MovieChat Forums > The Take (2005) Discussion > I'm skeptical of Ted W's 'Naive and Clue...

I'm skeptical of Ted W's 'Naive and Clueless' review....

posted 19 years ago by Delysid
10 replies | jump to latest

I haven't seen "The Take" yet, but I have read quite a bit about it, and I am very familiar with the work of Naomi Klein, one of the filmmakers credited as the writer.

Given what I know of Naomi Klein's other work, I must say I regard Ted W's review on the film's main IMDB page with considerable skepticism. Naomi Klein is one of the most consistently intelligent, insightful, and deeply informed writers of political and social analysis working today. I have found her writing to be solidly researched and backed up with rigorous citations and fact-checking. For this film to be as wildly off the mark as Ted W claims, especially when it comes to basic facts as opposed to more nebulous matters like interpretation and speculation, would be entirely out of character for a researcher like Naomi Klein.

Obviously my response is based on Klein's reputation and proven abilities -- I haven't seen the film and don't know much about Argentina beyond the basics. So I can't say outright that Ted W is wrong, and it would be foolish to make any conclusions until I have at least seen the film. But I just wanted to add this note for readers unfamiliar with Naomi Klein who might be put off by Ted W's comments. She really is an exceptional writer and thinker, so I'd strongly urge everyone to see "The Take" and come to their own conclusions.

Naturally, if after seeing the film and doing some corroborative research I decide that Ted W has a legitimate point, I'll be back here eating crow! I certainly don't mean to disparage Ted W here -- after all, the film is meant to stimulate debate, so thank you Ted for getting the ball rolling!

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[–] decameron88 19 years ago

Hi, I´m Juan from Argentina, haven´t seen this documental yet so won´t be too long on this.

1st, you ecw1216, i´m really impressed by all your knowledge about the argentinian situation, don´t completelly share all your thought, but it´s ok.

2nd, ain´t it strange that i haven´t even heard of the existence of this film here in Argentina where the Piqueteros ussue is very very discussed by all society? anyone knows this one here! why?

i´ll see this as soon as i get it, but be sure, if it have a happy ending it´s not real, not at all.

xcuse my crappy writting

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[–] intercamp_arts 19 years ago

Having had a chance to talk to avi lewis about the film, I have a few comments to add.

First of all, the film was biased. He was unapologetic about that. But so is CNN. He said that he wanted to show a side of the story that hadn't been told.

Second - when we spoke about the film, one of the things he said was what made the story so interesting was that it was a work in progress, a bit of a study on the democratic process in a way that we hadn't seen yet.

To add some credibility - we also talked about the juxtaposition of the Coke and Disney products against the back drop of the story. He said that he hated those images and dreamed of ways to obscure them, but he did not.

The film did have a bit of a meandering quailty, and did seem like there could be more. But it isn't like they (Lewis and Klein) are independently wealthy. They were constrained by the amount of money they had to make the film. And in my mind, it's better to put out a film that is slightly flawed rather than not at all.

k.

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[–] SuperBeing 19 years ago

The problem with this approach is that before watching the movie I thought I was going to get some good information about workers taking business into their own hands. I didn't get this, all I got was a vague idea of how this cooperative system works surrounded by a lot of theatrics and drama. If I wanted theatrics and drama I'd watch a fictional movie, what I wanted from this "documentary" was insight to a cooperative system. What are the inner-workings of this system?, are they making profit? Is there more to this system than just a noble effort from workers to keep their jobs? Instead I got images of people crying, protests, and Lewis showing how hardcore he is by being in the middle of the riot. Who cares about this? He could have cut those scenes and filled us in on more about the cooperative system. But, of course, perhaps some of the information took away from the conclusions they were trying to make for us.

Another thing that pissed me off was the fact that Lewis removed the interview with the IMF official. He puts in the movie how the IMF's avoiding questions and getting into their cars, but when he actually gets the interview (meaning they're willing to talk) he deems it too "boring" for the viewers. He could have at least put it as a bonus feature for those of us who may find it interesting, even if the IMF official was BSing through the whole thing, at least we get the BS from both sides and form our own opinions.

Overall, the documentary has a good concept but is ruined by the obvious one-sideness presentation. Perhaps a more competent director/writer can actually explore this deeper than "good workers vs evil capitalists"

[–] jonivegan 19 years ago

I just saw this movie and was majorly impressed! The movie was about inspiration, motivation, hope.

Of course, as always in the privileged middle class audience, there are people quick to judge and criticise, and put any efforts down to try to get issues on the table and show solidarity and support for the struggling workers. Please ignore those voices. The nihilism in our society runs deep, and especially deep in the circles of the established liberal left.

As someone who has argentinians in my circle of friends they were immensely happy that someone has made this film and the positive and hopeful message gets out.

I think the critic here who claims to have Argenitinian workers interest at heart is barking up the wrong tree - you make a movie about some other aspect of the situation and leave the academic remarks out. There is a full blown class war out there and people who are supposedly on the workers side can't even make their mind up.

See this movie, get inspired and motivated and do your bit.

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