The Power of Nightmares

2004

Seasons & Episodes

  • 1
8.7| 0h30m| en| More Info
Released: 20 October 2004 Ended
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Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/3755686.stm
Synopsis

Examines how politicians have used our fears to increase their power and control over society.

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Reviews

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?
AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,
Cody One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Gethin Van Haanrath All of the talk of terrorist threats, sleeper cells and weapons of mass destruction seem to be quietly going away now that Obama is President of the United States. Very few people are really saying that the US was wrong, or that the neo-conservatives in power made everything up, it's just simply vanished. One day the terrorist threat level in the US disappeared and wasn't mentioned again. Now that Barry is in power is everything okay? So no one ever was convicted for these crimes against the public and few people even talk about them anymore. It's all been erased from the public's memory with new episodes of So You Think You Can Dance.This documentary is quite interesting. This is much more in depth than anything created by Michael Moore. Moore touches on a few of these topics in "Fahrenheit 9/11" but Moore himself is a political figure who supports the Democrats so can't be taken seriously.The origins of neo-con movement are well known in political-science circles but this movie tells them quite well. Leo Strauss was a philosopher who came up with these ideas and taught them to students such as Paul Wolfowitz who applied them later to US policy with Reagan and Bush (II).The movie also explores the fundamentalist Islamic revolution which never really swept through the middle-east and was limited to a small group of bandits who took hold in Afghanistan. Their story begins with an Egyptian man who has an epiphany about the moral corruption of western society and brings those ideas back to the middle east. They're always fringe and never widespread as the corporate media or neo-con governments would have us believe.All the myths of the post 9/11 age are explored here and quickly debunked. The one line the movie does not cross is saying that 9/11 was an inside job. With all the other information in the movie about the false sleeper cells and bogus security, it wouldn't have been a stretch to acknowledge that maybe 9/11 was an inside job.Comparing the neo-conservatives in the US with the Islamic fundamentalists in the middle-east isn't a new idea. Jihad vs. McWorld was a 1992 article written by Benjamin Barber which was later expanded into a full-length book.Another interesting concept of the movie is that the terrorist myth created by the US neo-cons actually may have led to a resurgence in real terrorists. The filmmakers speculate that several of the men in these groups may have played into the hands of the US myth by giving them false information about planned bombings of the Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty.This is a very effective documentary for anyone interested in the terrorist myth as created by America. It's hard to say if this story ends with the election of Barack Obama in 2008. The idea of terrorism is so ingrained at this point that Obama has to add thousands more soldiers simply to get out of the quagmire which is Afghanistan.
siderite This documentary is as astonishing as it is bold. It describes HOW we got to the current situation of fighting the war on terror, how the islamists got their ideas, how incredibly similar the mindsets of extremists on both sides are, etc.It shows stuff like how Christian extremists got to power in the US on the belief that there is a global terrorist movement "out there", idea that was invented by the CIA a few years ago to smear the soviets! And now it is not a lie anymore. The CIA tries to tell them it is all a fabrication and no one believes them. It's ridiculous!Anyway, this is a great documentary. It is politics and history of the modern world, not the dusty, re-re-re-refactored ancient history that we feed children at school. Although a bit one sided, it is a must see. I gave it a 9! Me! Go watch it!
schism101 I recently watched all three episodes of 'the power of nightmares' and found it to be the most important and eye opening documentary of recent years. Like his recent documentary (the trap), Curtis has produced a series that goes beyond the one way system of daily news reporting to something that strips away what we perceive as a threat to our world and our civilization and to look at its origins and its truthful existence. 'The power...' focuses on two movements, the Islamic movement and the American Neo-conservative movement, there origins, there battles to overthrow and instill there ideology in positions of power and to eventually the confrontation between both movements, set off by the events of 9/11. Curtis inter-cuts the interviews with key figures from both sides and also analysts on the subjects, with archival footage from films and news reports, to show how both movements started off on ideology's that would eventually agree with each other particularly during the Russian Afghanistan war of the 1980's. Yet a small group of extreme Islamist funded by Bin Laden, eventually broke off, with no enemy to fight or revolution to instill, they declared a war on America, eventually leading to the attacks on New York, September 11th 2001. Curtis comes to the conclusion that the threat of Al Quieda, has become a fantasy, enforced by the Neo cons and also taken on board by the British government, to instill a purpose for there selected governments, rather than being leaders who promise a bright future, they become leaders who will lead against the rise and threat of terrorism to there people and to there way of life, even though the threat is non-existent and becomes a phantom enemy. Curtis' series is well written, researched and engaging in showing you the true and stark picture behind the disinformation regularly given in the daily news and television media. Its also good to see the BBC producing documentary's of this quality in an age where TV is slowly becoming a succession of reality TV shows, and celebrity 'dancing on ice competitions.' This documentary treats its audience with intelligence, its demanding viewing, yet is rewarding. Check out Curtis' later documentary 'THE TRAP: WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR DREAMS OF FREEDOM,' again another insightful series. Your are being lied to!
eandubh I've seen the three BBC episondes as they are available online - in rather poor quality versions, that is. And I know that the film maker condensed it into a theater-length movie, and received acclaim at Cannes over it. He proclaimed that he didn't want the "Michael Moore treatment" - too bad! A little showmanship might have brought the film to the United States, where it has been basically excluded, censored, omitted and overlooked. That more accessible movie-style version is NOT being shown in the US, nor is it, apparently, available on DVD - which of course is a shame, since the film exposes much of the thinking behind the US' current maniacal drive to empire. Not only has the documentary never been aired on American TV - the film seems to have been very thoroughly and effectively suppressed - something to think about the next time you use the phrase "free country."

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