Photos
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Featured review
A Record on the New Fascism
One of the things that this film brings to the forefront of the viewers' minds is the very issue of what a documentary is. Granted, one can only work with the footage one has, but how much of the film has to be planned, staged, written, researched and what of all this in the end counts toward the quality of the film? I think it is safe to say that if a documentary is not true, that should count against it in the quality field. Michael Moore's documentaries, while often entertaining and engaging, suffer heavily on this count because they manipulate facts and events that, when placed in context, often do not support the final thesis. Film is very powerful in giving the illusion of veracity and I think it should count against a documentary when something that is false is portrayed as truth.
Conversely, the presentation of facts and reality is one the strongest elements of the documentary filmstyle. In that realm, "Brainwashing 101" is a good film. The issue of free speech on campuses is a very important one and while Michael Moore is giving scholarships to liberal "troublemakers" on campuses, Evan Coyne Maloney shows a university system that violently stifles the speech of students who disagree with the established liberal speech codes and ideologies. The film effectively contrasts how polite political (but ideologically "improper") discourse is often countered with official university persecution, criminal persecution and threats of violence.
The best segment in the film comes from when a Sukhmani Singh Khalsa, a conservative Muslim student, wrote an article condemning liberal bias at the university and one student responded by writing in an e-mail to the university issues committee saying "The next time you see one of these ragheads, shoot him right in the f****** face". The result was a textbook example of university double standards in which the threatened student was not warned by the administration and the offending student not investigated or reprimanded in any way.
Sure, you could talk about the editing schema (decent) or the comic timing (needs more tweaking), but to avoid the content of the film to criticize the aesthetic is missing the point when the film is about the content, as this one is.
Note: I've seen the 45 minute version of this film that is available online via the link listed at the bottom of this post.
http://academicbias.com/bw101.html
Conversely, the presentation of facts and reality is one the strongest elements of the documentary filmstyle. In that realm, "Brainwashing 101" is a good film. The issue of free speech on campuses is a very important one and while Michael Moore is giving scholarships to liberal "troublemakers" on campuses, Evan Coyne Maloney shows a university system that violently stifles the speech of students who disagree with the established liberal speech codes and ideologies. The film effectively contrasts how polite political (but ideologically "improper") discourse is often countered with official university persecution, criminal persecution and threats of violence.
The best segment in the film comes from when a Sukhmani Singh Khalsa, a conservative Muslim student, wrote an article condemning liberal bias at the university and one student responded by writing in an e-mail to the university issues committee saying "The next time you see one of these ragheads, shoot him right in the f****** face". The result was a textbook example of university double standards in which the threatened student was not warned by the administration and the offending student not investigated or reprimanded in any way.
Sure, you could talk about the editing schema (decent) or the comic timing (needs more tweaking), but to avoid the content of the film to criticize the aesthetic is missing the point when the film is about the content, as this one is.
Note: I've seen the 45 minute version of this film that is available online via the link listed at the bottom of this post.
http://academicbias.com/bw101.html
helpful•24
- matthias-6
- May 24, 2005
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime46 minutes
- Color
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content