Surplus: Terrorized Into Being Consumers

This is one of the most touching and truthful documentary I have ever seen. The film is about our world, the modern civilisation that eats more than needed.

What really makes me like it is how the messege is presented. It could almost be a MTV video if I didn´t know better. Various sound-clips and pictures made together rythmicly to music.

It´s not very much information that is physicly showed, its the pictures in symbios with music that is the real strength in this flick.

I strongly recomend that you see it as fast as you can and start to think; do I really need all this?

The critics of this film are right to criticize it for being light on information, compelling arguments, and data backing up its claims. The film focuses more on style and visual appeal, and as someone who watches hours of drab, informative, sterile activist videos, progressive films, and leftist propaganda each week, this film was a total breath of fresh air. If you want the facts, watch one of the thousands of great films out there that give you all the research and information you need... visit the media education foundation or read some chomsky. This film may have chosen style over substance, but for me, it had enough style to get away with it. Even for someone who hates property destruction and disagrees with the philosophies of violent opposition that this film promotes, I welcomed this film. 99% of what I see every day is all-style and no-substance and backs agendas I disagree with. At least this film presents a fresh and alternative opinion.

I watched this valuable piece of film many times. It isn't the usual type of documentary you see everyday. It mixes music (most electrical style) and short comments and speeches about the western consume nature and capitalism. It is somehow enjoyable to watch which makes the information easier to understand and remember. One peak is the satiric presentation of the "G8 World shop". You will see some video pieces of the worlds politicians remixed, edited and cut to a background comment. Very funny and very serious at the same time.

Besides the documentary "The Corporation" from Michael Moore, it's the most accessible documentary regarding this Problem which affects us all. Do yourself a favor and watch it.

10/10

A very unusual documentary about consumerism. I prefer

statistics-filled, dry, just-throw-the-facts-at-me types of

documentaries. I find most of Michael Moore's humor distracting to his

main points, for example. This film uses a variety of techniques to

appeal to emotions.

For instance, it uses a sometimes annoying, sometimes surprisingly

effective tactic of repeating sound bites. The footage ranges from

protests to interviews. Footage includes a Cuban teen's reactions to

visiting McDonalds, to European homeless people, to Microsoft's Steve

Ballmer dancing around screaming to motivate Windows programmers at a

conference. It's truly unusual, but despite my preference for "drier"

more fact-oriented documentaries, I found this unusual emotion-appeal

film quite enjoyable and effective. That surprised me; perhaps it will

you too?

It is very important to understand, that the makers of this documentary does not idealize the alternatives of western consumerism. Vice versa, they show it very clearly that the "alternatives" of such consuming madness are the same - madness. The idea of this documentary is not the communist propaganda. As a matter of fact, it is impossible to show this documentary in Cuba. It is too critical for them too. The idea of this film is to show the hopelessness of the situation, where we live. In documentary Zerzan says, that he does not think that the destroying and burning are solutions, but there are simply nothing more to do. This film declares, that we have no solutions nor alternatives. This is not the propaganda of violence, but the tragic conclusion, that it is more ethical (bu only more) to burn and to destroy, than to consume and to conform from day to day.