Movie Review - "Loose Change"

(Brother Alexander gives us his take on the conspiracy movie "Loose Change.")

I've just viewed the documentary Loose Change (2nd Edition), a film which is growing in popularity and causing quite a controversy among anyone remotely interested in this century's turn of political events. It's primary message is that the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11th were planned and executed by the U.S. government. As with many conspiracy theories, Loose Change bases it's theories off perceived anomalies in the way the September 11th attacks were reported.

Let me start, here, by stating my own point of view. I do agree with the basic premise of the film, that there was a huge coverup and (less than) masterful redirection of blame and attention committed. I do not necessarily agree with any of the conclusions this film jumps to, however. I feel the creators of this film are rank amateurs in the conspiracy world and wouldn't know a secret plan if it was jammed up their collective arses. It does have it's good points as well as the bad, however, and I wish to comment on those.

- Sequence -

I won't bother to restate any of their opinions or conclusions, since those are best heard from their own mouths, but I will give a brief overview of what is covered within the scope of the film. Loose Change opens with a brief history of the past plots and plans of thepolitical players at hand. Few, if any, sources are stated and we must take all of their history lesson at their word. I feel this is a bad position for the filmmakers to put themselves in, especially considering their credibility is the first thing on the chopping block.

They move next into the more common and "safe" concepts that surround the specific attack on the Pentagon that morning. The filmmakers then turn their attention on the twin towers, focusing their collected evidence towards the belief that the towers were brought down ultimately by explosive demolition charges. The filmmakers talk quitea bit about the flights being re-routed and replaced by drone aircraft, mentioning that the passengers were "disappeared" from normal society while their planes were replaced by automated drones and at least cruise missile. They also talk about Flight 93 that was, supposedly, taken back by the passengers and crashed in a field where virtually no wreckage nor bodies were found inside a 15-20 foot hole in the ground. Furthermore, they state that Flight 93 was sighted at an airport in Cleveland and that all of the cell phone calls from the flights were faked with recorded voices.

Lastly the filmmakers state repeatedly that bin Laden never claimed responsibility for the attack, that the government faked videos of him making these statements and that most of the terrorists that died for their cause in the attacks were alive and well in their home countries in the following days.

- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly -

While attempting to be "scientific" throughout the film, the filmmakers seem to be very confused about what temperature jet fuel will burn at, stating various temperatures throughout the film. They are very certain about the melting points of steel, however. It's a sad point since steel will melt at different temperatures and rates depending on what kind of steel it is. The filmmakers have completely ignored this point. A lot of assumptions are made throughout the film without the favor of expert testimony and often with the aid of misquoted scientists to back them up.

And this is how they completely lost me in their film - most of their"evidence" was brought forth via misquoting, placing video and quotes out of context and basing presumptions off non-expert opinions andstatements made in the heat of the moment. The film itself is very cheaply produced, but looks nice. They claim they spent $2k on theoriginal and $6k on the 2nd Edition, however virtually all of the special effects are easily produced with basic video editing software, much of the movie consists of simple screen captures of the GoogleEarth program and, from what I can tell, the majority of the movie consists of video footage and audio which was stolen without permission from the networks and other filmmakers. Indeed, Loose Change is in it's 2nd Edition for the very reason that some of theother filmmakers were threatening lawsuit if their misused footage wasn't removed.

If you can survive it, the entire film is narrated by a very dry monotone voice, reminiscent of the reading voice of Charlie Brown in the popular holiday cartoon specials. The narrator sounds completely disinterested throughout the film, which I believe was an attempt at making it sound like a serious film. I don't think they achieved this effect properly.

Regardless, there are a few good points to this film.. and I do believe it is at least worthy of a once-over look. First, it's free.They aren't out to make money. You can freely view this film on a number of internet sites, including Google Video. Second, while I do not agree with many of the theories put forward by the filmmakers, it does dare to question the official government statements and version of events that surround this confusing incident. I firmly believe the filmmaker gives a bad name to conspiracy theorists everywhere, but anything that makes people think a little harder (and more openly) about the situation is a good thing. Third... nope, I can't think of a third reason why this is a good film. Worthy of a view, perhaps, but as far as documentaries go I'd give it a three or four stars out of ten. Maybe lower than that considering they did not obtain proper permission for most of their footage use.

Visit the Wikipedia entry for further commentary and to be directed to where you may view it freely. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loose_Change_(video) Or, try this one here.

Signing out from the Constitution State, Brother Alexander.