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The Money Masters (1996)
"The Money Masters was Terrible" - Benjamin Franklin
This was the worst documentary I've ever seen. 3 and a half hours - ugh. I wasn't even able to enjoy it ironically.
Here are the main issues against my enjoyment:
*)There's no production value, no creativity in the scenes.
*)There's no music.
*)There is one, skinny-faced man talking at you for 3 and 1/2 hours.
To make things worse, it seems the film was either researched from conspiracy newsgroups in the 1990's, or it was all a delusional dream from the filmmaker.
The thesis reminds me of Scientology. Like Dianetics, there are bits of truth scattered about to suck you in - for example, the Federal Reserve isn't a purely public institution. Moneyed people have power. Alright, keep going! Then it hits you with a whopper: the fed is 100% private and owned by the Illuminati (which they call the Money Masters), Fort Knox is empty, and this international evil cabal wants to create a "one world currency" to enslave us foreverrrr!!!!
As evidence for the more outlandish claims, the film features some hilariously bad quotes. For example,
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and the corporations which grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson
If you've read any Thomas Jefferson, or any writing from people in the early 19th century, this doesn't pass the smell test. Deflation wasn't even a word at the time.
"Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency: their sole object is gain." - Napoleon Bonaparte
WHAT?! Again, this doesn't even sound like Napoleon. It's actually from a book printed in the 30's.
"The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credit needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers. The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of Government, but it is the Government's greatest creative opportunity. By the adoption of these principles ... the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity." - Abraham Lincoln.
Again, not even close. This is from a book in the 1930's.
I could do more quotes, but you get the point. Every other one I looked up was entirely false or taken out of context.
A scholar reads first-hand sources. If they quote Napoleon or Thomas Jefferson, it's because they read Napoleon or Thomas Jefferson.
Nobody involved with this film was a scholar.
"This was the worst movie ever made" - Benjamin Franklin