REQUIEM FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM (Kelly Nyks, Jared P. Scott, Peter D. Hutchison). 73 minutes. See listings. Rating: NNNN
One guy speaks head-on to the camera about how the 1 per cent in the U.S. have hijacked America’s economy – and society at large – to create brutal inequalities. Sounds like a snore, right? Wrong.
The speaker is renowned public intellectual Noam Chomsky, who quietly eviscerates neo-liberal, right-wing and occasionally liberal arguments to explain how it all happened. Directors Peter D. Hutchison, Kelly Nyks and Jared P. Scott play the same cards as Errol Morris did in The Fog Of War – like animation and archival footage – to give the film texture.
There may not be many discoveries here for progressive viewers, and Chomsky’s already appeared in over 100 docs – some, like the Canadian-made Manufacturing Consent, focusing on him alone. But here he crystallizes his ideas, using very plain language in ways every lefty should consider adopting: never strident, almost distressingly calm.
Especially helpful is his analysis of how banks have changed from lenders sought by budding businesses to speculators that now generate 40 per cent of the profits in America – mostly for their privileged execs. He also explains why democracy terrifies power elites. Even Obama is not spared.
Wish Chomsky could tell us what to do about it all.
