IN THEATERS 12/9/2005This movie, originally broadcast as a BBC mini-series, takes a look at radical Islamists and neo-conservatives--and filmmaker Adam Curtis is able to draw a surprising number of parallels between them. Charting the histories of both ideologies, Curtis examines their origins, their goals, and the way they are presented in the media, creating an interesting movie that challenges preconceptions while remaining informative and factual throughout.
Adam Curtis has become the most exciting documentary filmmaker of our time. He's at once a psychologist, a historian, a journalist, a wizard of images, and a fearlessly incisive cultural detective who delves beneath the hidden myths of the modern world.
Curtis' The Power of Nightmares finds that the basis of 21st century political power is fear. And for nearly three hours he makes it very hard to argue it's not.
Curtis weaves a satisfying, explain-it-all narrative which, like any good conspiracy theory, provides considerable comfort for those who fear the world really is as unknowable as the neo-cons have warned.
Problematic as it is, this is that rare kind of political film that makes a good faith effort at getting its viewers to look at the world in a different way.
a 3 pt documentary film on the link between radical islamists and the neoconservative movement. fascinating stuff and mostly very plausible. all the films of adam curtis can be found here--> http://thoughtmaybe.com/video/the-power-of-nightmares
July 26, 2009
Stella Dallas
Super Reviewer
This is an excellent three-part BBC documentary which traces the origins of radical Islamism and American Neo-Conservatism to a mutual hatred of post-WWII US liberalism. To the Neo-Conservatives, liberalism was to blame for an epidemic of selfish individualism that threatened to tear American society apart, while the
Islamists were equally alarmed about the corruptive influence of this perceived 'moral decay' on the Muslim world. The Neo-Conservatives' solution: to create a unifying, mythical Nightmare that would bind society together. Initially they did this by exaggerating the threat posed to the United States by the moribund Soviet Union. The radical Islamists solution: a campaign of violence that would shock the Muslim masses back to the Qur'an. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 provided the Neo-Conservatives with just what they had been looking for since the collapse of the Soviet Union left them with an 'Evil Incarnate' vacuum to fill: a 'global terror network' of jihadists called Al-Qaeda.Although the final episode perhaps smacks a little too much of conspiracy theory, on the whole the The Power of Nightmares is beautifully put together and very persuasive. If I can nitpick, the use of music is effective to begin with but I was sick to death of those couple of bits of Eno, Ennio and John Carpenter after three whole hours! Adam Curtis has struggled to get his film seen in the US but at present it is available on the Internet Archive. Essential viewing for anybody trying to make sense of the times we live in; see it while you can.
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