Zeitgeist
I’ve just finished watching Zeitgeist.
Part I of the film, the first 30 minutes or so, drags on with Christianity’s astrological correlations and the similarities between the Judeo-Christian religions with those belief structures held prior. Nothing new, little debatable, and not to be shocking to all but the most naive. I kept asking myself “And what is your point?”
The film begins Part II with an audio excerpt defining myth as an “orienting and mobilizing story for a people.” Correct. “The focus is not on the story’s relation to reality, but on it’s function.” Incorrect. The myth’s focus is entirely on its relation to reality and thus its function: its function is to explain reality. “A story cannot function unless it is believed to be true in the community or the nation.” Incorrect. Useful, but incorrect. In fact, the film itself disproves this. In it’s beginning, it covers a number of the stories of Christianity and their metaphorical, astrological significance, which is no revelation. I think – I hope – very few Christians actually believe in the literal resurrection (or even the literal existence) of their dead-guy-on-a-stick, but that does nothing to lessen or alter that story’s function.
From this faulty basis they break into footage of the collapse of the World Trade Center and begin to question the official stories of the events, attempting to draw a parallel, it would seem, between this and religion.
Part III discusses the financial control of our government – the grip of the central banks – and ends with their plans of one world government.
There is a disconnect between the film’s beginning, discussing religion, and the later parts. Only at the end are the lines attempted to be drawn. They mean to show religion as a control structure and more importantly a lie, similar to events such as 9/11. But not enough parallels are drawn, and the idea is fundamentally flawed. Where religious belief structures are created out of a desire for good and then twisted for evil, events and stories such as 9/11 were never intended for any good. Most importantly, where the stories of 9/11 are a lie, myth – religion – is a metaphor. Not a lie.
I would have removed the first part and made into a separate film.
As Yet-Another-9/11-Film and a documentary on financial control, Zeitgeist sits on par with the rest. As something greater, it fails.
(But it does include excerpts from Network, which makes it worth viewing.)
Vavrek has uploaded a 3GB DVD rip of the film to my anonymous ftp. Enjoy: ftp://ftp.pig-monkey.com/pub/zeitgeist.iso