Arguing the World

1997

Documentary

2
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 80% · 5 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 88% · 250 ratings
IMDb Rating 7.0/10 10 104 104

Director

Joseph Dorman Photo
Joseph Dorman

Top cast

Alan Rosenberg Photo
Alan Rosenberg as Narrator
Irving Howe Photo
Irving Howe as Self
Daniel Bell Photo
Daniel Bell as Self
Nathan Glazer Photo
Nathan Glazer as Self
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
1003.77 MB
1280*972
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 49 min
Seeds 1
1.82 GB
1422*1080
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 49 min
Seeds ...

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by demyetvarda

A good primer for understanding the changes of the American Left.

This documentary is especially useful and interesting for students and for progressive intellectuals coming into our "age of reason" perplexed by the ineffectual left. If you have read Hanna Arendt's *On Violence* and you wondered why she so pointedly critiqued the methods of the young student protesters (who were as appalled by totalitarianism as she was) this simple, if sentimental documentary goes a long way towards settling the score between 30s and 60s radicals. The once-members of the anti-stalinist communists who argued in the halls of City College talk about what it was like to be a young students who cared about learning and politics and their subsequent methods of coming to terms with the tragic ramifications of Stalinism. This documentary shows us how indelibly this disappointment marked the political minds of a radical generation, and how it essentially de-radicalized that generation. In the end it offers hope that there is the possibility of critiquing the failures of the left while at the same time respecting the real intellectual vigilance of those whose humility allowed that fascism could have many possible origins, and that we should never be so smug as to think our own actions could not give rise to it.
Reviewed by SanFernandoCurt

Change - or decomposition?

I must agree with Antiwar.com columnist Justin Raimondo's appraisal of this epic: "...The aforesaid... tout their own intellectual importance in what has got to be one of the most extravagant displays of narcissism since… well, since Narcissus." Boy! Do they ever! In the case of Irving Kristol, spiritual godfather of neoconservativism and bio-dad of "Weekly Standard" publisher William, this is truly disquieting, since his aberrant ideas helped detour and mutate our post-9/11 "war on terror" into a war of genuine Mideast imperialism (oil, you know) and to guarantee the hegemony of our brave li'l ally, Israel, apparently forever. Thanks for Iraq, Irving. Yep! It's broken. Uh-huh! Now we own it. Some neocons have droned on about "unending war" the way salon Marxists of the past jabbered about "unending revolution". So... how far have these sour apples rolled from their tree of "inspiration"? Neocons are "progressive" domestically and "conservative" internationally. Open borders, si! Two-state solution, no! Hmm. This movie is not for all tastes (like... anyone who favors straight talk about ANYTHING), but if self-aggrandizement was gold, this jackass collective would be Ft. Knox.
Reviewed by

Read more IMDb reviews

1 Comment

Be the first to leave a comment