Movie Reviews: Obama 2016-Love Him, Hate him, You Don’t Know Him

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had meant to see Molen’s Obama movie when it came out in the theaters but life happened. So, when I saw the movie in Redbox, I brought it home and I’m so glad that I did.  I hadn’t read President Obama’s book, Dreams From my Father, but it’s definitely on my list now.

The movie is a documentary that tries to get into the head and heart of President Obama and pontificate on what motivates the man. D’Souza narrates the film, at times leaving the narration to President Obama himself, pulled from the audio version of Obama’s own book. By taking the viewer into Obama’s history, his parent’s world-view, and most shockingly, his mentor’s, we are asked to consider if our President’s dreams for America really line up with our own.

“One of the themes in the movie is the anti-colonial goal of downsizing America in the name of global justice,” D’Souza recently told The Christian Post. “So the core idea here is that America has become a rogue nation in the world and also that America enjoys a standard of living that is unconscionably high compared to the rest of the world. So anti-colonialism is a program of global reparations, not racial reparations. It’s reparations for global injustice. Obama’s goal is to shrink America.”

The Christian Post goes on to say, “D’Souza makes a strong, intellectual case that the president’s dream for this country is not in line with what many consider to be the American dream. (Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/2016-obamas-america-movie-review-getting-inside-the-presidents-head-80019/#vlYMbUFyHUgCICto.99)

Some reviewers describe the movie as  hate-mongering propaganda. I didn’t find that to be true. I found the movie to be an intellectual look at who are president is at his core. What his dreams may be for our country and the world. The most surprising thing I learned through the movie was who our President’s mentors were.

The Columbus Dispatch puts it this way: “The first thing that is most striking about that record is the long string of his mentors and allies who were marked by hatred of the United States, and a vision of the world in which the white, Western nations have become prosperous by oppressing and exploiting the nonwhite, non-Western nations.

The person most people have heard of who matched that description has been Jeremiah Wright, whose church Barack Obama attended for 20 years, and was still attending when he began his campaign for the presidency. But Jeremiah Wright was just one in a series of mentors and allies with a similar vision and a similar visceral hostility to the West.

Barack Obama was virtually marinated in that vision from childhood. His mother clashed with her Indonesian husband when he began to move away from his earlier anti-Western radicalism and to work with Western businesses investing in Indonesia.” Read more HERE.

What I am left with after watching this is far more knowledge about the man behind the Oval Office desk, and a watchfulness of his policies and the feeling that the President is not a bad man, just one who is globally motivated, which would make him a great world-leader, but not one that is for our country above all others.

After seeing this movie, I had as many questions as answers. One burning question that I’ve always had involves the President’s religious beliefs. I’ve heard him say that he was a Christian, but is that really true? In my search, I came across this interview where he says that Jesus is the Son of God, but that there are many paths, he doesn’t read the Bible or pray (except to himself it almost sounded like) and that he doesn’t think that people who don’t accept Christ as savior are going to Hell. He believes there’s “more than one path”. It’s clear he’s a polytheist, but I don’t see how one can be both a polytheist and a Christian. The two don’t jibe. But certainly read the interview he gave and come to your own conclusions (HERE).

In the end, I feel I have a better grasp on what might make our President tick. . If there’s a fear, it is that our President, for the sake of what he might think is the global good,  will turn our country into socialist nation, brought to its financial and defense knees.

In my opinion, the movie was thoughtful, well researched and most definitely eye-opening. Whether you’re an Obama supporter or not, I recommend watching this. I dont’ think anyone will be brain-washed, and the facts can be verified easily enough As Christians we are to be knowledgable and watchful.

Incidentally, this movie triggered a memory I had of Michelle Obama when her husband won the first Presidential election. She said, “For the first time in my adult life, I’m really proud of my country.” That statement always bothered me.

I’m proud of my country too, no matter who is President. But I am watchful–now more than ever.

 

Dinesh D’Souza

Author, Speaker, President of King’s College in NY City

Born in Mumbai, India, Dinesh D’Souza came to the U.S. as an exchange student and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 1983. From there he went on to work in the Reagan White House as a policy analyst.

In 2010 he released The Roots of Obama’s Rage which is the basis for the film 2016:Obama’s America. It has been described as the most influential political book of 2010 and has proven to be yet another best seller.

In the same year, he was named the president of The King’s College, in New York City. Dinesh brought a distinguished 25-year career as a writer, scholar, and public intellectual to The King’s College. Prior to this appointment, Dinesh also served as John M. Olin Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the Robert and Karen Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Called one of the “top young public-policy makers in the country” by Investor’s Business Daily, Dinesh quickly became known as a major influencer on public policy through his writings. His first book, Illiberal Education (1991), publicized the phenomenon of political correctness in America’s colleges and universities and became a New York Times bestseller for 15 weeks. It has been listed as one of the most influential books of the 1990s.

From here he went on to write the popular books What is So Great About America (2002) , What is So Great About Christianity (2008), The End of Racism (1995) and Letter to a Young Conservative (2003). His latest book,God Forsaken was released in April of 2012.

D’Souza’s articles have appeared in virtually every major magazine and newspaper, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic Monthly, Vanity Fair, New Republic, and National Review. He has appeared on numerous television programs, including The Today Show, The Colbert Report, Politically Incorrect, Nightline, The News Hour, The O’Reilly Factor, Moneyline, and Hannity.