Now, this summary of reviews of the recent documentary “America” is interesting and amusing:
In short, only 12% of professional movie critics liked it, while 82% of the regular schmoes who actually went to see it of their own volition liked it. On the one hand, it shows the sort of divide we’ve come to expect in the country. On the other hand, it’s really not that surprising. A movie like this – with an avowed and unabashed “America is a pretty great place” message – is bound to attract the sort of people who will agree with that message, and so long as the movie is competent, will probably like it. Movie critics, on the other hand, *live* in a world of pretend and make-believe, and thus “America is good” is a message they’re just not going to be able to readily process.
My own review: it was ok.Parts of it were good and important, such as calling out scumbags like Alinsky and Zinn and Ayers and Ward Churchill (who admitted on camera that he’d basically like to see the US nuked out of existence), but seemed kinda flat much of the time. An opportunity was lost in that the movie didn’t really match the title: “America: Imagine the World Without Her.” To me, this *screams* of alternate history. And it does start out with a “historical re-enactment” that takes a counter-factual turn. But it doesn’t really follow up on that. It could easily have filled several hours showing a world where America failed in some way… lost the Revolution, fell apart in the War of Southern Aggression, fell to Wilsonian national socialism, the Nazis got the bomb first, etc. Oh, well.
But if you want a primer on where the modern American anti-America movement came from, or if you want to drag a lefty pal to a flick they’ll just hate, then this is the flick for you.
There’s also a book (which I haven’t read):