone. They have been completely emasculated by corporate interests. Thirty years ago, the U.S. media helped to stop the unjust war in Vietnam, not with propoganda, but with ACTUAL reporting, primarily with their cameras. If the American media showed the real human cost of this war, as Al Jazeera does, then the American people would not stand for the criminal actions of the Bush administration. Some Americans may think it ironic that some Arab press is more free than their own.
The FACT that the U.S. military purposely targeted foreign journalists is absolutely disgusting. What is more disgusting is the American public's complete indifference. This kind of intimidation is inexcusable - reprehensible! Whomever was responsible for this should be severely punished.
The right-wingers will say that this movie is propaganda, as they did with Michael Moore's film. Don't believe a word. Remember, this network is despised equally by both the Bush administration and fundamentalist Islam. Both parties claim that Al Jazeera is propaganda for the other side. They must be doing something right.
Movie Review: Some people need to open their eyes
Summary: 5 Stars
I feel sorry for Charles Little and PC Pro. This movie has apparently gone way over your heads. To say that they were not showing both sides is a clear sign of your own biases. The American military pr guy got lots of air time to assert the justifications he was given by his governmen for why the US had invaded Iraq. And he seemed like he genuinly believed the high minded morals that our government told him they were following. Read your history. The US government has used the military on numerous ocasions to further it's corporate interests. And it has backed murderous dictators who could even be called terrorists, such as Pinochet and yes even Sadam Hussein. Where in the world do you think he got the chemical weapons that he used to gas his own people. He got them from Bush Sr. when he was vice president. At least 30,000 Iraqi citizens have died so far in george's unjustified war, and the majority of those deaths have been civilian Iraqi's, not soldiers. How is it "biased" for a news channel to show the cost in human life that everyone, except maybe pseudo-king george, brings. Is it hard for you to see atrocious stituation that the farce of a president that you voted for has created? Does it make you feel guilty? Well it should. It's easy for you to sit hear and criticize a point of view that calls for the end of the war when it's not your neigborhood being shelled on a regular basis. How disgusting is it that while george tells our brave men and women in uniform that they are "fighting for our freedoms" he is safe and sound in the whitehouse robbing us of those very freedoms.
"Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither"
Benjamin Franklin
Movie Review: Much better than Fahrenheit 9/11
Summary: 5 Stars
As an educator who teaches modern media studies, I found this documentary to be first class. Jehane Noujaim directed the fantastic documentary Startup.com and in Control room Noujaim continues to enlighten and inform. Many other reviewers have laid out the plot and the specific elements so I won't go into them here. I will say that films like this which show how the American media is tightly linked to governmental agendas should be required viewing on all college campuses. In fact, they should be made available to all US citizens. The media in many other countries is state controlled; a dangerous state of affairs, however, America prides itself on its freedom of speech. This is a fiction that lulls us into a sense of superiority. Control Room shows how powerful governments such as ours seek to control the images and content not only of its own media but also the media of other countries.
Lately I have collected a wonderful group of DVDs to share with my students. They are diverse in style and content but they share a common vision: to question the authoritarian control which is creeping ever more insidiously into our Democracy. Here are a few of the best:
Control Room (see above)
Unprecedented (shocking and well researched),
USA The Movie (moving, unique fiction and reality)
Outfoxed (convincing and entertaining)
Distorted Morality (Chomsky's fight)
All are available through Amazon. I suggest them to anyone who enjoyed Control Room.
Movie Review: Unbiased reporting vs. propaganda
Summary: 5 Stars
While there are documentaries about the Iraq War, this may be the most significant one today.
"Control Room", the documentary covering Al Jazeera, focuses on the station's unbiased and uncensored reporting of the Iraq War. While Al Jazeera shows the brutality taken from American forces, some U.S. stations hear rumors from Central Command that Al Jazeera is showing propaganda. However, as an Al Jazeera reporter points out, there is no objectivity in war. There are two opposing sides, and the American reporters have only interviewed officials from the U.S. military's information bureau, the Central Command. And Central Command has its own agenda.
This is a shocking documentary on a different level. "Control Room" shows that there is no mercy in war. Both American and Arab news stations sense something fishy when the U.S. Central Command shows a deck of cards of 52 Iraq officers who are most wanted, but refuses to disclose the deck to the news stations. Censorship is easily imposed in wars, as well as fear. The film forces viewers to question all reporting on the American side, from the color-coded terror levels in newscasts to the "propaganda" from Al Jazeera. It forces viewers to question what information is truly biased or propaganda.
Especially in the wake of the upcoming U.S. elections, it is important to watch this film and remember the censorship and inconvenience that was spread by the U.S. government and Central Command. This is a must-see film.
Movie Review: a balanced view with a point
Summary: 5 Stars
I rate this movie much higher than Fahrenheit 9/11. This is a balanced view of the war with its tragedies, loss, suffering and pain. Jehane Noujaim has done an amazing job of portraying the picture of the other side without getting biased. This movie is not about any propaganda but about journalism and the choices journalists get (specially in middle east) and the options open (or close to them).
In the western world we typically jump about democracy in middle east - the prime savior of a democracy is the free press. But then again we like the free press in Arab as long as they praise the western civilization. So when in the Arab world when Al-Jazeera tries to work towards free press and free speech Bush and his cronies are so angry. This is the essence of democracy and the way to live with it is to accept it as an aspect of life. Instead we see that US military destroys the Al-Jazeera bases.
When you compare these journalists to Bill O'Rielly then they look like saints. Somehow we as American's have to get out from this idea of "you are in our side or their side" - the world is all too grey and there is too little black and white.
I loved the documentary and after a long time saw something completely unbiased. I promise you will like it too. It dispels some of the picture that Fox draws of the Arab world - we should not forget that it was the Arab world which created the Persian civilization and at a time when the western world was still up in the trees