Al Franken: God Spoke
Year: 2006
Grade: B-
Country: USA
Director: Hegedus/Doob
ReviewSCREENED AT SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST FILM FESTIVAL, WORLD PREMIERE
franken describes himself as a judo artist – using the words of his enemies against them; and, essentially, that’s what this documentary sets out to prove. the trouble is that it really isn’t as entertaining or as thorough as his books, which is strange since chris hegedus is responsible for some pretty entertaining and informative documentaries (startup.com and the war room chief among them). don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun little film that pokes fun at, and keeps in check, people like michael medved, karen hughes and ann coulter, but it doesn’t really add much to the debate. i think it’s best suited to fans of al franken. one of the more humorous moments comes with ann coulter and al franken debating on a stage together. the mediator asks each of them who they would most like to be in history. coulter goes first and says something like this: “there are two ways of looking at the question. 1) you can be someone who did something great or 2) you can be someone in order to prevent them from doing something awful. in the first case i’d be senator joe mccarthy and in the second case i’d be FDR to stop the new deal from ever happening.” al franken says something like “i think i’d rather be someone like hitler so i could stop the slaying of millions of people.” it is a perfect illustration of the blinding power of hate and ideology exhibited by ann coulter and her ilk.
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