I have always had a great respect for Roger Ebert's ability to analyze movies. After reading his latest review, I have even more respect for Roger Ebert as a man. Apparently, ol' Ebert was given hell for not reviewing Ben Stein's film "Expelled." The film is Ben Stein's attempt to debunk science in favor of religion and intelligent design. He and his production company pointed their fingers at Ebert saying he refused to review the film because of his biased belief in the theory of evolution. Soooo, Roger Ebert told them to go fuck themselves by taking the time to write an extra lengthy review of "Expelled."
Quotes:
" It is well photographed and edited, sometimes amusing, has well-chosen talking heads, gives an airing to evolutionists however truncated and interrupted with belittling images, and incorporates entertainingly unfair historical footage, as when it compares academia's rejection of Creationism to the erection of the Berlin Wall."
"The more you know about evolution, or simple logic, the more you are likely to be appalled by the film. No one with an ability for critical thinking could watch more than three minutes without becoming aware of its tactics. It isn't even subtle. Take its treatment of Dawkins, who throughout his interviews with Stein is honest, plain-spoken, and courteous. As Stein goes to interview him for the last time, we see a makeup artist carefully patting on rouge and dusting Dawkins' face. After he is prepared and composed, after the shine has been taken off his nose, here comes plain, down-to-earth, workaday Ben Stein. So we get the vain Dawkins with his effete makeup, talking to the ordinary Joe."
"This film is cheerfully ignorant, manipulative, slanted, cherry-picks quotations, draws unwarranted conclusions, makes outrageous juxtapositions (Soviet marching troops representing opponents of ID), pussy-foots around religion (not a single identified believer among the ID people), segues between quotes that are not about the same thing, tells bald-faced lies, and makes a completely baseless association between freedom of speech and freedom to teach religion in a university class that is not about religion."
Please take the time to read the entire review as it is awe inspiring.
READ FULL ARTICLE
Thursday, December 4, 2008
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Ben Stein is only getting warmed up. He takes a field trip to visit one "result" of Darwinism: Nazi concentration camps. "As a Jew," he says, "I wanted to see for myself." We see footage of gaunt, skeletal prisoners. Pathetic children. A mound of naked Jewish corpses. "It's difficult to describe how it felt to walk through such a haunting place," he says. "Oh, go ahead, Ben Stein. Describe. It filled you with hatred for Charles Darwin and his followers, who represent the overwhelming majority of educated people in every nation on earth. It is not difficult for me to describe how you made me feel by exploiting the deaths of millions of Jews in support of your argument for a peripheral Christian belief. It fills me with contempt."
This was probably my favorite part of his whole article. "It fills me with Contempt." That single statement sums it all up. Kudos to Ebert. This was a wonderful article.
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