Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media

• Directors: Peter Wintonick; Mark Achbar
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Culture & Society
• Movie Type: Biography, Politics & Government
• Themes: Whistleblowers, Political Corruption, Fighting the System
• Release Year: 1993
• Country: CA
• Run Time: 168 minutes

Plot

The Canadian documentary Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media presents a lengthy, detailed look at the political beliefs of celebrated intellectual Noam Chomsky. Casting only passing glances at Chomsky's groundbreaking work in the field of linguistics and his eventful life, filmmakers Mark Achbar and Peter Witonick instead focus on his activities as a political dissident and media critic. Particular attention is paid to his contention that the American mass media serves as a form of "thought control in a democratic society," with major news organizations systematically bending the truth to support the status quo. Chomsky defends this belief in numerous public appearances, lectures, and debates, siting as examples the widely divergent media treatment of genocidal activities in Cambodia and East Timor and the unquestioned acceptance of America's Gulf War policy. While opposing viewpoints and rebuttals are sometimes aired, the filmmakers quite clearly are in general agreement with Chomsky and even include humorous visual illustrations of his political theories, utilizing stock footage, on-screen diagrams, and the like. Despite its clear favoritism, the film nevertheless succeeds in making a thought-provoking case for these ideas and provides an intriguing glimpse into the life of a complex, driven thinker. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Review

Noam Chomsky is one of the most provocative and thought-provoking political analysts in America (even his detractors, several of whom are interviewed in this film, acknowledge his intelligence and influence), but most of Chomsky's admirers will concede that his style as both a writer and speaker is a bit on the dry side -- he often sounds like the veteran academic he happens to be. But with Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, directors Peter Wintonick and Mark Achbar have created a superb "Beginner's Guide to Noam Chomsky" that streamlines many of his most important and influential ideas without dumbing them down, presenting them in a manner that's often witty and consistently entertaining but doesn't compromise their importance or the gravity of the issues involved. Wintonick and Achbar cleverly use the sort of visual tricks one might expect from a network television documentary, though in the service of a film that calls the integrity of the mass media into question, using intelligent and subtle humor to create a useful visual corollary to Chomsky's statements (such as the sequence in which they compare the New York Times' coverage of Cambodia and East Timor by lining the clippings up next to each other). Manufacturing Consent is hardly the last word on Noam Chomsky, but it's a powerful and compelling look at a major thinker and makes clear why his ideas matter. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Cast

William F. Buckley, Jr.; Peter Jennings; Bill Moyers; Jeff Greenfield; Noam Chomsky; Robert Faurisson; Michel Foucault; Sarah McClendon; Karl E. Meyer

Credit

Peter Wintonick - Director, Mark Achbar - Director, Peter Wintonick - Editor, Colin Neale - Executive Producer, Dennis Murphy - Executive Producer, Carl Schultz - Composer (Music Score), Savas Kalogeras - Cinematographer, Peter Wintonick - Cinematographer, Peter Wintonick - Producer

Similar Movies

Coverup: Behind the Iran-Contra Affair; Hearts and Minds; Incident at Oglala: The Leonard Peltier Story; Medium Cool; The Panama Deception; I.F. Stone's Weekly; Waco: The Rules of Engagement; Underground; The Trials of Henry Kissinger; Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in Our Times; In Shifting Sands: The Truth About UNSCOM and the Disarming of Iraq; Noam Chomsky: Distorted Morality - America's War on Terror?; The Corporation; Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire; Beyond Good & Evil: Children, Media & Violent Times; Orwell Rolls in His Grave; Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove: Readings From Voices of a People's History of the United States; Noam Chomsky: Imperial Grand Strategy - The Conquest of Iraq and the Assault on Democracy; War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death

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