:
Vincent Bugliosi,
Vincent Bugliosi,
Danny Schechter,
more...
:
Robert Kane Pappas,
Robert Kane Pappas
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: Go Kart
: Documentary, Political & Social Issues
: 103 min.
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Directed by Robert Kane Pappas, Orwell Rolls in His Grave questions whether the bleak, feverishly regulated world of author George Orwell's 1984 is no longer a dire fictional account of government power gone wrong but a creeping reality of recent American media trends. The film focuses on the media's least covered topic -- itself -- in an effort to trace the process by which newsworthy stories are either dismissed entirely or distorted into something more politically suitable for the heads of various media conglomerates. It also studies how influential politicos became responsible for an industry that was largely created in order to keep political abuse in check. Among the interviewees include legal scholar and former L.A. prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, film director and author Michael Moore, and Danny Schechter, a former producer for ABC and CNN. Pappas also covers the expansion of the news media and examines whether the onset of competitive 24-hour news stations has actually led to a nationally less informed public. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
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| Our Increasingly News-Free Nation
by talltale
July 4, 2005 - 8:47 AM PDT
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9 out of 9 members found this review helpful
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Initially, it may seem as though ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE is just rehashing a lot of information that those of us who pay attention to our government and its consistent lying/keeping secrets (and who've watched many other recent documentaries) will already know. Is there anyone left in America not aware of the 2000 election and the Florida recount that was stopped by the Supreme Court? Slowly, however, the accumulation of points, some of which I had not connected as well as does documentary filmmaker Robert Kane Pappas, begins to build and resonate.
More far-reaching than "Outfoxed" and concentrating as it does on our media and the myriad ways in which that media do not give us the news, this film builds its case remarkably well--despite a few small lapses (too much Michael Moore, and the unnecessary use of key words appearing, growing diminishing and disappearing on the screen). Many of Orwell's ideas from a half-century ago describe what is going on in our country all too well. Would he have been surprised that all this was happening in a "democracy," rather than in a Communist-led country? Probably not. "Democracy," as he might now explain to us, is simply a euphemism for something much darker.
In any case, "Orwell Rolls in His Grave" confirms to me why I watch less and less television and must increasingly rely on newspapers--and to nations outside our own--for some semblance of reality. I do wonder how long this can continue before there is simply no more news, and no impetus left in Americans to search for it. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 7.36)
22 Votes
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