Unconstitutional (2004) (V)

Director:

Nonny de la Peña

Writer:

Nonny de la Peña (writer)

Release Date:

5 October 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Tagline:

Neither secure nor free

Plot:

A documentary that investigates the ways in which the civil liberties of American citizens and immigrants have been rolled back since the September 11 and the Patriot Act. |

Plot Keywords:

Civil Liberties | Civil Rights | Anti Republican

Cast

Aquil Abdullah	...	Himself
John Ashcroft	...	Himself (archive footage)
Bob Barr	...	Himself (as Former Rep. Robert Barr)
Azmat Begg	...	Himself
Tony Blair	...	Himself (archive footage)
A.J. Brown	...	Herself
George W. Bush	...	Himself (archive footage)
Vincent Cannistraro	...	Himself
Dick Cheney	...	Himself (archive footage)
Darren Christensen	...	Himself (archive footage)
David Cole	...	Himself
Ryan Coonerty	...	Himself
Kathy Culliton	...	Herself
Peter A. DeFazio	...	Himself (as Rep. Peter A. DeFazio)
Hanan Hamoui	...	Herself
Mohammed Hamoui	...	Himself
Nadin Hamoui	...	Herself
Rham Hamoui	...	Herself
Safouh Hamoui	...	Himself
Sam Hamoui	...	Himself
Jamie Hanes	...	Narrator (as James Hanes)
Douglas Heller	...	Himself
Ken Kurtis	...	Himself
David Lindorff	...	Himself
Dave Meserve	...	Himself
Geoffrey Miller	...	Himself (archive footage) (as Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller)
Michael Mori	...	Himself (as Maj. Michael Mori)
Robert Mueller	...	Himself (archive footage)
Laura Murphy	...	Herself
Donna Newman	...	Herself
Andrew O'Connor	...	Himself
Barbara Olshansky	...	Herself
José Padilla	...	Himself (archive footage) (as Jose Padilla)
Tom Ridge	...	Himself (archive footage)
Anthony Romero	...	Himself
Colleen Rowley	...	Herself (archive footage)
Donald Rumsfeld	...	Himself (archive footage)
Charles Schumer	...	Himself (archive footage)
James Sensenbrenner	...	Himself (archive footage) (as Rep. James Sensenbrenner)
Jayashri Srikantian	...	Herself
Larry Thompson	...	Himself (archive footage)
Anne Turner	...	Herself
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard	...	Herself
Vivian White	...	Himself (voice) (archive footage)
Thomas B. Wilner	...	Himself
Paul Wolfowitz	...	Himself (archive footage)

Also Known As:

Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties (USA) (DVD box title)

Runtime:

66 min | USA:68 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Public Interest Pictures

Movie Connections:

Referenced in 'Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price' - Behind the Scenes (2005) (V)

Soundtrack:

Amazing Grace

Dissecting The Patriot Act And All That It Contains

As we all have had it imprinted in our minds, some three thousand people were brutally killed on September 11, 2001 in the worst terrorist attacks ever perpetrated within our country. But the destruction of buildings, commercial jets, and human lives may not have been the only things we lost that day. A mere six and a half weeks after 9/11, a 345-page piece of legislation fell into the laps of all 535 members of both the House and Senate, and it was passed into law--without a single member in either chamber reading a page of it! That legislation was the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, or USA-Patriot Act. But as producer Robert Greenwald and director Nonny De La Pena tell us in the 2004 documentary UNCONSTITUTIONAL: THE WAR ON OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES, the Patriot Act is not about either uniting or strengthening America, nor is it truly patriotic--in fact, it is quite the opposite.

Part of Greenwald's "UN" trilogy about the malfeasances of the Bush administration (a troika that includes UNCOVERED: THE WAR IN IRAQ, and UNPRECEDENTED: THE 2000 ELECTION), UNCONSTITUTIONAL focuses squarely on what history will likely decree as the fulcrum of George W. Bush's eighty-year term as President, the Patriot Act. What we learn over the course of its 68 minute running time, however, is something that we thought we'd see only in the totalitarian governments of the past: a curbing of basic civil rights, and a specific targeting of those with an Islamic background, done specifically because the 9/11 attacks were perpetrated by Islamic extremists--despite the fact that the vast majority of the Islamic population in America wants nothing to do with political terrorism of any kind. And lest anyone think that this is just another "bleeding heart liberal" tract against the Bush cabal, the film features interviews from people with diverse political ideologies, notably very liberal Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank, and former Georgia congressman and noted far-right winger Bob Barr--both of whom decry what the Patriot Act has done. And we are also witness as to how the Patriot Act has led to the revival of sinister government surveillance activities against "our enemies" that we thought had long since been buried with Watergate, but which, because of our silent consent to the Bush Administration's wishes, have crept into our lives once more. And all of this has been draped in the American flag, and crafted for the purposes of National Security--a fairly nebulous term even during the best of times, and a dangerous, sinister, and false thing in our post-9/11 world.

UNCONSTITUTIONAL makes its point, in a low-key, matter-of-fact way, that the alleged success of the Patriot Act is, in fact, an illusion. Neither our security nor more importantly our liberty are in any way guaranteed or safeguarded by this heinous diktat. And unless we make it a point to put this false sense of security on the ash heap of history, we will lose not only the War On Terror but also everything about America that makes us truly strong--our freedom.