Rating: 
Summary: A thorough and entertaining introduction to Noam Chomsky
Review: I originally bought this DVD because I read a review that said it's a great place to start if you don't know much about Noam Chomsky and I'd like to reaffirm that with my review. This DVD is a wonderful introduction to Noam Chomsky, his political views, and his theories of media propaganda. You should know that this is not a Noam Chomsky produced film. This is a documentary about Noam Chomsky by people that of course support his views. Although it says "DVD release date 2002" above, you should realize that this film is kinda old. Some of the cheesy visual and sound effects are laughable, but that's not what's important with this DVD. Another thing that you should know is that this is not the type of film that you want to watch on a romantic evening with your loved one. My girlfriend was bored to tears for all THREE hours of it! Of course I was loving every minute of it. Buy it, make yourself some coffee, and watch it alone. One more thing: Although this is no substitute for Noam Chomsky's book of the same title, this is also an excellent source of the basic ideas in the book. By the time you finish watching this documentary, you'll be able explain to your friends how the media selectively filters information in the interests of themselves, the government, and the system (not how Noam would say it) before reaching you and the history books.
Rating:
Summary: HOMAGE TO CHOMSKY
Review: Undoubtedly, a tremendous production effort by Achbar and Wintonick in portraying the life of the person who in my opinion has represented the leading voice and thinking of dissent for more than three decades in the United States. It includes excerpts from interviews in the mass media, it shows clearly how a televised opinion program for example, is set up in a way where the dissident opinion is given an extremely limited participation, which obviously obstaculize the interviewee's further explanation about the arguments expressed, with the whole purpose of creating controversy among an skeptical public already subjected through a "manufacturing consent" process, namely, a mediated-oriented brainwashing which purpose is not to question power. The film also shows the level of a very consistent and political correctnes that Chomsky has impresively kept thanks to is extensive documentation and knowledge on various fields of history, political economy and foreign policy. In my opinion, it facilitates a better comprehension about Chomsky's texts regarding media manipulation through a visual medium, definetely, a must have for those interested on getting the big picture of the whole system of propaganda subsirvient of corporate interests, as well as an insightful perception on this great intellectual's views. Highly recommended
Rating:
Summary: Great Important Documentary on Noam Chomsky
Review: Manufacturing Consent is the 1992 documentary directed by
Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick about the perennial dissident lecturer Noam Chomsky. The focus is on how the media deals with both Chomsky and the issues he raises: mainly by ignoring him. Here we get clips of everything from his discussion with William F. Buckley from the 1960s to interviews in Europe to his 10 second clip on McNeil-Lehrer. Chomsky is shown as an important force that critiques both the destructive policies of power elites as well as the media that keeps the masses ignorant by spoon feeding them non-critical propaganda. The scenes are cleverly done with some humor, showing Chomsky speaking on Times Square screens and such. And yet this isn't a quintessential Chomsky film as it does narrow the focus to the media, and spends a lot of time on a French Holocaust denier and Chomsky defending his right to speak (though not his views). This is a bit of a side track from his true significance as an Anarchist, Human Rights, and Peace activist. But when we hear his views on Vietnam, East Timor, Central America, and Iraq we start to see the bigger picture. Namely that everything the media tells us is half-truth if not outright false. His message is important and it comes through in this film. Is he always right? I would say no, but he always sticks to his guns, never wavers, to the point where his views get predictable. But without him the peace movement would be much worse off intellectually (we'd be stuck with the likes of Michael Parenti wining at us). Chomsky is always low key, not in your face, and this film paints a sympathetic portrait while giving him some exposure the U.S. media usually denies him.
Rating:
Summary: A Must See, Regardless of Your Views
Review: This is one of the most influential documentaries I've ever seen. It has affected my life in ways I never imagined; like reading Walden or Catcher in the Rye in high school. It's very difficult to rebuke what Dr. Chomsky says and writes. He backs up his views with miles of objective research (although even he may claim that no source is truly objective). He spoke of East Timor in the 70's. Perhaps you recall sound bites about the atrocities, which finally became "public" in about 1999. But Manufacturing Consent sticks to media influence; how corporations control the media, and that the media is not free speech since it's owned by corporations. The New York Times will print what is in the interest of The New York Times. Government will suppress news in its best interest. This is only considered a "fact" if one looks historically. We laugh at the inane propaganda of early newsreels, but is World News Tonight any different? Will it cover mass genocide in other countries without previous consent or some agenda? No. If the US backs the current regime, chances are you won't hear about any problems in, say, some small country near Indonesia, or in Africa. There's so much to say about Chomsky, but I must end. See this film, even if you hate it. It will make you think. You may just think Chomsky's a paranoid nut, but at least it made you think. And it's harder to question an MIT scholar (who just so happens to also be the most important figure in Linguistics) than, say, a commentator with a degree in Communications.
Rating:
Summary: Visually and Intellectually engaging
Review: This video is extremely well made and a perfect companion to Chomsky's written work. Whether you are already a dedicated Chomskite or are new to his work this video is an objective, honest, and highly stimulating visual documentation of Chomsky's career as the leading critic of American foreign policy and Media propaganda. It is amazing how much of the 'meat' of Chomsky's institutional analysis was retained in this video. To call it merely a documentary on Chomsky, would simply not do this film justice. Visual-philosophy, yet accessible to anyone, is the defining feature of this video. This video also brings together a wealth of archival footage, much of which has not been previously available for viewing in the US, showing Chomsky in debate with everyone from Michel Foucault, on language, knowledge and power, to William F Buckley on American foreign policy. There are also excerpts from interviews with David Barsamian, as well as a very engaging and interesting integration of his works and ideas into the video format. There are also some very enlightening examinations of the manipulation of the news, by the New York Times, and other mass media conglomerates, as well as a stirring expose on the Genocide In East Timor, which occurred around 1975 and how it was systematically ignored by the major media of the US. This is a two-video set and is well worth the price. There is such a wealth of knowledge that this is a must for anyone interested in Noam Chomsky, American foreign policy, proaganda, or the workings of the major media. Watch this video and you will find out why, outside the US, where he is practically silenced by the corporate media, he is considered one of the most profound and important thinkers of the twentieth century. Open your mind to Chomsky and reality will never be seen in the same way again.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Introduction To Important Alternative Views
Review: Chomsky is a man of fact, reason, and simplicity. This documentary highlights some of the basic ideas of his important books about the domination of the media by indoctrination, the elites who own them, and how this affects the average person's access to information about the world and thus his view of his community and its relationship to outsidce societies.
This is a great film if you're becoming disaffected with our current political situation and looking for a way out of the mess we're in.
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Summary: Intellectual Self-Defence
Review: With the recent media frenzy surrounding Michael Moore's documentary, Fahrenheit 911, it is interesting to observe how the controversy currently swirling around it (Disney backed it financially but won't distribute it) has been documented in the press. It makes a film like Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media all the more relevant more than ten years after its release. Chomsky is a soft-spoken professor at MIT who has become quite a vocal political activist and critic of the American media. He believes that ordinary people can comprehend and act on the issues he raises, but this is not always an easy task because of the thick web of doublespeak that the government creates to blind us from what he calls the "elementary truths" that are right in front of us. However, people are indoctrinated to be apathetic so that they don't want to make the effort that is needed to see what is really going on. And the media doesn't help either. In fact, one might say that they promote this sense of apathy by showing redundant, repetitive sitcoms and reality shows that turn us into mindless couch potatoes. Now, you might be thinking, this sounds like a lot of conspiracy theory garbage, but Chomsky does not look, act or speak like some crazed conspiracy nut. He is an intelligent man who talks to a BBC reporter the same way he would talk to an ordinary person. Chomsky is a clear and concise speaker who backs up everything he says with an ample supply of facts and unfaltering logic. He is a man dedicated to uncovering the deception and atrocities that are committed by governments all over the world and teaching others how to become aware of and act on these acts. With funding from the National Film Board of Canada, Peter Wintonick and Mark Achbar followed Chomsky around the globe for five years. The result was a two hour and forty-five minute documentary that explored Chomsky's view of the media and his relationship with it. The film acts as a sort of "stepping stone" to Chomsky's books, which are filled with pretty heavy concepts and a lot of information to absorb. The film doesn't water down his ideas, but rather represents them on a visual level so that they are a bit easier to grasp. In Manufacturing Consent, Chomsky reveals that all major decisions over what happens in our society are controlled by a heavily concentrated network of corporations, conglomerates and investment firms. This network also has considerable influence over positions in the government. Just looking at the big Savings and Loans scandals that plagued the U.S. a few years ago reveals this link. Corporations also own the media and therefore decide what we watch and hear for the most part. They control the resources and as a result show only what is in their best interests. This is achieved by propaganda or the "manufacturing of consent," a term borrowed from political philosopher and journalist, Walter Lippmann. Manufacturing consent is a technique of control over the masses-in other words, propaganda or the creation of necessary illusions to marginalize the general public or reduce them to apathy in some form. The news media participates in this manufacture of consent by simplifying, selecting, and dramatizing events. Wintonick and Achbar take a look at various forms of alternative media, from the successful independent publishers, South End Press to Alternative Radio that is dedicated to reporting events that the U.S. media conveniently ignores and giving people like Noam Chomsky more exposure. The film has certainly exposed Chomsky's ideas to a wider audience creating a sort of cult following in Canada and in Europe where he is more popular than in his native United States. The film doesn't talk down to the viewer and brilliantly conveys Chomsky's ideas on a visual level utilizing all forms of media. The directors also dedicate time to show some of Chomsky's detractors like William F. Buckley, Jr. and Tom Wolfe who come across like pretentious bullies while Chomsky appears calm and rational in response to their vicious, snide attacks. They are ironic scenes that add more credibility to Chomsky's views. Manufacturing Consent is a fascinating look Chomsky and his ideas that are guaranteed to provoke discussion. It also makes one want to check out some of his work and sparks a desire to wake up and realize what is going on in our society. The film is a real eye-opener to the behind the scenes mechanics of our government and the media and how little we realize what they are really up to. The film does not dip into tabloid or conspiracy depths, but presents a logical and intelligent analysis with a good sense of humour that is often missing from such material. Chomsky is a man who sincerely believes that we can identify and react to the problems in our government and media, but realizes that it cannot be done by just one man, it will take a massive grass-roots organization. First, people must be educated and this is hard because it is so easy to do nothing. Realizing that there is a problem is the first step, correcting it is the next.
Rating: 
Summary: More Depth, Please!
Review: Avram Noam Chomsky was born in 1928, the son of Jewish parents who worked as Hebrew language teachers. Young Noam showed promise in the brains department, devouring huge stacks of books and learning languages at an extremely young age. He went to the University of Pennsylvania after high school, where he eventually earned a doctoral degree in 1955 in the field of linguistics. Quickly snapped up by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chomsky went on to develop a larger theory of language that soon won him worldwide acclaim, leading some people to refer to him as the "Einstein of Linguistics." Still residing at MIT to this day, Chomsky is perhaps better known as one of the preeminent social critics of American foreign policy and the American corporate media systems. The author of literally dozens of books on linguistics and contemporary social problems, Chomsky continues to make his rounds on the lecture circuit in an effort to awaken citizens to the dangers present in the power structures of the United States. "Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media" represents the efforts of three documentary filmmakers to condense Chomsky's ideas about the media and the structures of American power into a nearly three hour visual presentation. The title of the film, according to Chomsky, comes from a phrase coined by Walter Lippmann, an early twentieth century public intellectual who feared the American public to such an extent that he argued for the implementation of specific methods to control and shape public opinion. This, says Chomsky, leads us to our present predicament, a situation where elites in American society acquire control of media through corporate institutions in order to manage the flow of information to the public. In other words, propaganda supporting elite activities is the name of the game at the New York Times, ABC, NBC, CNN, CBS, The Washington Post, and other primary forces in the news business. Secondary or tertiary news outlets simply take their cues from these trendsetters, often running stories only after the national elite media decide that they are stories. Moreover, the media systems filter out dissident opinions through various techniques. One of these methods is "concision," or giving limited airtime or column space to a specific story in order to control the parameters of that story. Chomsky claims concision keeps people like him out of the news because only allowing a person to make comments within a two-minute period does not let new ideas get through. If a person should get on the air and claim that the government bears primary responsibility for the rise of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, for example, the audience would want to know a lot of facts about such an alien idea. According to Chomsky, this rarely happens. Instead, the short time allotted to guests on a news show serve only to reinforce already accepted propagandistic platitudes that ultimately support elite positions. "Concision" keeps new ideas out and stymies debate regarding accepted ideas. There are several more points to Chomsky's theory in the film, along with a test case concerning the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in the 1970s presented in an effort to prove the propaganda model. I am leaving a ton of stuff out here, but since I also believe that the media promotes elite interests, the whole thing ultimately boils down to what type of news system we should have. The good professor supports alternative/small press media as a balance to the huge corporate news systems, and I agree with this conclusion too. For far too long, big East Coast interests have controlled what the majority of the population eats, thinks, wears, and discusses. There is simply no geographical balance. The recent blackout in New York City had absolutely no bearing on my life out here in the wilds of the Midwest, but there it was on every news channel on television and prominently displayed in my local newspaper. Chomsky argues that alternative media will lead to a greater, freer dialogue about important issues. The professor claims the alternative press might even lead to a complete overthrow of capitalism and its replacement with anarcho-syndicalism, a belief system that posits self-management, direct democracy, and working class solidarity. This political system sounds like communism, doesn't it? Well, I really don't think Chomsky is a communist, but I simply don't trust anarcho-syndicalism. At one point in the documentary, the professor avers that there are no perfect solutions to our problems and that we should all at least try his theory. One presumes that if we don't like it, all we need to do is say so, right? Wrong. Revolutions don't work that way. Replacing one political system with another tends to be quite messy, and telling the new masters that you just don't think you can go along with them always seems to lead to the behavior we saw in Stalinist Russia. Chomsky's promise that his new order will be open to different ideas doesn't satisfy this cynic. I am not ready for a cure that might be worse than the disease. Overall, "Manufacturing Consent" left me unsatisfied. In an attempt to cover as much ground as possible, the filmmakers never provided as much depth to Chomsky's theories as I would have liked. Obviously, I could buy the book and see for myself exactly what the professor's arguments are, but you would think a nearly three hour documentary could provide a better presentation of this man's beliefs. As for the DVD, the picture and sound are good and there are several lengthy extras consisting of debates Chomsky had with Michel Foucault and William Buckley. Noam Chomsky comes across as an accessible, likeable guy who really cares about social problems, and I agree with most of what he is saying. I just disagree with his vision of a post-capitalist world.
Rating: 
Summary: Well worth the time and money
Review: This is an excellent, low-budget film, that chronicles the life and thoughts of America's toughest critic, Noam Chomsky.
The number and range of reviews displayed here prove that this is a film worth seeing. The film's director does a masterful job of revealing Chomsky - his politics, his vision and the keen, analytic scientist who pioneers discovery.
For the past 3 decades Chomsky has turned that keen, scientific mind towards America; it's politics and it's power. This film delves into the control the media exerts, the subtle and not-so-subtle ways its used to control and influence America's political posture.
Rating:
Summary: Looks like it's up to us to connect the dots...
Review: At one point during this film, Chomsky claims that if any of our hallowed leaders were actually questioned closely and deeply and at length, thus revealing the true chains of reasons lying behind his/her actions, eventually they would say things which any normal American would consider absolutely insane. This is Chomsky's main point, and it's a brilliant way of framing it because it addresses all his concerns at once: it's the nature of the news media to compress vastly complex relationships, many of them "secret" or "hidden", into bite-sized morsels palatable to a mass audience; the footnotes, the addenda, the "true history" of any of the "facts" stated in the mass media is at worst suppressed and at best glossed over. There's no conspiracy, no shadow government, no overt collusion; this state of affairs is structural, but it works conveniently to serve the interests of massive corporations. Chomsky's method is at once simple and commonsense: Present a case as a paradigm (a much-publicized human rights abuse by a government, for instance), present a comparable foil to that paradigm (another documented human rights abuse from a different country), and take note of the disparity in treatment both by our government and by media coverage numbers. The reason for the disparity? We should make up our own minds about it, but Chomsky claims that research will reveal that US corporate interests were either not at stake in the latter case or we were supporting the regime because they were friendly to US business interests. "Manufacturing Consent" is a thought-provoking, well-edited and constructed documentary, and an excellent intro to this media-marginalized and very much despised political dissenter (who also happens to be one of the most important American intellectuals of the 20th century).
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