Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (2008)

Ben Stein examines the issue of academic freedom and decides that there is none when it comes to the debate over intelligent design.

Director:

Nathan Frankowski

Writers:

Kevin Miller, Ben Stein

Stars:

Ben Stein, Lili Asvar, Peter Atkins

2 wins.

Cast

Credited cast:
Ben Stein	...	Himself - Host
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lili Asvar	...	Sara
Peter Atkins	...	Himself
Hector Avalos	...	Himself
Doug Axe	...	Himself
Adam Behr	...	Multiple animation voices (voice)
David Berlinski	...	Himself
Walter Bradley	...	Himself
Bruce Chapman	...	Himself
Anderson Cooper	...	Himself (archive footage)
Caroline Crocker	...	Herself
Richard Dawkins	...	Himself
William Dembski	...	Himself (as William Albert Dembski)
Daniel C. Dennett	...	Himself (as Daniel Dennett)
Michael Egnor	...	Himself

Storyline

Academic freedom is being suppressed, says Ben Stein. He contends that professors from around the United States are being fired from their jobs for promoting, or even exploring the possibility of, intelligent design as an alternative to Darwinism. Stein interviews the expelled academics and other supporters of intelligent design. He also interviews the scientists in the mainstream, who support Darwinism. Stein links Darwinism to Nazism, Communism, eugenics and abortion. Vintage clips of educational films and Hollywood movies are used to illustrate points in a satirical way.

---

Plot Keywords:

christian fundamentalism | propaganda | paranoia | creationism | religion versus science | 

---

Taglines:

Big science has expelled smart new ideas from the classroom...What they forgot is that every generation has its Rebel!

---

Genres:

Documentary

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for thematic material, some disturbing images and brief smoking

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 April 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Crossroads

Filming Locations:

Baylor University, Waco, Texas, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$2,970,848, 20 April 2008, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$7,690,545

Company Credits

Production Co:

Premise Media Corporation, Rampant Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min (European Film Market)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (Technicolor) Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Nickolaus Pacione was aware of the film going around for free on YouTube, the critical shot was Debbie D with her photo being noticed as far as Iran. Pacione didn't mention the film once in his own thesis "The Transparent Confession" but calls the film "Irresponsible on Ben Stein's part" because Ray Comfort commits blatant plagiarism on The Origin of Species, Rational Wiki did an analysis of the film then Pacione provided insight on Jackson Hole Bible College (Eric Hovind infamous Alma Mata.) Pacione did a critical shot of the young earth creation vs. evolution stalemate in 2004 called Lake Fossil with his science fiction debut.

---

Goofs

While walking through Paris, a camera man can be seen walking backwards in front of them holding a large black umbrella.

---

Quotes

Ben Stein: Hasn't this all been resolved? I mean, aren't we all Darwinists now? Except for a few cranks like you?
Paul Nelson: Well, it's a funny thing that questions that aren't properly answered don't go away. This question is loaded with all kinds of political baggage. But one on one, in a scientific meeting, after the third or fourth beer, my experience has been that many evolutionary biologists will say, yeah, this theory's got a lot of problems.

---

Connections

Referenced in Creation in the 21st Century: How to Talk to an Evolutionist About Creation (2008)

---

Soundtracks

Personal Jesus
Written by Martin Gore
Performed by Johnny Cash
Courtesy of Universal Music Entertainment
Under license from EMI Music Publishing

User Reviews

If I.D. proponents were hoping to look smart by making this movie, boy are they crazy!

It's common knowledge that actor and game show host Ben Stein was a speechwriter for President Richard Nixon, but does anyone know if he was a good speechwriter? Judging from his new documentary, Expelled, which argues that the discussion of intelligent design is barred from academia, Stein couldn't hold an argument with a mute clown. The film jumps all over the place with its ideas, setting up and knocking down the most obvious of strawmen and making leaps of logic, making him about as coherent as a schizophrenic homeless man. And, man, is he obnoxious about it. Imagine Michael Moore with a megaphone, pressed against your ear. Stein questions his allies with faux disbelief, and his foes with raging cynicism. The film begins with a montage of professors, academics and journalists who claim to have been fired for their belief in intelligent design. What evidence does Stein have? Their word, and that's all he needs to believe them. To make it look more official in the film, there have been documents typed up giving reasons, but these are pretty clearly unofficial documents, not the actual pink slips, and we're only shown selected, highlighted words from them anyway, so there's no way to judge for ourselves. The I.D. proponents claim vehemently that their purpose is not to insert religion into scientific discussions, but Stein harps on the atheism of his enemies, and even goes so far as to point out the word "Creator" in the preamble of the Constitution. In other segments, Stein interviews evolutionary biologists, asks them leading questions and gives each of them a total of about 20 seconds of screen time to answer while Stein sits there widening his eyes at them in fake disbelief. Not once does he bring together an I.D. supporter and an accredited scientist and have them discuss the subject at any length. The only scientist who gets any more than a moment of screen time is the infamous Richard Dawkins. Yeah, we all know he is kind of a jerk. Purportedly the filmmakers had to cut his interview to pieces to make him look worse, or so Dawkins claims. You have to believe him, considering how much the rest of the film cheats. To add insult to injury, Stein comes to the conclusion that Charles Darwin and those who uphold his theories are the reason the Holocaust happened. He's quite far off by this point, if you couldn't tell. His original premise is that I.D. proponents had been expelled from academia. That may be true. If he had asked one of the evolutionary scientists why that was and let him answer without interrupting, they would have basically concluded that I.D. is not worth discussing because it does not provide an argument. Expelled itself provides no real argument, either, and should definitely be expelled from the ranks of cinema. There is no competition for the worst movie of 2008.