Propaganda (2012)
8/10
Very.... interesting movie
2 December 2013
I recently watched this movie, despite other movies being made in North Korea that covered America, this one is much much different. In past films, silly claims would be made such as "Americans live in tents and they drink snow all day" (this is not an exaggeration either), this one contains a huge amount of footage of various parts of Americana and many of the criticisms would be deemed legit depending on who you are talking to.

Part of this leads me to believe that the movie may not have been made in North Korea - I am not sure and would be interested to hear various responses. Beyond this, many of the criticisms brought up also apply to North Korea (in most cases, far far more too). The documentary is well written and well produced, it makes me wonder how it's creators feel about their own country (which has committed some of the greatest crimes against it's citizens compared to virtually any other country in the world).

As I mentioned, many of the criticisms you may actually end up agreeing with yourself, perhaps not. The big picture is though that despite the world the North Koreans are living in, between the violence, starvation, propaganda and more, it suggests that the US citizens in some ways deal with the exact same things.

Some of the criticisms: - The US is dominated by two political parties which essentially share the same views on most topics, aside from a few different things that could be considered "trivial". In light of this, the citizens may not be able to actually elect politicians that match their views, as they end up having to vote for either the republicans leading choice, or the democrats leading choice.

  • Religion being used as a tool to oppress people not in the majority, as well as for a justification for invading other countries and promoting US propaganda. The movie contends that our political leaders, who have never experienced combat themselves, send troops to foreign lands that kill the enemy as well as innocent citizens alike, and then these people go to church and pray so they are absolved of any wrong doing.


  • 1% of the population is controlling the remaining 99% of the population, thru methods of heavily advertising products that most people don't need, so they stay in debt, through controlling government legislature, and through promoting their own beliefs (which benefit themselves) through media outlets such as on TV.


  • The US is also criticized for invading foreign countries under the guise of bringing "democracy", when in many cases, those countries already had a democracy. It mentions that every time the US has done this, the situation has never improved after the US has left (it states this has been going on for over 50 years and not once was there an improved country).


These are only a few of the criticisms though, as you can see, the criticisms are ironic considering the acts that North Korea commits on it's own citizens, but it also shows that in some ways we may not be as free as we believe we are. You may agree or disagree, either way it's an interesting topic.

Beyond that, there are some graphic pictures, few are overly graphic in my opinion though. Worth checking out, but keep in mind this is a propaganda movie and the movie ignores the actual events that go on day to day in North Korea itself.
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