The Power of Nightmares

The Power of Nightmares
by Adam Curtis

The Power of Nightmares
List Price: $22.99
Category: DVD
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DVD details

Actor: Various
Director: Adam Curtis
Producer: Adam Curtis
Writer: Adam Curtis
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Dolby, Full Screen
Running Time: 180 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-03-31
Studio: Triad Productions LLC

DVD Reviews of The Power of Nightmares

DVD Review: Poor video quality detracts from even most expensive version
Summary: 5 Stars

My 5 star rating is for the content only. As others have already adequately reported, this Adam Curtis documentary is excellent and should be seen by all. However, the $22.99 version which I just purchased is the same low quality MPEG4 conversion as the lower-priced products. The video is very grainy and is not even close to the quality of the original BBC-TV production. My advice: Watch this on Google video or YouTube; if you must have the DVD, opt for the cheaper versions. Don't waste your money on the $22.99 edition.

It's criminal that there is no high quality version of this important documentary available at any price. Shame on the BBC for failing to create such a product. Amazon UK offers no version of The Power of Nightmares whatsoever. One really has to wonder if someone doesn't feel threatened by what Curtis has to say.

DVD Review: A must see for every citizen
Summary: 5 Stars

Others have done a fantastic job summarizing the plot. I simply want to reinforce what they have said. The documentary is amazingly well done and a must watch for every citizen.

DVD Review: Neo-Conservative and Islamic Fundamentalist philosophies...
Summary: 4 Stars

... like Communism DO NOT WORK!! And have destroyed modern society rather than helped it in any way. Power of Nightmares explains the method of these bogus political systems.

Neo-Conservative philosophy being a system that lies to it's citizens in order to establish a looming fear and darkness that we all must fight. This system really just creates a government that spends far too much money on buying weapons and fighting wars everywhere. An fool can see such a system can only bankrupt a country, and create neurosis on it's citizens after being told how much fear they should have.

The Islamic Fundamentalist movement is also absolutely bogus and obviously destructive. Another movement based on creating fear and does absolutely nothing beneficial. A great example of how and why religions decay any reason out of the brain and inflame violence. All religion is capable of such rottenness, the creators of this wonder movement are just ahead of their time.

These shows do a great job showing how both movements have many similarities. I found the most troubling to be how these philosophies are based on a pessimistic attitude toward freedom, a complete distrust of people and their individual freedom. Any movement that distrusts peoples freedom and how they want to use it is clearly fascist and dumb. These shows present a great story of the great illusion. The visual quality of the DVD is poor, not the source material, looks to be a bootleg.

DVD Review: Great Film - If You Don't Watch It Don't Give An Opinion
Summary: 5 Stars

I am a historian, as well as a novelist. I don't consider myself enlightened by any means but I do consider myself a step above many when it comes to seeing through the propaganda that is prevalent in any political system.
I was a student in the middle-east and I could see how demonized many int he region were made by mainstream American politics/media/Hollywood and I understood in 1998 that eventually something was going to snap...
This film does an excellent job of showing how even though the Neo-Conservative movement and the Islamic Fundamentalist movements are two completely different organizations, that they are in fact, based in a very similar belief first seen in 1950's America by two different men, a University Professor and an Egyptian Student in Colorado. The two ideologies are nearly identical, one stays in America and eventually lays the foundation for the Neo-Conservative movement, the other returns to Egypt and becomes part of the infamous Muslim Brotherhood.
At this point, the two belief structures grow further apart, but their core belief remains the same. The liberalism that was becoming prevalent in post-war America was a decadent force on the strength of the nation... and both factions chose to fight against it in their own way... one through a return to Islamic Fundamentals, and the other through a return to Patriotic idealism.
A very interesting look at a process from a very intellectual point of view, not a "chop" film that you would find from the likes of Michael Moore...

Highly recommended...

DVD Review: A Brief Synopsis
Summary: 5 Stars

Here's a brief synopsis of this film: a nutcase is a nutcase is a nutcase. And both the neocons and jihadists fit the bill perfectly. There's a definition of insanity currently making the rounds: that it's doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. But that can also be a symptom of just plain stupidity. A much better definition is doing something totally outrageous and expecting a result completely at odds with common sense and historical precedent. Perfect case in point: one of the Islamic jihadists who helped plan the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat actually believed that seeing the president assassinated would make the people see how corrupt the political system was and they would rise up in rebellion; whereas a sane man would have known that it's precisely in times of national tragedy that people cling all the more tightly to the status quo. Needless to say, this nutcase came in time to see not just the politicians as corrupt but the people themselves. So, too, the neocons set out to destroy Bill Clinton, who they hated; they actually imagined that once the impeachment proceedings began the people would see how corrupt he was and rise up in support of his imeachment. And, of course, they were horrified when the exact opposite happened. Which leads to the most telling piece of both the jihadist and neocon ideology: both believe that personal liberty - individual freedom - is the major symptom of a society's moral decay. Just think about that a moment: these idealogues see an ordinary citizen's freedom to make choices about his or her life as the number one symptom of moral depravity, because it somehow destroys shared social values. At this point, you can simply rest your case; these are people who are about as removed from reality - especially the reality of humanity's continual struggle to gain and keep some measure of freedom - as any madman who ever lived. Both the jihadists and neocons constructed a fantasy world based on the same hyper-exagerated notion of good versus evil; and to make it work they both had to invent an enemy who represented absolute evil. Among the legion of parallels and ironies to be found in this film, perhaps the most ironic is that Osama bin Laden, who appears to be the most sane, most rational of the jihadists. became the very one the neocons demonized.

The only slight reservation I have about this film is its suggestion that ideas play a determining role in the sociopolitical world. Whereas, actually, for every apparent triumph, at least of the neocon ideology, you can plainly see that there are big monied interests who stood to gain from those ideas. And now that those ideas have become counter-productive, they're quickly falling out of favor. Professor Leo Strauss may have been the father of the neocon ideology, but rest assured it was the Rockefellers, Mellons, Astors, Vanderbilts, DuPonts and their business interests that allowed the neocon ideology to attain prominence. And it's those same interests that will relegate the neocons to the historical dustbin now that there's nothing left to be gained from them.

Description of The Power of Nightmares

The Power of Nightmares, subtitled The Rise of the Politics of Fear, is a BBC documentary film series, written and produced by Adam Curtis. The series consists of three one-hour films, consisting mostly of a montage of archive footage with Curtis's narration, which were first broadcast in the United Kingdom in late 2004 and have been subsequently aired in multiple countries and shown in several film festivals, including the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.

Part 1: Baby It's Cold Outside Part 2: The Phantom Victory Part 3: The Shaddows in the Cave

The films compare the rise of the American Neo-Conservative movement and the radical Islamist movement, making comparisons on their origins and noting strong similarities between the two. More controversially, it argues that the threat of radical Islamism as a massive, sinister organised force of destruction, specifically in the form of al-Qaeda, is in fact a myth perpetrated by politicians in many countries and particularly American Neo-Conservatives in an attempt to unite and inspire their people following the failure of earlier, more utopian ideologies.

The Power of Nightmares has been praised by film critics in both Britain and the United States. Its message and content have also been the subject of various critiques and criticisms from conservatives and progressives.

This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

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