Four Horsemen

This is worth watching more for it's cautionary value than it's message. It does a good job describing what has become of America since the Great Depression, but bases it's viewpoint on the naive idealism of the libertarian - blaming the problem on straying from "classical" economics and advocating a return to the gold standard and demonizing debt as the root of all evil. At least it admits that regulation is a good thing. It does do a good job of pointing out that libertarians and progressives share a fair amount of common ground, and might make a reasonably functional coalition against the establishment neocons and neolibs, who have already started becoming very friendly with each other, as evidenced by the current primary election shenanigans.

"Four Horsemen" is the debut feature from writer and director Ross Ashcroft and the four parts of this documentary address the banking crisis, the terrorism threat, worldwide poverty and ecological collapse respectively. While worthy, well-intentioned and (mostly) well-evidenced, for the non-political, this critique of rampant capitalism is probably heavy going with lots of talking heads - no less than 23 experts, including many senior economists and academics, express their trenchant views.

The film seems to have been popular in film festivals and indeed I saw it at the first London Labour Film Festival where it was applauded at the end, but it has some major deficiencies.

First, it is overly ambitious in scope and should perhaps have concentrated simply on the crisis of the banking sector. The links between the four threats were not always made clear and the section on terrorism was particularly weak and over simplistic. Second, the policies promulgated at the end - while rooted in a pro-capitalist position intended to be 'realistic' - involve some outrageously fanciful notions such as returning to a gold standard and abolishing income tax. I would like to know more about Ross Ashcroft and the funding of this work which might explain the source of these odd notions. Third, at no point in either the analysis or the prescription does the film acknowledge that economic and societal change does not start with institutional reform but with the organisation of workers, consumers and citizens. Real change comes through people working together in political parties, trade unions, pressure groups, and social movements.

For all these weaknesses, "Four Horsemen" does make you think and will engender much-needed debate about the urgent need to reform radically our ideas on how we create, consume and distribute wealth and how we regulate and control the institutions involved.

There's so much in 4 HORSEMEN. Yes it is talk-heavy, very densely- presented in places but it makes brilliant connections.

It's like the big-idea documentaries by Adam Curtis. It's provocative and deliberately big picture. Some of the above crits feel petty in this regard, the point is to stay global.

It's also gripping & urgent. It squares up to the biggest crisis we're facing and has much to say that is fresh.

Surprisingly, it was also been made in the UK on a shoestring. Not that you could tell.

HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Four Horsemen is an excellent overview of what's been happening to our capitalist system, and how it has devolved into a dysfunctional state over the past few decades.

This isn't a deep dive - it's an unabashedly high-level summary, but a very good one. It methodically covers all the symptoms of capitalism's ailing status quo, ultimately touching on most of the world's problems - inequality, environmental collapse, poverty, etc. There's some particularly interesting historical perspective, showing how what we call 'capitalism' has changed dramatically over the past century or more. All the interviewees are knowledgeable and do a great job of clarifying topics that are utterly opaque to most of us.

After watching Four Horsemen, you can't help feeling you're at least beginning to understand what's gone wrong, and what needs to happen in order to get things back on track.

The movie makes no rash claims - all the details are either common knowledge or easily verified. Nor does Four Horsemen advocate radical change. It suggests not a rejection of capitalism, but subtle adjustments to capitalism that would make it operate more productively, with greater benefit to our society as a whole.

Four Horsemen is both thought-provoking and an enjoyable watch. Viewers already familiar with the material will appreciate the way Four Horsemen puts it all into better focus. Viewers who haven't been following economics and tend to be baffled by today's shifting politics will find Four Horsemen a painless first step in making sense of today's world situation. Highly recommended.

The Corporation-- seen it, End of Poverty --Seen it. Inside Job--seen it This social conscious genre is starting to all having in the same exact people saying the same exact things done the same exact tired way. Even the cover art is like the Corporation. How many more films on Sub-prime immorality?

The Voice over and the script for the narration is solid but let down by the format. And the same face contribute very little to the story to make this unique. The best themes seem under explored. The old ones over explored (again).

Someone said it was shot on a budget, but you do not need much money to shoot talking heads on a black background. How many times will this try cookie cutter filmmaking format visit us?