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In an energetic fusion of images and ideas, Manufacturing Consent explores the political life and ideas of the controversial author, linguistic scholar, radical philosopher and activist, Noam Chomsky. Using new and original interviews, archive footage, playful graphics and outrageous illustrations, Manufacturing Consent provocatively and entertainingly highlights Chomsky's analysis of the media, focusing on democratic societies where populations are not disciplined by force but are subjected to more subtle forms of ideological control.
Mark Achbar (The Corporation) and Peter Wintonick encourage viewers to question the films own workings, like Chomsky himself encourages listeners to extricate themselves from the web of deceit by undertaking a course of intellectual self-defence.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
55 of 58 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
A nice depthy look at the world of the media, and their huge influence on people's opinions and decisions. Chomsky goes rigorously though the New York times archives, and other newspapers, constructing what looks like a clear picture of how people's opinions are informed by TV and newspapers.
Even the editor of the Times looks lost for words when Chomsky demonsrates how every single occurance of US supported attrocities in East Timor were whitewashed by the mainstream media. Not one time, or ten times, but thousands of times, every time.
Although people like to shout 'conspiracy theory' at anything of this way of thinking, it is quite adeptly researched. As Chomsky remarks at one point in the film 'the mudslinger always wins.'
No, there isn't a room of people deciding what goes out across national media, just a set of unwritten rules which you don't get very far in your career without. Any common sense can tell you that a journalist who criticises US foreign policy powerfully, (rightly or wrongly) the way some do, won't be very popular. On the other hand, one who does the same to official enemies, will be duely rewarded.
There is no conspiracy, there is no paranoia, there is just what really happens, and how we can try to understand that in context of real power.
Look at it with an open mind, and see the way that you look at the world change.
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is a well considered portrait of a man whose implausible name is globally respected and disdained in equally fervent measure. Noam Chomsky is professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and 'arguably the most important intellectual alive'. Apart from his incomparable contribution to the academic field of linguistics he is perhaps better known for his disarmingly erudite pronouncements and well supported arguments about the political and social culture at large.The success of his rhetoric (apart from very often being self evidently incontrovertible) is that he creates a context in which the listener can think and an environment in which the listener/reader can enjoy insightful and important ideas as their own.
His detractors are usually characterized by bilious invective, aimed not at his ideas but at the man himself, and so offer no intellectual value. For example one William F Buckley Jr's thoughtful response to Chomsky's musings comes as a threat to 'smash him in the Goddamn face'.
This film is bristling with refreshingly original thought and a kind of politically principled, dynamic enthusiasm for the ideas being expressed, that when set against the dumb utterances more commonly heard in public may appear to some as subversive. But then as Wilde once said 'Public opinion exists only where there are no ideas'.
Chomsky's encyclopaedic knowledge is compelling to witness and enables quite complex notions to be framed in tangible simple and pertinent references. No conspiracy theorist, Chomsky's arguments don't speculate over the unknown. Rather they strip away the facade of the known to examine the methods and techniques a modern state employs to maintain general consensus, obedience and complicity from it's people. Never exclusive or elitist, yet fascinatingly persuasive and absorbing this insight into stimulating idea is the perfect antidote to the mindless cheery distractions so endlessly peddled as entertainment today. It's also very reassuring to hear informed articulation of so much you have always had a sneaking suspicion about. You really should see this.
His detractors are usually characterized by bilious invective, aimed not at his ideas but at the man himself, and so offer no intellectual value. For example one William F Buckley Jr's thoughtful response to Chomsky's musings comes as a threat to 'smash him in the Goddamn face'.
This film is bristling with refreshingly original thought and a kind of politically principled, dynamic enthusiasm for the ideas being expressed, that when set against the dumb utterances more commonly heard in public may appear to some as subversive. But then as Wilde once said 'Public opinion exists only where there are no ideas'.
Chomsky's encyclopaedic knowledge is compelling to witness and enables quite complex notions to be framed in tangible simple and pertinent references. No conspiracy theorist, Chomsky's arguments don't speculate over the unknown. Rather they strip away the facade of the known to examine the methods and techniques a modern state employs to maintain general consensus, obedience and complicity from it's people. Never exclusive or elitist, yet fascinatingly persuasive and absorbing this insight into stimulating idea is the perfect antidote to the mindless cheery distractions so endlessly peddled as entertainment today. It's also very reassuring to hear informed articulation of so much you have always had a sneaking suspicion about. You really should see this.
49 of 53 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
A great film that allows the audience to look at Chomsky's efforts to enlighten the 80% of the population that he claims has no real concept of the powers that lay behind the American media.
An insight to Chomsky's life and influence, you cannot help but admire him as a man and a great free thinker.
With excerpts from many of Chomsky's speeches this film allows the viewer into a world of his long standing efforts to seek truth and the right to express it. You will come away with a head that buzzes!
An insight to Chomsky's life and influence, you cannot help but admire him as a man and a great free thinker.
With excerpts from many of Chomsky's speeches this film allows the viewer into a world of his long standing efforts to seek truth and the right to express it. You will come away with a head that buzzes!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Worth every minute, and every penny.
This is possibly the only piece of media which I have seen to date which has been worth every minute of my life. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Tudor Georgescu
Thought it was fantastic.
OK, it was very long, and it was a bit dated, but the information is good and that's why it gets 5 stars. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mr. Dan M. Littlewood
Intelligent introduction to one of our most interesting thinkers
Often fascinating, if arguably overlong (167 min of talking heads).
While it only scratches the surface of Chomsky's many ideas, this is a worthwhile introduction to... Read more
While it only scratches the surface of Chomsky's many ideas, this is a worthwhile introduction to... Read more
Published on 9 May 2010 by K. Gordon
awful documentary but interesting second disc
As a documentary this is just as bad as The Corporation by the same people. They take a serious topic and turn it into soundbites for the already converted. Read more
Published on 27 April 2010 by Jackal
Still relevant
I have used this dvd with my Philosophy class as it covers issues such as Chomsky's universal grammar, political consent etc. Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2010 by Simon Lee
Accessible
Having watched this film with my wife who would agree she has no academic experience of the media I would say this film makes an interesting man fascinating; and a difficult... Read more
Published on 17 Oct 2009 by Peter W. Burden
Twenty-Two International Film Festival awards can't be wrong.
Prior to 'The Corporation', this documentary was Canada's highest ever grossing non-fiction documentary. Read more
Published on 7 Jun 2009 by spiritus
Long overdue but slightly underwhelming
This 1992 documentary, made by the same people who made the more recent The Corporation, has finally got a belated release in the U.K. Was it worth the wait? Yes and no. Read more
Published on 26 April 2009 by Mr. Tristan Martin
Confusingly-presented documentary with interesting information and an...
The original documentary, "Manufacturing Consent," (on Disc 1) was useful in introducing certain aspects of Professor Noam Chomsky's views on the media. Read more
Published on 18 Jan 2009 by Iqbal Faizer
One of the most important documentaries of our time
Mark Achbar is the producer and co-director of Canada's highest ever grossing non-fiction documentary, 'The Corporation' (2003), which charts the rise of the joint-stock company... Read more
Published on 29 Nov 2008 by spiritus
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