Please Remove Your Shoes (2010) User Reviews

A look at the reality (and failures) of air passenger security

[lectureral · 6/10 · 11 April 2011]

Anybody who has been through airport security with a critical mind must have wondered just what is the point of frisking the 80 year old lady in front of them, what danger a bottle of water actually represents and whether there is really any point in removing one's computer from its case.

The answer this film gives is, as a lot of people suspect, that this is all security theater - designed not to increase security but rather the perception of security. It's main concern is to give the traveling public reassurance rather than actual safety.

Narrated by former TSA agents and air marshals, this film gives an alarming insight into the reality of airport security. The testers of security (red team) who were beating security so often that they were withdrawn - they made the agency look bad. The focus on whistle-blowers rather than the real concerns which they illuminated. In one case the screeners caught the water bottle at the top of the bag, removed it and passed the bag back to the red team member with the assembled bomb still in place at the bottom of the bag.

This film is a damning indictment of the bureaucracy that is the TSA. It also should be a real worry to anyone who is planning on flying anytime soon.

Brilliant documentary on the problems with airline security

[uriahsw · 10/10 · 10 April 2011]

This documentary provides a brilliant analysis, by people who have worked in the field, with excellent backgrounds in security.

It begins with a pre-911 analysis on the flaws with the old pre-TSA system. Showing how there were a significant amount of flaws that existed for a long time, and how security personnel were systematically stopped from doing their jobs.

They then go on to analyze the post-911 and post-TSA periods, showing how the TSA politically evolved, interviewing several people who were involved in its creation, and talking to specialists who currently (or recently worked there).

The documentary reveals some amazing information on probes done by likely terrorists, harassment of federal air marshals by the TSA, and how the TSA has setup a giant bureaucratic security theater. Leaving air marshals to conclude that air security, is worse than it was pre-911.

An amazing documentary, and well worth watching.