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

3 wins.

Cast

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

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.

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Plot Keywords:

propaganda | creationism | christian fundamentalism | paranoia | darwinism | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Documentary

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie was promoted by Motive Marketing, who created several novel initiatives to raise interest in the movie. The "Expelled Challenge" provided schools with $5 to $10 for each "Expelled" ticket stub from the first two weeks of the film's release, up to a maximum of $10,000. To "maximize your school's earning potential" they suggest a "school-wide mandatory field trip". "Adopt-A-Theatre" will provide $1000 to the five largest group ticket bookings. Anyone who took a group of 25 or more to see the movie could send in for a free Ben Stein "bobblehead" doll.

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Goofs

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

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Quotes

Ben Stein: What if after you died you ran into God, and he says, what have you been doing, Richard? I mean what have you been doing? I've been trying to be nice to you. I gave you a multi-million dollar paycheck, over and over again with your book, and look what you did.
Richard Dawkins: Bertrand Russell had that point put to him, and he said something like: sir, why did you take such pains to hide yourself?
Ben Stein: [voice over] But, if the Intelligent Design people are right, he isn't hidden. We may even be able to encounter God ...

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Connections

Referenced in Faithful Word Baptist Church: Evolution & the Big Bang (2011)

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Soundtracks

Love is in the Air
Written by Harry Vanda and George Young
Performed by John Paul Young
Published by J. Albert & Son Pty Ltd.
Courtesy of Sony-BMG under license form Piedmont Music Company

User Reviews

I Keep Seeing Dumb People . And They Don't Realise They're Dumb

To paraphrase a passage from Professor Richard Dawkins book The Blind Watchmaker one day a primate woke up and discovered it was self aware . From that moment it started building things and because it was aware of the land , ocean and sky it came to the instant conclusion that these geographical features were also made by someone . On a similar note the oldest established religion in the world Hinduism believes in reincarnation almost certainly down to the fact that nature goes around in cycles such the seasons and the female menstrual cycle hence the believe that lives also go around in cycles . Think too of the forbidden foods in the Abrahamic religions such as pork and seafood . Eating such foods in a hot climate like the Middle East will cause you food poisoning . The ancient Hebrews would misinterpret this as God forbidding certain foodstuffs . You can see the logic and thinking behind these concepts and they do follow a recognisable logic open to interpretation and leads to a belief in creators and afterlives . However just because something is logical doesn't make it true and EXPELLED is not a documentary that concerns itself with truth

This documentary was written by Ben Stein and purports to be about scientists discriminated against by the evolution lobby at American universities . These poor people are critical free thinkers who put forward the suggestion of life on Earth and perhaps the universe itself down to intelligent design

" Whoa Theo . Lay off the big words . what's intelligent design ? "

It's a slightly refined type of creationism

" What's the difference between that and creationism ? " Creationists believe God created all life . Apologists for intelligent design would never use the word " God " have an almost identical train of thought that an intelligence of sort created life . It's like someone saying they're not a believer but they still have a surrogate new age belief along the lines of the Quakers or Bhuddhists

It turns out that if you do a quick internet search of these " intelligent design martyrs " then you'll find that there's much more to it than Stein's comments that they were victimised simply for not following the evolution crowd . Don't believe me ? Then look it up for yourself

Stein you see wants us all to believe that there's a massive conspiracy against anyone having a different opinion to the Darwinian crowd and he never misses a chance to compare it to the oppressive communist regimes of Eastern Europe . The irony of that is communist nations did away with genetics and replaced it with the pseudoscience of Lysenkoism because it was more in keeping with the Marxist doctrine of conditioning . That and the fact genetics was seen as being a reactionary concept used only by fascists

And this is where EXPELLED really scores an own goal . Despite painting scientists who believe in evolution as being on a par with Stalin he has to bring up the Nazis who were Darwinian dogmatists and that's why they murdered millions because they were replacing God with Darwin . Two facts you might want to consider here

1 ) Hitler never mentions the name Charles Darwin in Mein Kampf

2 ) Not one single Nazi leader was an atheist . All of them were brought either Catholic or Protestant . Christianity was not banned under the Nazi regime and was encouraged even though Nazi society did tend to mirror a sort of neo-Hindu paganism rather than the happy clappy vicar we are used to in 21st Century Europe . You might like to remember the Hitler oath taken by all military personnel in the Wehrmacht starts with " I swear by God this sacred oath that to the leader of the German empire ..... "

So you see there's a laughable irony to all this nonsense being put forward by Stein which does leave a nasty taste in the mouth . That said anyone with any intelligence can see through this tissue of lies and you come away with a feeling of both intellectual and moral superiority to Stein and his ID cohorts , so much so I could have given this 10/10 even though it deserves 1/10 so I'll compromise and give it 5/10

Details

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

Gross USA:

$7,720,487

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$7,720,487

Company Credits

Production Co:

Premise Media Corporation, Rampant Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min 97 min (European Film Market)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (Technicolor) Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1