3 documentaries to watch in this political season

[Chuck Bao]

In the last week, I've seen 3 drama/documentaries about America on Asian cable TV. They are all eye-opening and scary as hell.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005): I did meet some of the Enron people back in the day and took them to see the chief energy policy guy in the Thai government. It was clear to me then that they just wanted to make deals and get their corporate bonuses. They were always on the phone and always hustling business. I now wonder what happened to those people and whether they cashed out in time.

Inside Job (2010): I had no idea that this was going on at the time. Well, I did know that the credit rating agencies were all crap from the Asian Economic crisis in '97. In this case, human nature took what was previously perceived as a secure statistical bet - mortgages - and just ran with it. I was taught that in the university. In corporate America, I'm not disappointed because I expect no better. Academia, on the other hand, is terribly disappointing. What am I talking about? I should know better. My first day at the Baylor MBA program and the dean of the Hankamer School of Business told us all that our reason for being there is to make more money. Some of my classmates probably went to work for Enron. I just hope they got enough business sense from Baylor to cash out their stock bonuses in time.

Game Change (2012): If any docudrama makes you want to throw your hands up in the air, this is the one. With all the crap that we had been through, Sarah Palin was at least herself sans the political handlers. Being herself means that she didn't have a clue. Yeah, that is indeed deniable culpability in all of the mess.

These films are instructive, but some people will probable consider them just porn.

[LiveLaughLove]

You considered the video in the other thread to be "one of the stupidest you have ever seen", and yet consider Game Change to be worth watching?

A vindictive political hack is the only one that corroborates that hit piece but it thrills the left so its worth watching. Yeah, ok.

McCain himself said it's trash and completely fictitious. It was made by Obama supporters, and has zero credibility, but IT's worth watching?! Gotcha.

Just out of curiosity, let's say everything in it is true. Why would it be worth watching THIS political season? Is it to remind us of Barry's greatness 4 years ago? Or to just denigrate the Republicans and try to tie today to what was happening 4 years ago? I'm really interested in why that particular piece of fiction is must see tv THIS political year?

How about Waiting For Superman (2010) ? That's a pretty good documentary with very big political implications for this season.

Heck, why not just tell us we should be reading the Daily Kos, Media Matters and Democrat Underground on a daily basis as must reads in this political season. Same same at least for the last one you named. I don't know the other two, but I question if they were presented fairly.

[jkjsooner]

Frontline this week was really good.

[Chuck Bao]

I don’t get you here, LiveLaughLove. I have spent a day or so reading the comments and criticisms of HBO’s film “Game Change”, while keeping an open mind. Besides, most of the film does seem to confirm a lot of respected journalists’ accounts of the 2008 election, the best to my recollection. It seems that most respected film critics believe that it is essentially historically accurate.

Two chief McCain political advisers, Steve Schmidt (who was involved in the selection of Sarah Palin and had to deal with the mess later) and Nicolle Wallace (who was her handler for some time) have not questioned the film’s accuracy. Of course, the McCain and Palin camps and supporters would see this film as unfair. I’ve yet to see how they dispute the facts though.

The best comment that I read was from the San Francisco Chronicle and the film critic David Wiegand. He basically said that people would already have their minds made up before the film aired, but the important thing is what American politics have become. For those of you who haven’t seen it, maybe that is the key point to keep in mind.

Alright now go and contrast that to the cheap video clip of “if I wanted America to fail”.

I haven’t seen “Waiting for Superman” or jkjsooner’s recommended “Frontline”. I will try to see both.

[LiveLaughLove]

I don’t get you here, LiveLaughLove. I have spent a day or so reading the comments and criticisms of HBO’s film “Game Change”, while keeping an open mind. Besides, most of the film does seem to confirm a lot of respected journalists’ accounts of the 2008 election, the best to my recollection. It seems that most respected film critics believe that it is essentially historically accurate.

Two chief McCain political advisers, Steve Schmidt (who was involved in the selection of Sarah Palin and had to deal with the mess later) and Nicolle Wallace (who was her handler for some time) have not questioned the film’s accuracy. Of course, the McCain and Palin camps and supporters would see this film as unfair. I’ve yet to see how they dispute the facts though.

The best comment that I read was from the San Francisco Chronicle and the film critic David Wiegand. He basically said that people would already have their minds made up before the film aired, but the important thing is what American politics have become. For those of you who haven’t seen it, maybe that is the key point to keep in mind.

Alright now go and contrast that to the cheap video clip of “if I wanted America to fail”.

I haven’t seen “Waiting for Superman” or jkjsooner’s recommended “Frontline”. I will try to see both.

Film critics aren't historians and weren't there, how would they know if it is factual or not?

McCain said it was a bunch of bs. Who was MORE there, Schmidt or McCain? No one else besides the two you mentioned have said it is credible.

Somehow you choose to believe those two over dozens that have said it is complete bunk. Just as those critics choose to. It speaks more to your bias and theirs than it does to anything factual in that movie.

The movie was made by people that donated heavily to Obama. The actors are all Obama sycophants. Schmidt has strong reasons for trying to blame the election failure on Palin, despite the fact that MCCains numbers went up not down when he picked her.

All of the evidence leads to it being bunk, but you think it was fair.

Do you think a movie made by Sean Hannity and funded by Fox and had two insiders from Obamas camp would be accurate and fair? Of course you wouldn't.

[Sooner5030]

fast forward until the 2 minute mark in order to miss all the sensationalism.

Someone had a lot of time on their hands and managed to link so much shiat together that my head began to hurt. Damn Rothschilds.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=SMqb_WrnVTc

[Chuck Bao]

Film critics aren't historians and weren't there, how would they know if it is factual or not?

McCain said it was a bunch of bs. Who was MORE there, Schmidt or McCain? No one else besides the two you mentioned have said it is credible.

Somehow you choose to believe those two over dozens that have said it is complete bunk. Just as those critics choose to. It speaks more to your bias and theirs than it does to anything factual in that movie.

The movie was made by people that donated heavily to Obama. The actors are all Obama sycophants. Schmidt has strong reasons for trying to blame the election failure on Palin, despite the fact that MCCains numbers went up not down when he picked her.

All of the evidence leads to it being bunk, but you think it was fair.

Do you think a movie made by Sean Hannity and funded by Fox and had two insiders from Obamas camp would be accurate and fair? Of course you wouldn't.

Can you provide any examples that the film "Game Change" misrepresented historic events? Sincerely, I do want to know.

I was just going on the fact that most of the dialogue in the film involves conversations of those two McCain advisers with others. So yeah, they should know what was said behind the scenes, even more than McCain and Palin. But obviously, both McCain and Palin have their own different viewpoints of their failed election campaign and maybe there will be more films made from that.

Rightly or wrongly, I am far more fascinated by the accounts of the political advisers than I am of the politicians. Their accounts seem to me to be far more honest and with less spin than the politicians even though we have the hired spin doctors telling the tale, strangely as that sounds. I loved the book "Primary Colors". I loved the fictional TV series "West Wing" even as contrived as it was. I am sure that there are many more that I have forgotten or haven't read or seen. (Hint: that is a plea for more quality reading material).

LiveLaughLove, you seemed to have missed my earlier point, the one made by the San Francisco Chronicle movie critic, that the film is really an indictment of the US political system rather than casting aspersions against either Palin or McCain or a particular political party.

Would you at least come halfway and met me on that point?

[prrriiide]

By far, the most eye-opening one I have seen in awhile is "Money as Debt." Tell me after you watch it that you don't have a sinking feeling in your gut (unrelated to flatulence), and I'll sell you some great oil leases up east of Gatlinburg. But, it certainly explains our economic mess, the bailouts, and who, exactly, is responsible.