I think the main theme of the documentary was explained well, although the explanation was dispersed throughout the review vlog. I understood the main theme of the documentary to be an explanation of the US defense system. The film covers where the money spent on defense in the US goes, how defense spending grew to the grand proportions it is at now, and how corporations compete to get contracts with the US government. I thought that the broadcast was paced very well. I don’t think Christine ever sped up to the point where I couldn’t understand her, nor slowed down to the point where it was unbearable to listen. The volume was satisfactory, and Christine used her normal speaking voice which was well suited for the broadcast, and was picked up well by her microphone. Christine seemed very well prepared. I believe she had a script in front of her (the papers rustled from time to time) which helped her keep on track and avoid pauses or ums. Christine seemed fairly well informed and knowledgeable about her topic. I wish she had seemed a little more confident in what she was saying. There was more of a matter-of-factness about her than a confidence, but I don’t think that that detracted from her documentary review vlog. One interesting argument I learned from Christine’s review of Why We Fight is that the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan to declare the United State’s military supremacy to the world. I had read about this theory in previous studies, and it has always interested me to think that it was not a military strategy move, but more of a political message. Another interesting fact provided was that in Eisenhower’s farewell address he warned the government to be careful of the military industrial complex, and to steer clear of corporations. This intrigued me because it seems like the national government did not heed Eisenhower’s warning. Nowadays, according to Christine, our country spends more on defense than any other aspect of the federal budget combined. Furthermore, much of defense spending is spent on contracting work out to corporations that manufacture needed defense goods. The film sounded very interesting. I think it would be very insightful to find out what all of our defense spending dollars are going toward and how it came to be this way. After viewing the review blog it seemed that a strength of the film is its comprehensiveness in covering all aspects of our nation’s defense spending. A weakness, as Christine pointed out, was its portrayal of the American people as uninformed, even though the public doesn’t have complete access to information on all that is going on with defense spending. I learned that the title for the film was taken from the title of a Frank Capra propaganda film, which I found rather interesting. Stylistically, I think the review was well done, although I wish all of the information about the theme of the documentary had been summarized in one portion of the vlog. It seemed like that information was a little scattered, but maybe I misunderstood what was summary and what was answers to other questions. Overall, I think it was a concise and well done review.
From listening to Christine’s documentary analysis on “Why We Fight” I found myself incredibly interested in what the film was about, and having a desire to watch it for myself. Christine explained the theme of the film very thoroughly. She talked about how the film portrays the government as lying to the American public in order to conduct war. According to the film’s theme, the United States conducts war for profit of big corporations, and for political and military dominance around the world. She gave an example of how history has reflected this theme in that of the bombing of Japan. According to the film, the government told the American people that the Japanese had incredible bombing power, and it was important to attack them before they attacked us. In reality, the Japanese had surrendered to Truman, but he ignored them. He wished to demonstrate the United States terrible bombing power, in order to scare Stalin and Russia by dropping the Atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The theme of the movie was that the government, for the most part, uses war to maintain dominance in many areas of the world, rather than for the good of its citizens, and citizens of the world. This need for dominance peaked exponentially after 9/11, and the invasion of Iraq. With the invasion of Iraq, the United States government sent a message to the world: Do not mess with the United States. Christine’s documentary analysis was well rehearsed, informed, and clear. Her pacing was good—slow enough for the viewer to follow, but did not drag on. Her wording was intelligent and clear, and it was very easy to focus on what she saying. Two facts that I found interesting was the amount of money that the government spends on military and the information surrounding the military industrial complex. According to the film, the government spends more money on the defense department than all other aspects of the government combined. The military industrial complex is the financial and political relationship between corporations that create military products, and the government. In Eisenhower’s farewell address, he warned the American public against the military industrial complex. He feared that the military would soon control many aspects of society, become entangled in the government, and take up a huge portion of the federal budget. Christine pointed out a couple of the weaknesses that I noticed as I was listening to her summary of the theme. The film was very biased against the Bush Administration, and the governmental spending on the military. It took an anti-Bush stance, and blamed the American citizenry for being easily influenced. Christine pointed out that it is unfair to blame the American people, who cannot control the amount of information that they are given about military operations and issues. One strength of the film that I noticed was that while the topic is very controversial, the film gives the American public concrete facts about the state of our nation’s government. Christine touched on a couple other fascinating pieces of information that the film provided. The information that scared me the most was the comparison of the United States to that of the Roman Empire. Theorists have stated that if the United States is to continue this trend of military spending and involvement, like the Roman Empire, the United States could reach a peak as the Roman Empire did, and crash miserably as the ancient empire did. The analysis was informative, presented clearly, and interesting. Great job!
I think the main theme of the documentary was explained well, although the explanation was dispersed throughout the review vlog. I understood the main theme of the documentary to be an explanation of the US defense system. The film covers where the money spent on defense in the US goes, how defense spending grew to the grand proportions it is at now, and how corporations compete to get contracts with the US government. I thought that the broadcast was paced very well. I don’t think Christine ever sped up to the point where I couldn’t understand her, nor slowed down to the point where it was unbearable to listen. The volume was satisfactory, and Christine used her normal speaking voice which was well suited for the broadcast, and was picked up well by her microphone. Christine seemed very well prepared. I believe she had a script in front of her (the papers rustled from time to time) which helped her keep on track and avoid pauses or ums. Christine seemed fairly well informed and knowledgeable about her topic. I wish she had seemed a little more confident in what she was saying. There was more of a matter-of-factness about her than a confidence, but I don’t think that that detracted from her documentary review vlog. One interesting argument I learned from Christine’s review of Why We Fight is that the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan to declare the United State’s military supremacy to the world. I had read about this theory in previous studies, and it has always interested me to think that it was not a military strategy move, but more of a political message. Another interesting fact provided was that in Eisenhower’s farewell address he warned the government to be careful of the military industrial complex, and to steer clear of corporations. This intrigued me because it seems like the national government did not heed Eisenhower’s warning. Nowadays, according to Christine, our country spends more on defense than any other aspect of the federal budget combined. Furthermore, much of defense spending is spent on contracting work out to corporations that manufacture needed defense goods. The film sounded very interesting. I think it would be very insightful to find out what all of our defense spending dollars are going toward and how it came to be this way. After viewing the review blog it seemed that a strength of the film is its comprehensiveness in covering all aspects of our nation’s defense spending. A weakness, as Christine pointed out, was its portrayal of the American people as uninformed, even though the public doesn’t have complete access to information on all that is going on with defense spending. I learned that the title for the film was taken from the title of a Frank Capra propaganda film, which I found rather interesting. Stylistically, I think the review was well done, although I wish all of the information about the theme of the documentary had been summarized in one portion of the vlog. It seemed like that information was a little scattered, but maybe I misunderstood what was summary and what was answers to other questions. Overall, I think it was a concise and well done review.
ReplyDeleteFrom listening to Christine’s documentary analysis on “Why We Fight” I found myself incredibly interested in what the film was about, and having a desire to watch it for myself. Christine explained the theme of the film very thoroughly. She talked about how the film portrays the government as lying to the American public in order to conduct war. According to the film’s theme, the United States conducts war for profit of big corporations, and for political and military dominance around the world. She gave an example of how history has reflected this theme in that of the bombing of Japan. According to the film, the government told the American people that the Japanese had incredible bombing power, and it was important to attack them before they attacked us. In reality, the Japanese had surrendered to Truman, but he ignored them. He wished to demonstrate the United States terrible bombing power, in order to scare Stalin and Russia by dropping the Atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The theme of the movie was that the government, for the most part, uses war to maintain dominance in many areas of the world, rather than for the good of its citizens, and citizens of the world. This need for dominance peaked exponentially after 9/11, and the invasion of Iraq. With the invasion of Iraq, the United States government sent a message to the world: Do not mess with the United States. Christine’s documentary analysis was well rehearsed, informed, and clear. Her pacing was good—slow enough for the viewer to follow, but did not drag on. Her wording was intelligent and clear, and it was very easy to focus on what she saying. Two facts that I found interesting was the amount of money that the government spends on military and the information surrounding the military industrial complex. According to the film, the government spends more money on the defense department than all other aspects of the government combined. The military industrial complex is the financial and political relationship between corporations that create military products, and the government. In Eisenhower’s farewell address, he warned the American public against the military industrial complex. He feared that the military would soon control many aspects of society, become entangled in the government, and take up a huge portion of the federal budget. Christine pointed out a couple of the weaknesses that I noticed as I was listening to her summary of the theme. The film was very biased against the Bush Administration, and the governmental spending on the military. It took an anti-Bush stance, and blamed the American citizenry for being easily influenced. Christine pointed out that it is unfair to blame the American people, who cannot control the amount of information that they are given about military operations and issues. One strength of the film that I noticed was that while the topic is very controversial, the film gives the American public concrete facts about the state of our nation’s government. Christine touched on a couple other fascinating pieces of information that the film provided. The information that scared me the most was the comparison of the United States to that of the Roman Empire. Theorists have stated that if the United States is to continue this trend of military spending and involvement, like the Roman Empire, the United States could reach a peak as the Roman Empire did, and crash miserably as the ancient empire did. The analysis was informative, presented clearly, and interesting. Great job!
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