A must see!


It is a wonderful attempt to understand what really goes on in a world fetishized by commodities, advertising and superficial needs.

In her quest to find the history of commodities we use everyday, middle class Redgrave discovers labor, inequality, theft, torture and murder that provided the life she went through without asking who was behind all these.

We are exposed to her internal dilemma between honestly wanting equality and justice on the one hand, and, petty bourgeois individualism demanding the fruits of her "hard earned" money.

This is a constant dilemma among liberals.

In reality, the real culprit, the CAPITALIST CLASS (and not the middle/working class), has shifted the guilt and blame to the liberals at the upper layers of the working class for their crimes. The film revolves around this dilemma and the false feeling of guilt.

While the film correctly targets the results of the capitalist system where torture, murder and theft is necessary for all wealth accumulation, it does not show the 1% of the population who own more than 90% of the wealth in a capitalist society as being behind the ills. Instead, we have an honest, liberal, good intentioned working class intellectual who blames herself and her life style for the problems of the capitalist society.

The capitalist class is non existent as they hide comfortably behind the scenes and the viewer is left wondering if certain layers of the WORKING CLASS is to be blamed for the problems of the capitalist system.

I am waiting for the DVD release. I will buy several copies and give it as presents to all my friends who enjoy both artistically, elegantly done film and intellectually engaging content and story.


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[deleted]

The message of this movie seemed to be feel guilty about having more wealth than other people. There is no realistic solution to poverty and this movie didn't offer up ways to help the poor. If I had to dwell on all of the world's problems, I'd never get out of bed. Helping others and being compassionate is a righteous thing to do, but this movie IMHO is a bleeding heart liberal piece of crap.

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[deleted]

I just saw the movie to night and found it to be a rehashing of socialist ideas that are so in vogue in university social science and humanities programs. It seems that using the terms liberal and conservative to talk about these issues just clouds them. petermaxie-1 there really is no realistic solution to poverty as long as you see self governing autonomy or "personal freedom" as the cure all for the evils of the world. It is not really the so called "Bullies" that keep people in poverty, it is the idea that personal freedom is power. This is the illusion that man has lived under since the fall of Adam. The idea that power is related to our free will. Real power and goodness only comes from God. I believe that you are correct to say that all generations are slaves to something but that something is the same for all. It is precisely what you believe will fix the worlds problems. The chick in the movie is no exception. Her personal anguish comes from the idea that she is free to choose and there for in control of her own life. Through out history there are always those who believe that their current age will usher in "civilized changes" but it never really happens because they always exchange one problem for another because they were all suffering from the same disease. I am not being pessimistic when I say this. In fact this is very optimistic because it takes the decision away from the flawed creatures we all are and puts it into the perfect hands of the Creator. This sort of thinking would also make people think twice before using violence because if one is not in control of ones self one can certainly not control others. Long story short, the movie just perpetuates what it is attempting to fix.

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I feel that if you feel "bad" after viewing this film, it's because you have a heavy conscience. I, on the other hand, thought, "What can I do to help?" and "My money problems seem so trivial compared to these people." I don't really give to charities so I should have felt bad like all the people who like to bring that up, but I didn't. Instead, I did something useful and sent a check to UNICEF. It may not be enough to feed a village, but at least it helps people.

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Way to go. I thought that the movie was wonderfully made and it left me feeling a bit guilty but instead of drawingg curtains and going to sleep, I started thinking about what I could do. I also felt like my problems were trivial and I thought: do I really need all the stuff that I have?

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the fact that you have a computer to come on here says that you don't NEED all the stuff you have.

it's not important to gain approval from your peers, by coming on here telling everyone what you've done to ease your guilt. what's important is that you feel you do what you can to help people who don't necessarily have the means to help themselves..

if you have 3 TVs, and 2 cars, and a million dollar home, and don't do anything to help poor people, and you still find a way to sleep thinking you're doing good, then there's a problem. it's important to give what you can. not to say you should live like a beggar in Guatemala in order to help a beggar in Gautemala live more like you.. but it doesn't take much to help poor people.

you give up a dinner at a restaurant, OR a case of beer, OR a fancy bottle of wine, OR a night at the theatre just once a month.. and you could feed a starving child in a third world country. it's not difficult. you just have to want to do it. I'm hoping this movie helps people see that it is important, and if you don't see that, then you should feel guilty.




"I'm the Kling Klang King of the Rim Ram Room"

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The only possible answer is for everyone to be killed no matter who they are. Now that there are almost 7 billion people what will happen? Many are going to starve, create more wars, blow up their neighbors and believe in ever more ludicrous religions. There's no end in sight but THE END. Celebrate!!

Nothing is more beautiful than nothing.

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Saw much of it last week and I think it described a good small piece of the reality of life. However, these issues can be much more diverse than what's described here. The whole picture of "bad humans" is formed around one single, powerful word:

IGNORANCE.

What you cannot understand you will ignore. What you will ignore you cannot understand. It's the most perfect contradiction a humanbeing can ever know. Everyone can be ignorant whether they're rich or poor. It doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor, what matters is that you're as open from your mind as you possibly can be and concentrate on what's essential and not what's unnecessary. All unnecessary suffering and death is the cause of ignorance, not what people own nor do not own, because that is just materialism, not what people are, simple. The only true possession all humans share is the life we live. And we waste that life to ignorance and the resulting un-essential superficial mind we know as ignorant behaviour. Simple. Yet complex.
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Life isn't evil, it's just crazy.

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