Barbara Kopple’s “Harlan County U.S.A.”

Barbara Kopple’s “Harlan County U.S.A.” is a documentary about a violent miner’s strike, however the storyline is almost non existent, it seemed to jump around without cluing in the audience as to what was happening. Then just when you thought the end was in sight, they went back on strike, two more times! The songs from this film were catchy and made you feel compassion for the striking miner’s. Not quite as catchy as the songs from “Drive” but that film had some very catchy songs! This film featured “The Voice of God” narration from a woman, which is an interesting touch. I’m not entirely sure but I think Barbara Kopple might have gotten beaten up in a scene, where it was dark, you heard shots and the sound of bats hitting people and she was screaming, the camera was being thrown around. overall the film could have been shortened and given a better storyline, and it would have been a better film, but it is an important topic that needs to be discussed.

Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 911”

Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 911” has a nice story that has that watchability that other documentaries have lacked.  Is the whole story in this film true?  That is not for me to decide, although he did show the fear that was used to get people to act in a certain way, and as a child in middle school I remember during this time that we were told that one of the malls in my hometown of Evansville, Indiana was a target of Al Qaeda.  I remember thinking are they really that stupid? This documentary contains lots of interviews and stock footage, but the stock footage was more entertaining than most documentaries. If it is true it does raise questions. 

Dinesh D’Souza’s “2016: Obama’s America”

 Dinesh D’Souza’s “2016: Obama’s America” presents a lot of information but I felt a defiant bias in this film.  This film is not one i would watch again heck I could barely make it through the film the first time.  The narrator is just so monotone, and even though you think this information is important, it is still hard to watch. I learned from this film that Obama’s dad was not a good dad, but for some reason Obama still idolizes him and wants to earn his fathers approval.  This film had a ton of interviews, a ton of B-roll, some stock footage and audio of Obama giving speeches.

Andrew Rossi’s “Page One: Inside the New York Times”

Andrew Rossi’s “Page One: Inside the New York Times”  lets the audience take a look at the newspaper business, which is in the midst of a downward trend as far as business goes. This film is shot in a similar documentary style to the mocumentary “The Office” both the American and the British version. But instead of showing you that it is making fun of corporate America, it does it more subtly in that it is a serious film but it seemed to poke fun at what is wrong with the way things are done in business. I was surprised to learn that the New York Times has 1,200 people on staff in the newsroom and that was after they laid off 100 people.  This film is biased from the media side of things, but their is not a real way to avoid that. 

Errol Morris’s “The Thin Blue Line”

This film had a very “talking heads” type of feel to it.  It consisted of looking at the same event from several different peoples perspective, which included interviews with literally everyone involved. This film might have had more of impact on me if I hadn’t seen shows like The Practice and Law & Order. The Thin Blue Line makes you wonder if this man was wrongly convicted, but he is not really all that likable of a character. This is the kind of thing that scares people about the court system.