Movie Reviews
By David Bradshaw, IFN
July 28, 2006
AMERICA: FREEDOM TO FASCISM is a new documentary from director Aaron Russo (The Rose, Trading Places) that tracks the increasing government surveillance of American citizens through the use of new technologies was released in five major U.S. cities today.
According to Russo the primary goals of the film are to; "Stop the polarization of America, stop the domination of the Democratic and Republican parties over our political system, shut down the Federal Reserve system, return America's gold to Fort Knox and have it audited, have Congress and the IRS, in a public forum, reveal the law that requires Americans to pay a direct, unapportioned tax on their labor."
Below are excerpts of ten published movie reviews (pro and con). If you decide to see the film, please send us your review and we'll post it here!
THUMBS UP...
* Todd David Schwartz of CBS says ...
* Robert W. BUTLER of The Kansas City Star says...
* New York Magazine reports...
* Chuck Baldwin of Conservative Voice says
"Many very credible personalities are interviewed in the film including Texas
Congressman Ron Paul, constitutional scholar Edwin Vieira, Jr. Esq., former
IRS special agents and investigators, and several others. Russo also
interviewed former IRS commissioners, and reviewed copious court cases,
including Supreme Court cases. Predictably (for such a documentary), notable
tax resistors such as Bob Schulz and Franklin Sanders were also interviewed.
And, frankly, their arguments are compelling!"
"The overall arguments and conclusions of the film are more than convincing!
It will be very difficult for anyone objectively viewing this film to attack
the facts and evidence presented. And for that reason, I'm confident that
both the political and financial interests of this country will hope that no
one watches it!"
"There were only a couple of disappointments with the film. I noticed two
words that will be offensive to Christian audiences. Plus, had Russo added
the cross-examination by the inquisitor-esque Alabama Attorney General Bill
Pryor of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, churches and pastors would more
quickly be able to identify with this film. And if any group of people needs
to see and take to heart Russo's film, it is today's pastors and churches!"
"My other disappointment was with the way the film ends. I won't spoil the
ending for those who have yet to see it, but, personally, I felt Russo could
have done a better job with the film's conclusion."
"The film runs for about one hour and forty five minutes. It is quite
refreshing to see a first-rate documentary film which reveals the truth
about the very real efforts of elites from both major parties and from
international bankers to turn America into a fascist, globalist state, which
is exactly what they are doing! I applaud the film and heartily recommend
it! I further encourage Mr. Russo to produce a sequel and to seek assistance
from likeminded Christians who can help him bring in those elements that
will help his message connect with pastors and churches."
"Russo's film is debuting in several major cities across the country over the
next few weeks. If you have an opportunity to see it, by all means do so! If
you are a real American, the film will anger you (as it was designed to do)
and also challenge you to not sit passively by as international elitists
steal our country out from under us."
* Mark Yannone of phxnews.com says ...
"For anyone over the age of reason,
including the 67 million Americans who no longer file federal
income tax returns, missing this movie will be a costly mistake.
Watch for it."
Steven Yates of Newswithviews says ...
"Then get your loved ones, friends, neighbors, fellow employees, bosses, bank tellers,
those who sell you your groceries, those who sell you your gas, etc., to see it.
College and university students should definitely see it, since if nothing changes
they will graduate into the emerging brave new world of high-tech controls. Sign
up as a volunteer. South Carolina’s coordinator tells me that the website has had
500,000 unique hits. If each of these 500,000 people sees this film and then takes
appropriate action, we may just have a fighting chance at taking our country back.
But we’d better get our derriers moving. In the early 1990s, with the EU in Europe
and NAFTA here, the global power network began to tighten down the screws. Today,
there is abundant evidence on official (not “conspiracy theory”) websites of
entangling alliances that will gradually erode America’s borders and create a
North American Union modeled on the EU (see, e.g., the SPP, or Building a North
American Community on the Council on Foreign Relations site).
Wake up, America! Time is running out!"
THUMBS DOWN ...
* David C. Johnston of NY Times says ...
* Nathan Lee of NY Times says "The mess we’re in never looked so messy"
* Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune says...
* Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine says...
*Harvey S. Karten, Member: NY Film Critics says ...
"Russo’s arguments make him sound pretty much like a libertarian,
which is to say a person who embracesThomas Jefferson’s political
theory that “that government is best that governs least” or, to
put it more strongly, that government should exist only to defend
the country against foreign enemies, domestic bad-guys, and to
enforce contracts. Some of his points sound convincing, but his
over-the-top notion that we’re heading into a system not unlike
those run by Stalin and Mussolini, may scare some of us but
abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghareb notwithstanding, this is
Orwellian. Far out."
"Since everybody and his uncle hates to pay taxes, the initial part
of the documentary is the most compelling. Russo, interviewing
former IRS Commissioner Sheldon Cohen and others–including and
women on the street in the style of Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit
9/11" and a number of high-level IRS agents who quit when
convinced that the tax is illegal–posits that the federal income
tax is a hoax; that no one in government has ever produced a copy
of the law. (Despite the amount of time Russo takes up on this
theory, when one goes to Google “Federal Income Tax United States,”
quite a few notations include copies of the Income Tax Code.)
Russo, dressed throughout the picture in a bright orange shirt,
open collared, confuses the audience. Is there a tax code, or
is the 16th Amendment to the Constitution unconstitutional in
that it was never ratified? The director does agree that the
federal government has the right to tax corporations on profits,
however."
"On the matter of the Federal Reserve Bank, which he insists is a
private corporation that has government begging at its doorstep
for money and then pays huge amounts in interest for the privilege,
he does not make his case. We do see money being printed, but
isn’t the department that shells out the paper bill–lamentably,
he believes, no longer backed up by gold and therefore inflationary
and even worthless–actually the U.S. Government mint? I visited
the place some time ago, noting the big sign on the window, “No
free samples today.”"
"His arguments about world government may well lead the audience to
say “huh?” Considering how President Bush has contempt for such
accords like the Kyoto Treaty on gas emissions, favored by most
of the big powers, one can scarcely believe that the U.S. is about
to surrender its ability to make decisions for its residents even
if the rest of the world says “no.” Remember how we went to war
in Iraq with only token if any cooperation from our European allies?
Then again, the documentarian does say that the real organs of
power are not in the White House or the Capitol building, but
in financial chambers." ... More movie reviews
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
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READ MORE ABOUT 'THE FED: FRAUD OF THE CENTURY' ... "The folding, spindling and mutilating of America's monetary system became legitimized in 1913, when the Federal Reserve was formed. Long ago bankers discovered a nasty little secret referred to as "fractional-reserve banking" which is fueled by credit and debt creation out of thin air", writes Craig R. Smith in Rediscovering Gold in the 21st Century. This Special Report will expose the nation's extraordinarily deceitful banking and money system, and help readers make better financial and life decisions for yourself and your family.
"FOUR STARS (Highest Rating). The scariest film you'll see this year. It will leave you
staggering out of the theatre, slack-jawed and trembling.
Makes 'Fahrenheit 9/11' look like 'Bambi.' After watching
this movie, your comfy, secure notions about America --
and about what it means to be an American -- will be
forever shattered. Producer/director Aaron Russo and
the folks at Cinema Libre Studio deserve to be heralded
as heroes of a post-modern New American Revolution.
This is shocking stuff. You'll be angry, you'll be
disgusted, but you may actually break out in a cold
sweat and feel a sickness deep in your gut; I would
advise movie theatre managers to hand out vomit bags.
You may end up needing one."
"By all means, approach “America: From Freedom to Fascism” with caution. You’ll leave Aaron Russo’s movie (opening today at the AMC Studio 30) feeling besieged, paranoid and furious. Of course documentaries, like the Bible, can be twisted to accommodate almost any point of view. So the best thing about “From Freedom to Fascism” may be the debate it should generate about “truths” most of us accept without thinking. I’m a movie critic, not an economist or political scientist. So I can’t begin to say how many of this film’s dire predictions have a basis in fact. But if “America: From Freedom to Fascism” is right only 10 percent of the time, we’re in big trouble."
"Determined to find the law that requires American citizens
to pay income tax, producer Aaron Russo set out on a journey
to find the evidence. Neither left, nor right-wing, this
startling examination of government exposes the systematic
erosion of civil liberties in America since 1913 when the
Federal Reserve System was fraudulently created. Through
interviews with two U.S. Congressmen, former IRS Commissioner
and former IRS and FBI agents, tax attorneys and authors,
Russo connects the dots between money creation, federal
income tax, and the national identity card, which becomes
law in May 2008 and will use Radio Frequency Identification
(RFID) technology. This is a precursor to an impending
police state in America."
"The film begins with a critical review of two monumental events that
happened in 1913: the adoption of the 16th Amendment, which has been
interpreted to authorize the forced taxation of individual income and the
creation of the Federal Reserve, which turned the governance of America's
financial system over to a centralized private banking interest. The film
intelligently and convincingly makes a strong case for the opinion that both
the 16th Amendment and the Federal Reserve System are flatly
unconstitutional and may not even have been legally adopted."
"The feds definitely stink on ice in this movie--as well they might.
Aaron Russo has earned his place in the preferred
section of Heaven with this film, and the nation owes him a
large debt of gratitude for having produced it. Eliciting cheers
and tears from the audience, America: From Freedom to Fascism
is so moving and effective that I wouldn't be surprised to read
that Aaron Russo committed suicide by stabbing himself in the
back four times before the train hit him, and all copies of
the movie have mysteriously vanished."
"A MUST SEE MOVIE! Only we can change things—if we wake up! For the moment (thanks to the Internet) mainstream
media corporations do not control the flow of information. Word about America: Freedom
to Fascism is spreading. Thanks to a growing network, Americans will have the opportunity
to see this film this summer in large numbers. It will open in selected theaters in New
York, Chicago, Tampa, Kansas City, and Austin Texas beginning July 28. On August 4,
it will open in five more markets: Los Angeles, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, Orlando
and Miami. Anyone living within easy driving distance of these locations ought to do it."
"Hyping films with fanciful claims is nothing new in Hollywood. But examination of the assertions in Mr. Russo’s documentary, which purports to expose “two frauds” perpetrated by the federal government, taxing wages and creating the Federal Reserve to coin money, shows that they too collapse under the weight of fact. Many of the reviews in major newspapers have accepted as having some factual basis the film’s main contention, that the government illegally extracts income taxes, even though every court that has ever ruled on these issues has upheld the constitutionality of the income tax."
"There are a number of problems with “America: Freedom to Fascism,” not
least of which is a title so meaningless it would make Wittgenstein’s head explode.
It would take two months on Google to sift through all the provocations
of “America: Freedom to Fascism,” which begins with an intriguing
investigation into the methodology of the I.R.S., then extrapolates
its conclusions into a tirade against the Federal Reserve, the Homeland
Security Department, Congress, presidents of the United States
(all of them), judges (all of them), war, computer voting machines,
the national ID card, microchip implants, overzealous police,
the banking conspiracy, and so on. The mess we’re in never
looked so messy."
"Aaron Russo's "America: Freedom to Fascism" can't even think straight, it's so mad. It is a flailing Libertarian fever dream, aghast every second about why paying federal income tax makes you a patsy ruled by an increasingly totalitarian system of government. More broadly Russo paints a picture of a country replete with electronic voting machine fraud (no argument there), Third Reich-brand national ID cards and, soon enough, he argues, electronic implants to track our every purchase. The one-man-band filmmaker, who ran for president on the Libertarian ticket two years ago, starts with a worthwhile subject before flinging it aside for bigger, messier prey. In 1913 the Federal Reserve Bank was founded, effectively putting the government in the debt of a private banking consortium... His film, however, hasn't the savvy or the polemical skills it takes to marry effective argumentation to outrage."
"Let me spare Armond White the trouble and call America: Freedom to Fascism
a whacked-out piece of anti-American propaganda. The documentary begins as
a rant about the not-so-unpopular belief that the IRS lacks the legitimate
authority to collect income taxes, an argument director Aaron Russo's
interviewees dutifully flatter—everyone else is a nutjob or unavailable
for comment, ostensibly because they are unable to hand over the legal
documents that state we have to pay the IRS. Russo appears to make a
good case against the organization (the crux: that the 16th Amendment
was improperly ratified), its illegitimate power and abuse of existing
laws, but does so sneakily, belligerently, and from a grotesquely
unattractive soap box. There's no consistency of style here, suggesting
the film was constructed largely in the editing room, finished minutes
before it was screened for press: Russo possesses the grace of an angry
taxi driver, but when he's too tired to narrate this scare tactic himself
(was Shannon Doherty unavailable?), he allows ugly skits and scrolling
white-on-black text scored to manipulative music that might sound more
appropriate in a Halloween movie to do the dirty work for him. The film
is prone to truth-twisting and simplification but might have been all
right had it ended after one of Russo's interviewees declares that the
proof against the illegality of income tax collection is irrefutable.
"Period. End of argument," the man says. But this is where the film morphs
into a fear-mongering spectacle: about the value of the dollar, the
Federal Reserve, and the RFID chips the government is bound to implant
in your body if you don't say no to the National ID cards coming our
way in 2008. Russo treats his audience like Pavlovian dogs, fascistically
guilting us into submission with snarky use of the American anthem and
images of Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, and George Washington, but
never clarifies if he'll pay our legal fees should we heed his Word."
"Aaron Russo, who’s mad as hell and won’t take it any more, obviously has a chip on
his shoulder, but ironically he does not want any of us to accept imprinting
with a chip on the shoulder, on the arm, or any other part of our anatomy.
He warns that America is heading down the road to fascism in three ways:
1) The ID card requirement which purportedly will become law in 2008;
2) The Federal Reserve banking system, a private corporation that
forces the U.S. government to grovel when it wants to borrow money;
and most strongly, the argument that 3) We as individuals are not
required to pay a national income tax on our wages because
a) the 16th amendment to the Constitution was never properly
ratified in 1913 and b) there is no law that requires workers
to pay taxes on the fruits of their labor–only corporations are
required to do this, because “income” means “gain.”"
DISCLAIMER: All of the provided information is believed to be accurate, however errors are possible. The opinions in the Commentary section do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Swiss America. Past performance of any investment is no guarantee of future performance. All investments have risk.