Documentary film views

In the last few days, I watched three documentaries. All interesting, some disturbing.

First was This Film Is Not Yet Rated, which exposes the scam that the MPAA really is when it comes to its ratings system. It's a totally arbitrary system that has nothing to do with rating content, it has to do with putting a box office expectation on a film. The best thing about it though was that the filmmaker hired an investigator to figure out who the ratings board members were. Then he submitted the film itself to them, which is hilarious.

Who Killed The Electric Car? tells the story of the development and disappearance of all-electric cars. It draws some solid conclusions about why they got killed off, and it does partially blame consumers. Still, it's the car companies, the oil companies and governmental units that piss you off the most. It also draws a very important conclusion that hybrid enthusiasts already get: That the plug-in hybrid is the next logical step in terms of fuel efficiency. I'd certainly buy one.

I watched about two-thirds of Jesus Camp before I had to stop. Unlike the other two, this one is not narrated, it just follows the kids and the whacko evangelicals around. I couldn't watch the entire thing because it's too disturbing. These young kids crying and speaking in tongues and being told they've gotta repent or go to hell... that's just screwed up. This crazy "youth pastor" thinks that Muslims all do this same thing with their kids, and she wants to breed an "army" to fight that. What she's doing isn't any different from the jihadists who talk kids into terrorism. In a lot of ways, she's worse, because she's right here under our noses. These people pervert the true message of Christianity the way terrorists do the true message of Islam.