PG | Rottentomatoes.com Rating:10% | 2008 |
(Some disturbing Holocaust images) | Picky Flicks Quote: "Manages to be flippant and darkly provocative at once." -Rex Roberts, Film Journal International | RUNTIME:1 hr. 35 min. |
Visit:www.screenit.com for complete details | Movie Mood:  Hypothetical |
Ben Stein—Jewish actor, author, political speechwriter, game-show host, lawyer, Visine spokesperson, inexplicable conservative, and now collaborative filmmaker—has managed to make both a frustrating and provocative film about the suppression of the freedom of scientific speech and ideas in Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.
Not too surprisingly, the film has been panned by critics (most of whom objected to the material as much as the style), but unfortunately, there is a great deal of credence to their complaints. Stein’s techniques are heavy-handed and clumsy. He uses entirely too much sarcasm and “yeah right” voice intonations (when he has voice intonations—this is, after all, the monotonous economics teacher of “Bueller?...Bueller?” fame) to be taken entirely seriously.
And yet, his topic is very serious, and it raises more than a few disturbing questions about the scientific community’s willingness to even consider dissenting views—more specifically those that are associated with the theory of Intelligent Design (which, in its vaguest form, puts forth the probablity of orchestrated evolution, positing that something/someone somewhere created a blueprint that the universe must have followed to turn out the way it has).
The documentary takes great pains to differentiate ID from Creationism as it presents us with half a dozen or so cases in which well-respected, highly intelligent professors, scientists, and journalists were deliberately and abruptly black-balled for merely putting forth the possibility of ID’s being a potential putty to fill in the holes that evolutionary biology simply can’t do much more than plug its fingers in and hope for the best. In some cases, these individuals no more than mentioned that ID exists (as opposed to presenting it in a positive light). Their contracts were subsequently not renewed or terminated, and in applicable cases, tenure was denied.
Director Nathan Frankowski might have made a better impression if he’d taken a more straightforward approach rather than bombarding viewers with gimmicky cartoons, old movie footage (including the classic wizard unveiling scene from The Wizard of Oz), the Berlin wall as a metaphor, and images of concentration camp era Germany. Regrettably, instead of adding a light/fanciful touch, his methods distract from the issues at hand: 1) the inability of evolutionary biology to answer some of life’s greatest questions—how did we get here/why are we here? 2) its proponents’ utter refusal to acknowledge any other possible explanations as remotely scientific, despite an inability to provide concrete answers of their own, and 3) the far-reaching, ultimately devastating effects of a purely Darwinian mindset.
The film is clearly a personal quest for Stein, whose Jewishness comes to the forefront as he explores links between Hitler’s admiration for Darwin and the subsequent Holocaust and America’s own mid-1900’s foray into eugenics—from which arose issues such as abortion, euthanasia, and the sterilization of the mentally/physically handicapped.
And while these topics are popularly considered pet projects of the “religious right” (translation: fundamentalist evangelical Christians), Stein is not a Christian (although he is a semi-devout Jew). Neither are the majority of pro-IDers Stein interviews. In fact, the film is best served when it simply listens to those who would like to at least put ID on the table as a legitimate consideration. These are articulate, intelligent men and women who don’t sound like fanatics and aren’t frothing at the mouth. They make perfect sense and really don’t say anything more earth-shattering than: “Evolution hasn’t got it all figured out and there’s nothing wrong with asking questions and trying to find solutions to problems that have plagued us for years. That's what scientific inquiry is all about, right?”
Not according to Richard Dawkins, well-known/renowned evolutionist and atheist who froths at the mouth (his meticulously cultured British accent makes it sound—funnily enough—like he’s saying “EVILution” : )) considerably more than his ID counterparts and admits in an interview with Stein that he has “no idea how life started.” He is, however, certain that it wasn't God’s doing. He likens God to the tooth-fairy and hobgoblins—all strictly fictional, of course. Strangely enough, he says this right before speculating that life might have begun as a result of higher life forms from another part of the universe “seeding” planet Earth with its first single-celled organism. (When asked where these higher life forms—he means aliens, people!—might have originated from, he snippily says, “I’ve told you. We don’t know.” How enlightening).
After reading a number of reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, I have to agree with the consensus that the movie isn’t particularly well done. However, when one critic screams, “No more shameless, stupid and loathsome piece of propaganda has ever skulked its way into the theater,” I can’t agree. Not while Michael Moore—whom the same critic lauded as a visionary (a worldview affinity perhaps?)—is on the loose.
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is flawed, but it is also interesting and a must-see for those who think that just because you have the term scientist somewhere in your description that that in any way makes you a paragon of logic (one scientist’s description of life coming into existence as a result of piggy-backing on crystals—with no explanation of where the crystals came from—is painfully laughable) or free from bias and venom.
Perhaps what the film does best is illustrate, through several interviews with ardent evolutionists—namely during their discussions of aliens, crystals, big bangs, lightning, and any number of other hypotheses about the origin of life—that Darwinism has as much or more to do with speculation, hearsay, extrapolation, and conjecture as any version of Intelligent Design theory or—gasp—even Creationism. They state things as fact which simply cannot be known…yet…and that they simply can’t, and very well may never be able to, prove. In its clunky way, the movie makes the point that it’s called the theory of evolution for a reason. As such, other theories are not only allowed to exist, but they should also be given equal consideration if they are even remotely able to present scientifically viable data and evidence in their favor (and ID most certainly can).
Watch it for yourself and see what you think. I’d love to hear your comments.
Until next Wednesday, stay picky! Your mind will thank you later.
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