The Shock Doctrine

2009

The Shock Doctrine

Critics Consensus

No consensus yet.

58%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 12

64%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 440

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Movie Info

The team of Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross returns with their most intriguing provocation to date, an adaption of Naomi Klein's best-seller, which argues that U.S. "disaster capitalism" promotes its free-market agenda on the back of disasters, whether natural or manmade. A challenging, powerful vision of the world economy today.

Cast

Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein
as Narrator
Kieran O'Brien
as Narrator
Milton Friedman

Critic Reviews for The Shock Doctrine

All Critics (12) | Top Critics (1) | Fresh (7) | Rotten (5)

  • This movie, clearly assembled in haste, throws surprisingly poor archival footage into the mix with a Klein lecture, scant original interviews and a narration from on high that will brook no dissent.

    January 25, 2010

    Kirk Honeycutt

    Hollywood Reporter
    Top Critic

  • It's really the bluffer's guide to Klein, useful for those looking for an introduction to the concepts but not much else.

    November 1, 2018 | Full Review…

    Kaleem Aftab

    The National (UAE)

  • In a lucid way clears up how America is now in the midst of a severe financial crisis through questionable free market policies.

    September 24, 2011 | Rating: B | Full Review…

    Dennis Schwartz

    Ozus' World Movie Reviews

  • The worst that comes out of the documentary's final moments is the sense that Winterbottom and Whitecross ultimately don't know what their film is supposed to be about.

    January 31, 2010 | Rating: 2/5 | Full Review…

    Christopher Campbell

    Cinematical

  • Pure capitalism unmasked

    January 30, 2010 | Rating: 5/5 | Full Review…

    James Wegg

    JWR

  • A movie that describes the scorched earth policy associated with free market fundamentalism, continuing with the current occupant of the White House.

    January 29, 2010 | Full Review…

    Louis Proyect

    rec.arts.movies.reviews
View All Critic Reviews (12)

Audience Reviews for The Shock Doctrine

  • Aug 18, 2013
    "The Shock Doctrine" is an insightful documentary that starts not so innocently enough back in the 1950's at McGill University where a psychologist discovered you could use shock therapy to disrupt somebody enough to make them susceptible to suggestion and even being overwritten. As you can imagine, the CIA had a collective erection when they found out. That's nothing compared to the free market thinkers at the University of Chicago who saw what could be done with this on the national scale, first at Chile, then Argentina, and right down to the present day in Iraq. The problem is that free market capitalism does not always equate with personal freedom. Plus, as everybody found out, once you end regulation, the markets are more open to instability and wild fluctuations, thus forcing the common person to suffer under the yoke of massive inflation. Of course, they don't really care about them, since this all benefits the wealthy, anyway. While most of this might not sound exactly new, especially to those of us who read Naomi Klein's book of the same name, it is interesting to see her critical theories placed in historical context and illustrated as well as they are here.
    Walter M Super Reviewer
  • Apr 09, 2010
    The truth about economy, capitalism and modern wars. An eye opener. A must see for all.
    Serdar C Super Reviewer
See all Audience reviews

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