Average Rating: 7.6/10
Reviews Counted: 54
Fresh: 50 | Rotten: 4
Lake of Fire's engaging interviews and powerful black-and-white visuals make for a riveting and honest documentary about a very controversial topic.
Average Rating: 7.7/10
Critic Reviews: 17
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 0
Lake of Fire's engaging interviews and powerful black-and-white visuals make for a riveting and honest documentary about a very controversial topic.
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Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 2,824
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With Lake of Fire, American History X helmer and music-video director Tony Kaye climbs inside of the decades-old abortion debate for a 152-minute study of the pro-life and pro-choice positions. In the process, he uncovers not an objective black-and-white issue, but a myriad of circumstances and sub-issues of tremendous moral complexity and ambiguity. He then investigates the sub-philosophies and ideas that belie each side, with generous input and assistance from socialist Noam Chomsky, and via
Oct 3, 2007 Wide
Mar 11, 2008
ThinkFilm
All Critics (54) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (50) | Rotten (5) | DVD (2)
When the focus narrows to the personal, the film becomes undeniably powerful in its specifics.
You may not leave the theater having switched sides, but you'll probably respect the other side more, and that in itself would be a victory for human life.
At 152 minutes, his film doesn't seem long, because at every moment something absorbing, disturbing, depressing or infuriating is happening.
No one will have an easy time of it with Lake of Fire, a work of profound anguish centered on the abortion rights debate.
Lake of Fire does something with the volatile subject of abortion that neutral observers and even political partisans can appreciate: It offers a wide representation of perspectives and opinions.
A 2 1/2 -hour documentary on abortion may sound like a hard sell, but the depth and scope of Tony Kaye's grueling Lake of Fire nonetheless justifies feeling like you've just taken a long, blistering soak in one.
Doesn't aim to win converts or preach to the converted. His goal is rather to clear through the rhetoric, and look at abortion and its place in the American political dialog.
The film shows shocking footage of actual abortions in progress and the remains of aborted fetuses, as well as the appalling images of murdered abortion clinicians and the horrifying testimonies of pro-life fanatics who are convinced all abortionists shou
Lake's head-on confrontation of a problem most people simply wish to ignore is documentary cinema at its most raw and vital.
The film's focus on Bible-belting zealots seems as diversionary as those zealots' take on abortion . . . The film far too often ignores a woman's view . . . Most pundits in the film, and most critics, can turn abortion into a 'debate' because they're men.
As the U.S. elections media coverage becomes incessant, it's worth keeping in mind that actual listening to other "sides" can be enlightening.
An intense, sometimes sickening, documentary about the abortion issue in the United States which reeks of brimstone.
The most striking footage is of an abortion; the next is of hateful and ignorant Americans
Demands we throw out our preconceived notions and face the issue without walls to protect us.
Doesn't quite feel as definitive as the filmmaker intended, although I can't imagine how any film on the subject could get closer than this.
definitive documentary on the subject that is so gripping that every thinking person will be forced to confront core issues
Hardly seemed like the "definitive" film about abortion as it thinks of itself.
For all its provocativeness, Lake of Fire is not a shapeless movie, nor a politically irresponsible one.
The astonishing feat of the documentary Lake of Fire is that it takes a topic about which everyone is always telling us what to think and manages to do justice to both sides. Or rather, all sides.
Most of the footage... is at least a decade old - and the saddest commentary is that the discussion hasn't budged an inch.
Fascinating but unsettling.
Lake of Fire doesn't tell you what to decide, it just gives you as much information as possible to make the choice yourself.
An epic, nearly 3 hour documentary spanning over the course of 15 years about the highly controversial subject of abortion. It doesn't shy away from difficult-to-look-at images: it shows an actual abortion taking place as well as the remains of the aborted 5-month old fetus, it shows the bodies of Doctors gunned down
February 27, 2009Super Reviewer
'Lake of Fire' is incredibly difficult to watch at moments, specifically the images of the abortion process or pictures of women who unsuccessfully tried to perform an abortion on themselves, but its one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. It shows the wide range of beliefs pretty favorably ranging from sane to
December 8, 2010Super Reviewer
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