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Movies / On DVD / Orwell Rolls In His Grave
Orwell Rolls In His Grave

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Orwell Rolls In His Grave (2004)

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Reviews Counted:24

Fresh:19

Rotten:5

Average Rating:6.8/10

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins

Genre: Education/General Interest

Theatrical Release:Jul 23, 2004 Limited

Synopsis: Director Robert Kane Pappas’ ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE is the consummate critical examination of the Fourth Estate, once the bastion of American democracy. Asking whether America has entered an... Director Robert Kane Pappas’ ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE is the consummate critical examination of the Fourth Estate, once the bastion of American democracy. Asking whether America has entered an Orwellian world of doublespeak where outright lies can pass for the truth, Pappas explores what the media doesn’t like to talk about: itself. Meticulously tracing the process by which media has distorted and often dismissed actual news events, Pappas presents a riveting and eloquent mix of media professionals and leading intellectual voices on the media. Among the cast of characters in ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE are Charles Lewis, director of the Center for Public Integrity, Vincent Bugliosi, former L.A. prosecutor and legal scholar, film director and author Michael Moore, Rep. Bernie Sanders, Danny Schecter, author and former producer for ABC and CNN, and Tony Benn, former member of the British Parliament. ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE provides a vital forum for ideas that will never be heard in mainstream media. From Globalvision’s Danny Schecter: “We falsely think of our country as a democracy when it has evolved into a mediacracy – where a media that is supposed to check political abuse is part of the political abuse.” New York University media professor Mark Crispin Miller says, “These commercial entities now vie with the government for control over our lives. They are not a healthy counterweight to government. Goebbels said that what you want in a media system – he meant the Nazi media system - is to present the ostensible diversity that conceals an actual uniformity.” From the very size of the media monopolies and how they got that way to who decides what gets on the air and what doesn’t, ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE moves through a troubling list of questions and news stories that go unanswered and unreported in the mainstream media. Are Americans being given the information a democracy needs to survive or have they been electronically lobotomized? Has the frenzy for media consolidation led to a dangerous irony where in an era of more news sources the majority of the population has actually become less informed? ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE reminds us that 1984 is no longer a date in the future. -- © Sag Harbor-Basement Pictures [More]

Starring: Michael Moore

Starring: Michael Moore

Director: Robert Kane Pappas

Director: Robert Kane Pappas
Screenwriter: Robert Kane Pappas
Producer: Robert Kane Pappas

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Jun 7, 2005

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Reviews for Orwell Rolls In His Grave

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1 - 20 (sorted by comments)
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N/R

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Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
11/16/04
BBC

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/06/05
Film Threat
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Time Out

The war against the neo-fascists still goes on, and the outcome at this point is far from certain. Mr. Pappas' film does its part.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
07/23/04
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

...it sometimes goes off into areas that, while interesting, are pretty tangential. Still, it makes a good (and scary) case.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles CityBeat | comment Comment
07/29/04
Andy Klein
Andy Klein
Los Angeles CityBeat

A vivid and distressing documentary examination of the state of the fourth estate... a deeply fascinating must-see for anyone interested in the news, politics and civic life.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Today | comment Comment
08/03/04
Brent Simon
Brent Simon
Entertainment Today

Folks, Orwell probably is rolling in his grave, not because 1984 has come to be, but because his name is attached to such a lousy movie.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
07/15/04
Christopher Null
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com

Attacking network news seems almost quaintly beside the point at a time when the networks are hemorrhaging viewers, losing more and more eyeballs to cable, the Internet and, apparently, our nation's new habit of staring blankly into space.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
07/23/04
Dave Kehr
Dave Kehr
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Get ready for a cultural wake-and-shake you won't forget for a long, long time.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
07/22/04
David Sterritt
David Sterritt
Christian Science Monitor

Comes across as a political science course videotape rather than a movie to fully engage a general audience.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
07/30/04
Desson Thomson
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

If Pappas's aesthetic is on the rudimentary side, it's more than made up for by his sheer force of will.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
07/13/04
Ed Gonzalez
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine

Offers little that is not also explored in current agit-docs like Fahrenheit 9/11, The Corporation, or Outfoxed.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
07/20/04
Ed Halter
Ed Halter
Village Voice

Presents the bad news about the media monopolies and the many ways they are busy shredding the most precious principles of democracy.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
07/15/04
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

Even though he refuses to excise about 15 to 20 minutes of unnecessary material, Pappas is nonetheless a steady editor who, less intrepid than dogged, pieces together a sustainably intriguing, suitably distressing exposé.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
07/28/04
Hazel-Dawn Dumpert
Hazel-Dawn Dumpert
L.A. Weekly

Every incident mentioned in the film was reported in the media, sometimes ad nauseam, and the polls show that about half of Americans like where things are going.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
07/23/04
Jack Mathews
Jack Mathews
New York Daily News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

For some, Pappas' film will simply confirm everything they've suspected of the fourth estate. For others, it will be a reiteration of points they make themselves. Those who've never thought about these issues may be in for the shock of their lives.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
08/27/04
Jonathan Curiel
Jonathan Curiel
San Francisco Chronicle

A bracing eye-opener to anyone who hasn't considered the full implications of recent Congressional debates advocating further media deregulation, debates that, unsurprisingly, have been strikingly underreported by mainstream news outlets.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
07/23/04
Ken Fox
Ken Fox
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Enlightening, at times disturbing, and always provocative.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
07/29/04
Kevin Crust
Kevin Crust
Los Angeles Times

The persuasion of Pappas’ argument lies in the accumulation of original documentation, allowing the political perps to condemn themselves with their own words.

Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | comment Comment
07/22/04
Les Wright
Les Wright
culturevulture.net

Professors, pundits, journalists and one elected official, Representative Bernie Sanders (I-VT), rigorously examine the issue of maintaining a free press in an environment in which journalists are increasingly the employees of major corporations.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
08/08/04
Maria Garcia
Maria Garcia
Film Journal International
 
 
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