Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed
The bad teacher from Ferris Beuller's Day Off feels he has uncovered a conspiracy that Intelligent Design advocates are being persecuted against, and warns the world of the evils of evolution. Wow. Just wow. This may well be one of the worst films I have ever seen. Let's count the ways, shall we?
I will admit in advance that this is more of a rant than a critical essay like my usual reviews. I will comment in this films dishonest tactics, its horrid message, and just how morally reprehensible this thing is. And I warn you all. I get mad. Really really f**king mad. Also, I am not trying to attack religion. There are many religious people in my life and they are all really good people that I would lay down my life for if given the chance, from my family, which is predominantly Christian, to my friends who come from a wide variety of colorful and fascinating cultures, some familiar, some not so much. You can believe what you want as long as you don't harm anyone. The people who made this film have done a lot of harm. My rage is not directed at religion. It is directed at the monsters who made this film.
Ben Stein is a man we all know. His monotone delivery has proven a very great way to get the giggles going, from such classics as Ferric Beuller's Day Off, to a guest appearance of Freakazoid, to the Clear Eyes Commercials, and his game show Win Ben Stein's Money. What a likable character, right? Nope. Ben Stein shows who he really is in this movie, a closed minded bigoted fool. He constantly refers to evolution as "Darwinism" And the "Darwinian Gospel" But he is not alone in his asshole rants. He is joined by several martyrs of the ID movement who were removed from their jobs not as a result of their ID advocacy, but because they broke several regulations within the community whilst advocating it, some of which could have been easily fixed. Their scenes basically consist of "Oh, poor me. The evil evolutionists are so mean." And Ben Stein constantly praising their efforts in the face of "Darwinist wrath." It is enough to make you sick. His constant bad puns and lies of omission, especially by us people who know what the f**k evolution is, really gets you going. He tries to paint himself as a crusader for truth and justice, and argues that ID being kept out of schools is a threat to freedom. Some of us actually read the laws and are aware that ID is just a front for religion and schools are a government institution, so that would count as the government forcing religion onto people. That and some of know about the whole Wedge Document, which blatantly states that the end goal of this movement is not to give ID and evolution equal time, but to get evolution out of schools, period. Gee, it is almost Ben Stein is telling manipulative lies on behalf of manipulative liars.
The treatment of the interviewees from the opposite side of the spectrum is reprehensible, and you can really see this by their reactions in the film. People like P.Z.Myers and Richard Dawkins were duped into taking part in this documentary when the producers sent them requests claiming they were doing a documentary called Crossroads, and claimed to be part of another company called Rampant films, and even put up a fake web page for the interviewees to do research and see if the project was legitimate. The requests for the interviews were saved by Dawkins, Myers and others and immediately after this film was released, they were released to the public, showing clear manipulation and deceit on the part of these filmmakers. This is most visible during the climactic interview with Dawkins. During the first part of the interview, he is level headed and calm, speaking eloquently and politely. Once Stein begins to slam him, his reaction when he realizes he has been duped is heartbreaking. Say what you will about the man and his attitudes, there is no way you cannot feel sympathy for him at that moment. This is f**king wrong. That is a real man who realized he got swindled, and I feel immense compassion and sympathy for Dawkins having to go through this. Dawkins later said that since he now felt he had to be more careful and lest trusting of people, thus the joy in his life was "significantly diminished." I may not agree with Dawkins, but I will take his side over Stein. At least he isn't a lying sack of shit. Oh, and the interview is awful as well. Stein hammers Dawkins and forces him to say things that make it seem like he advocates ID secretly, then tries to guilt trip him into theology at the end of the interview. Real classy, asshole. If there is a God of kindness and love, It will take Dawkins over you any day.
Let's talk about the films technical aspects. They suck. Cinematography is typical documentary types of things, but there are also clearly skewed moments that try to paint ugly pictures of certain things. By far the film's worst moment as an art form (and there are plenty) is the segment when Stein begins to go on a rant blaming Darwin and evolution for the Holocaust. Apparently he decided to forget that one of the things evolution teaches is that diversity in a species is a good thing, so Hitler was effectively hurting out species in his vain attempt to destroy diversity. DUH! The film reaches one of its countless low points when Stein walks into the Darwin museum and goes up to the statue of Darwin, which is photographed to make him look like a monster, and Stein looks at him with sorrow filled eyes as if he is looking at a tyrant. Tell you what people, switch the subjects around and you got it right. Also, the people advocating science are often shot in darkened rooms making them appear sinister and evil, whereas the ID advocates are shot in naturalistic, outdoor or well-lit environments to make them appear good and nice. Fortunately, I can still hear words, and the people in the dark rooms are not spewing bullshit.
Lets talk about the lies, I mean the lies, I mean the lies, I mean the writing...lies. This film is so full of blatant in your face lies I am baffled by the fact that no one involved with this said "Hey, shouldn't we be more honest with this thing?" Oh wait, the ID movement is built on lies. Now it makes sense. There is quote mining abound in this exercise in depravity. One of the most notorious moments is the end of the "Evolution made Hitler do bad things." Segment where Stein quote mines from Darwin's "The Descent of Man" to make it appear that Darwin advocated genocide. Here is how Ben Stein read it in the film.
With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated. We civilized men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination. We build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed and the sick. Thus the weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. Hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.
Now here is the actual quote plus the next paragraph.
With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We civilized men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination. We build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed and the sick; we institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one to the last moment. There is reason to believe that vaccination has preserved thousands, who from a weak constitution would formerly have succumbed to small-pox. Thus the weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but excepting in the case of man himself, hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.
The aid which we feel impelled to give to the helpless is mainly an incidental result of the instinct of sympathy, which was originally acquired as part of the social instincts, but subsequently rendered, in the manner previously indicated, more tender and more widely diffused. Nor could we check our sympathy, even at the urging of hard reason, without deterioration in the noblest part of our nature. The surgeon may harden himself whilst performing an operation, for he knows that he is acting for the good of his patient; but if we were intentionally to neglect the weak and helpless, it could only be for a contingent benefit, with an overwhelming present evil.
Funny how the people who made this garbage accused evolution of leading to Nazism but then they themselves used common Nazi propaganda tactics to get their message across. A deliberate editing of a good book to make it appear evil. Hey, people who made this movie. You know there is a really bad sin called "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" right? Of course you do.
Oh, but there are more such low moments. One such sequence is a terrible cartoon sequence where someone is told they can win the first cell on the planet of they get 250 slot machines to go off at the same time and in the correct order, and the scene concludes with a cheap jab at Richard Dawkins. Truly the mark of the "glorious place" that Stein claims religion leads you to, you know compassion for your fellow man and all, unless they are atheist I guess. Several clips from several classic films are seen as well, with The Day the Earth Stood Still used to make fun of the alien seeding theory and Planet of the Apes used to show evolution as a bully against a good old fashioned God made man. One such moment was thankfully not included in the final cut. Stein used the song Imagine, you know, that great awesome and beautiful John Lennon song, as juxtaposed it over scenes of communist Russia. Fortunately, his widow was so disgusted that she sued the producers for twisting the late Lennon's words and by the time the court case died, it was too late for them to put it in the film.
By far the film's worst point is the extended segment where Stein blames evolution for the Holocaust. This segment features horrible images of Nazi concentration camps, actually takes us to several of the locations where the atrocities were carried out, graphically describes how the people were killed, and it goes on, and on, and on, and on. Whatever I didn't puke up before, I puked up here. They even get the author of some piece of shit book blaming Hitler on Darwin to say "Oh, Darwin totally did the Holocaust, man." They make vague references to sections of Mein Kampf as being inspired by Darwin. Hey, that's great. How about you show them? No? Well how about I read the book myself. Now what is this that I read? Hitler talks about God and creation and says he feels he is guided to do what he does by God? OOPS! The disregard and lack of caring for these 12000000 people who were maimed, tortured, mutilated, hanged, chopped, broken, raped, cut and burned and the callousness it would take to use them as a tool to vilify an opposition whose only crime is the desire to spread knowledge is the lowest of the low. The fact that Ben Stein, a Jew, got behind this cheap shot shows how little he truly cares about the Holocaust. He simply uses it and the victims, some of which were his own family members as a trump card. How big of a creep can you be?
The film's final act of depravity is the ending, where ben Stein sends out a call for people to fight for ID. Guess what he says? You guessed it. "Anyone? Anyone?" What a whore.
I hope to God this review finds the people who made this, because I have something to say.
I don't think you realize just how nasty what you made is. If you are a creationist, that is fine, show me some evidence that has not been debunked, and test it. That is all we want from you. That is not what you do here. All you do is accuse the greatest minds of the past several centuries of being responsible for some of the biggest most evil crimes the world has ever witnessed. How dare you. How dare you shovel these innocent people out of their graves just to slander science. You accuse them of being cheap on human life, but the fact that you felt so little compassion for these dearly departed souls that you merely saw them as a tool for this...thing shows that you are the ones who don't care. Ben Stein, shame on you.
This is one of the most astoundingly ugly and evil things I have ever witnessed in my life. These assholes are extremists who are no better than those behind the Spanish inquisition and Islamic terrorism. They are hate mongers and nothing more. It is filled with blatant falsehoods, lies and shall we say questionable tactics by its creators, none of whom have anything to be proud of for making this bigoted tripe, and if there is a hell, I am pretty sure that all responsible for this travesty just signed none wave able reservations for their places, because this movie is a sin. A sin that was punished as the people who made this film eventually went bankrupt. Was this sin punished by God or by society, or by a mixture of both? Doesn't matter. It was punished.
All people want from advocates of ID is evidence that can be tested and not just rants. But they are not interested in evidence. They are not interested in truth. This movie shows what their real goals are. They want to rape their religion into the world.
And let me drop the bomb right now. To those who don't already know me, I believe in the possibility of God and Gods, but I don't believe in this vile, hateful, deceitful excrement made by big mouthed boneheaded bigots. This "documentary" would make Joseph Goebbels blush. It is absolute trash and I would no sooner se ever copy of this miserable, mean and callous piece of shit thrown into a volcano. But we don't want to do that. We might hurt the lava.
f**k this movie. f**k the devils who made this movie. f**k the devils who support this movie. Yes. I am talking to you Chuck Norris. When I get home for break, I intend to show this film to my mother, a Christian and an evolutionary biologist and proud to be both. I bet she will be even sicker than I am.
