Interesting but speculative
–
MrEdtheTalkingHorse –
2013-01-06
I got this film as I was curious about Mr Obama, and I found that it had a lot of interesting details, the subject's parents meeting at Russian class (at the height of the Cold War), the family background and the virtually invisible father. It certainly shows that Mr Obama had an interesting childhood, and that the company that Mr Obama has kept gave him a very politicised upbringing, but politicians tend to be like that. He is not unlike the British Milliband brothers in that respect (Labour Party politicians). The half-bother in Kenya is an interesting chap, but the film perhaps overplays its hand in suggesting that Mr Obama might wish to help his half-brother.
The narration does tend to speculate about Mr Obama's views, without making overt accusations, but I don't think that other left-wing Democrats (as opposed to 'centrist' Democrats etc.) would differ much from Mr Obama in their world view. One of the film's themes is that Mr Obama might wish the USA to be less influential in the world, but then again, so would Ron Paul and traditional 'isolationists', would it really hurt if the USA had a foreign policy like Brazil, which appears to have no enemies? However, the film suggests that Mr Obama's view is that he is happy for other nations to grow in influence relative to the USA, and some of the speculation as to the future for the Middle East might be actually close to events developing in Egypt, across the Maghreb and into Syria and over to Iran.
For me, I see little difference between the Bush II and Obama administrations, Obama has not jettisoned the adventurism of Bush II, and has accelerated spending faster than Bush might have had he had 3 terms, and the major difference is the Zombie re-birth of Hillarycare from the 1990s.
The end of the film, if anything, underplays the prospects for an economic collapse on the back of the enormous debt piled up in the last few decades, as the debt becomes un-repayable and unserviceable.
The format of the film is enjoyable, the presenter is engaging and he clearly sees the USA as a land of opportunity, and is grateful for the chances he has had and taken, and he does address head-on the question of what holds back African-Americans, but Rome wasn't built in a day. He gives an outsider's view of America, from the inside.
Overall, I found that the film posed some interesting questions which are worthy of debate. Many reviews take issue with the film without clearly expressing why, resorting to name-calling.
We now have three years to wait to see if any of it comes true.