Stupidity (2003)

Director:

Albert Nerenberg

Genre:

Documentary | History

Plot:

An exploration into the nature of stupidity in Western society and its history of our perception of it.

Plot Keywords:

Stupidity | Ignorance | Knowledge | Intelligence | U.S. President

Awards:

1 win

Cast

George W. Bush	...	Himself
Noam Chomsky	...	Himself
John Cleese	...	Himself
Coolio	...	Himself
Drew Curtis	...	Himself
Salma Hayek	...	Herself
David Lawrence	...	Himself
Bill Maher	...	Himself
Michael Moore	...	Himself
Fred Napoli	...	Narrator
Albert Nerenberg	...	Himself
Geoff Pevere	...	Himself
Adam Sandler	...	Himself
Joel Schumacher	...	Himself
Paul Spence	...	Himself
Steve-O	...	Himself
Josey Vogels	...	Herself

Directed by
Albert Nerenberg

Produced by
Shannon Brown	....	producer
Jesse D. Ikeman	....	consulting producer
Albert Nerenberg	....	executive producer

Original Music by
The Morons

Film Editing by
Albert Nerenberg
Adam Nicholls

Visual Effects by
Jedrzej Jonasz	....	visual effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Richard Boddington	....	additional cinematographer
Alain Dahan	....	camera operator

Editorial Department
Marc Roy	....	first assistant editor

Other crew
Rina Barone	....	production coordinator

Production Companies

• Documentary Channel
• Trailervision Inc.
• Téléfilm Canada

Distributors

• Microfilms Inc. (2004) (Canada) (DVD)
• Disinformation Company (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• BuzzTaxi Commincations Inc. (Canada) (TV)
• National Film Network (????) (USA) (DVD)
• Trailervision Inc. (Canada)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

Canada:61 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Documentary Channel

Movie Connections:

Features "The Red Green Show" (1991)

Stangely fascinating

I just watched this "documentary" and think it was quite interesting. I do understand some of the critique in the comments here regarding the way this movie is edited and in how it doesn't fully fit the "documentary" description.

Anyway, I guess most have missed the point of why the movie is edited like this. The basic point of the movie is setting up the question what it stupidity, what is intelligence (and I think the whole explanation of the IQ-test and the source of terms like "idiot", "moron" and "imbecile" pretty much hits the nail that many who spew their intelligence in our faces are in fact pretty stupid but can't see it) and why is it that in an advanced age like we live in it is possible that clear stupidity spreads out to so many levels of our daily lives.

This movie is not just explaining terms and getting lost in its modern flashy editing like many criticize. In a way I found myself thinking strongly outside my personal box like up to now I only experienced with documentaries by Adam Curtis. So to me the movie worked, although i fully agree that in some way this movie is kind of incoherent. But the movie is served in a hypnotizing modern advertising way and pumps information and thesis in your head like normally brand slogans work but delivers quite the opposite. You do not get a clear message, you rather get many questions and I think most people don't even come close to think about many of these... although they are evident and necessary because a clear and immense stupidity dominates our daily lives. So this movie rubs your face in it any you start to connect the dots... and you need to think, you cannot simply consume this movie.

I just saw Adam Curtis "Century of the self" last week and its astonishing to see the parallels in how a society that de-evolved on the basis of morons like Freud and Bernays whose basic premise is a misanthropic "man is stupid"-idea that tops idiocy of with the fact that the men who realized that man is stupid think they can lead and control stupidity... although they are men themselves and therefor equally stupid and proving this right by doing something as stupid as dumbing down the masses and lying to them. Its these people that we can thank for a nihilistic society that has implemented loads of stupid ideas into a daily live that they consider "normal".

"Stupidity" moves across many subjects... media, internet, the idiotic way of how mankind shits in their own front-yard, still bashes their heads in like apes and praises faith and blind belief-systems that are far from being intelligent. And it closes the circle in pointing out how all this fits on modern politics.... guess what, your bush-Bashing is also implemented. But this point is true... watch this and Century of the self and you get the scary picture in how it all moves back to Bernays and the faulty history of psychology. Is not just the recent American political leaders... its a system that slowly creeps into our head and installs the acceptance of stupidity as normal. Watching the recent debates with McCain and Palin or seeing how the media feeds on unimportant nonsense like names or crappy veteran stories... it clearly got worse. And this system works the same in Europe as I can see in daily German media regurgitations. Its in politics, in economics (like the sub-prime-crisis and its fallout clearly show... this is not intelligent, its stupid. But if our elites consider the plain concentration on making money intelligent... only then a system of loans packaged and resold, shrouded to be seen not today but in 20 years when the shrouded bomb explodes can not be seen as plain stupidity working on egoistic short-sighted and ignorant motives like in the age of cavemen), entertainment, science, it came from advertising, infected every part of society and has become normal.

The questions may seem unimportant... but no one seems to ask anymore. Why do we watch TV, why do we watch commercials treating us like children and even buying whats advertised, why could we evolve into a species that is splitting atoms, reaching to the skies and close to cloning themselves but yet be unable to equally progress on a social level??

In that way the movie is more intelligent than most of those elites who consider the human race stupid but don't include themselves... the makers of this movie call themselves idiots. And this is the point... we all are and its OK. But if some think they are intelligent by feeding the idiot in most of us... this is plain spiritual emptiness, this is stupidity on the highest level and to me this his right where this movie is aiming at ... its aiming at all of us who have to remember "Everything you know could be wrong!".