Relevant and Memorable

Rating: 9/10 (20 March 2006)

It's a great film. It's not a masterpiece of cinema though. But it's a movie about ideas and it's a movie about people moved by them. It points a stern finger at the politicians of today, a reminder that their constituents are not sheep nor lemmings. What little action appears in the film is overshadowed by its premise: the idea of freedom, and how one man allows people to remember what freedom is.
Scariest part of the film: the trucks driving the streets listening and recording conversations in homes. We already have illegal wiretapping, the government asking for access to emails and what should be private records, our personal information being shared by corporate entities for their own profit. Fear is instilled in the hearts of the populace as avian bird flu scares, terrorist attacks that were narrowly avoided, epidemic outbreaks where only the government has the vaccine appear in the government-controlled media.
We need to be certain that, above all else, freedom of the press is assured. It's easy to control the masses when the press are telling you believable lies.
When we finally wake up and decide to say, "Enough is enough...you have taken too much!" it may be the day you're "black-bagged" because a neighbor ratted you out. I'd love to say, "Well, things aren't that bad yet..." but it'll be past time for saving if we don't put the brakes on the downhill train soon....