Taking Liberties

Let's start this with the facts of the matter. This director purports to make this film in the interests of the public, and yet I wonder if he's currently working on a similar film about removal of liberties under the Johnson government? No? Well, well, well. People's right to protest is now but removed.

And vital to this film is the fact that the director later was sentenced to five years in prison after facilitating a tax scam for wealthy people to make a £40,000 tax claim by only spending £20,000. One can only speculate which political party the wealthy tax cheats are affiliated to, but sadly it's likely true, and it goes to show how this director is actually a political shill. Dark money right-wing docs, there's tons of them out there, just another assault on your freedoms to find tour own facts and make your own mind up. Don't fall for this con.

Well this is not about hiding, but about becoming cognescent of the draconian creep taking away personal privacy, and public freedoms and liberties. It is not about terrorism, but about the misuse of the terrorism act to surveille the population. It is about agenda, opaque to public perception and concern.

Non-professor Stahlman would have you believe it is all bunkum, even though it is unfolding right before his and your eyes. He would seek to curtail your curiosity in seeing this movie, with petty innuendo and obsfucation. You have your mind to decide what you see and don't see. It is for you to decide the importance of the film...whether the film is crap or not, it carries a very important message, and it is one you should at least be aware of.

Some reviewers have called the film entertaining and humorous, it is neither, Its subject matter is neither entertaining or humorous, it is serious and downright scary. Sometime in the future you will face the very thing this film discusses. No matter how hard you try to keep yourself and your family out of it (as if it is someone else's problem, someone else's fear), it will come calling. The question you need to ask is...What will you do when it does? How will you be able to deal with it, and what resources will there be at hand to help you? Well, if you do not prime yourself before hand, you will perceive there to be none.

I found myself getting extremely angry whilst watching the film, because it reminded me all too starkly that what was defeated with Hitler, is now winning with Blair and the current imbecilic incumbent of No 10. It is winning through a series of gradual unfoldments, incremental tightenings of the noose around each of our necks. You already feel it in your personal economy, the means by which you are enchained to repeatable patterns of behaviour, day in and day out.

Generally the media will not report it. When they do, they will sing the constriction of your liberty as beneficial to you. They will make it sound like a good idea; but like all good ideas, they are open to abuse sometime in the future. Freedom and liberty has to be constantly guarded and fought for. You cannot expect government to be benign, and for your good to safeguard your liberty. It will not do that, it will safeguard its own, and you being freedom and liberty-loving, are a threat to that.

If you've nothing to hide, and have nothing to fear, why then the systematic reduction in your freedom, liberty and personal privacy? Simply because, your government considers you to be a potential terrorist, and will misuse the terrorist act to defend, not you, but itself. Individually, you are expendable, collectively, you are a mob. See Naomi Wolf - From Freedom to Fascism ( A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot). This is not just happening in Britain, but around the world. See the movie and discern for yourself, it just might open your eyes.

Chris Atkins Documentary carrys some interesting accounts of the erosion of civil liberty's in great Britain, some of it I've seen before, such as the use of control orders on entirely innocent people and also the banning of protests outside the house of commons, though there is certainly a lot to focus on and even get you angry in certain parts. Taking a Michael Moore esquire approach with the use of archive footage, from silent films and also a cynical yet witty narration (provided by actors David Morrisey and Ashley Jensen), some have described the film as our version of Fahrenheit 9/11, which it is'nt as that film set out to show the incompetence of George W Bush, TAKING LIBERTIES exposes the fundamentally flawed and fear mongering policy of the British government led under Blair, to slowly erode civil liberty's and bring in new laws and change existing laws, that eventually let pensioners on peaceful protests become arrested under the terrorism act, putting them in the same league as Taliban extremists, destroying the right to protest outside of military basis', weapons factory's and the house of commons itself, and causing the police to swoop in vast numbers on anyone even thinking of waving a placard and most disturbingly of all putting control orders on Muslims who have been convicted in a court of law, as innocent and forcing them to remain in a designated area and effectively making them prisoners in there own home. The film approaches this in light hearted at times yet essentially serious manner, and my only criticism of it is that I would have liked to have more views on the other side of the coin, from the politicians who implement these laws, to at least argue there point, though in retrospect, probably no politician would want to appear in front of the camera for this film for fear of embarrassing themselves. Will civil liberty's change under Gordon Brown now that Blair has left, it's hard to tell and if your like me, i'm cynical and think, no, nothing will probably change, if you have a threat of terror, the best way to assure the public is to keep this threat up and then the public will be behind any change in law as long as it stops the extremists from blowing us up (see Adam Curtis' documentary series THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES to get a full picture on the use of terror and fear). Though one thing we can do, and in many respects the one prevailing factor in LIBERTIES is to keep a chin up and laugh at the absurdity of it all.

It is probably best that I hold my hands up from the start and say that, in regards this film I am a member of choir. I am pretty liberal but on the subject of terrorism legislation I do think I have a right to an opinion because of my experiences as a Northern Irish man in England. I note that some critics of this film have criticised it for the way that it does paint things in a very bad light and, while I agree to a point, I do also think that there is a certain amount of "it'll never happen to me" thinking, similar to the "if you have nothing to hide what is the problem" school of thought. However having been arrested and held for being on the same street as Prince Charles would later visit that same day (after several court appearances, the charges were thrown out). So I do have a certain amount of sympathy with those that fear being wrongly targeted by those given the powers to do so if they wish.

However I must be careful not to let me agreeing with the politics of the film totally cloud my view on it because, as much as I agree with it, it is not that great a documentary. It is too simplistic in some regards and it just seems to throw examples at the screen in the aim of hitting the audience with so much stuff it has no time to digest, consider or reflect. The strongest documentaries build their case and let you come along with them to the point where you find it hard to disagree; those films that simply dollop it out are doing the audience a disservice and tend to be those that fail to win over anyone other than those who already agree with the message. So it is here and it is a real shame because moment by moment it is compelling stuff. While nowhere near the degree where we cower in our homes after curfew, liberties are being squeezed and the many examples make it hard to ignore as an issue. However it doesn't pull it together in a focused fashion and ultimately seems to think the point will just make itself. The rather rebellious tone suits some of the material but at times goes too far and again makes this a film "for the audience" – the closing song is the most extreme example of this and quite unnecessary.

It is a shame it is not better because it is an important topic but, while it is compelling stuff, the failure to really deliver a killer argument or a strong structure is its undoing in regards winning the hearts of the undecided viewer. Goes without saying that, for the choir, it is great stuff, but I wanted it to do more than just tick the target audience box.

...ask what your country can do to you.

The central thesis of this film aligns itself nicely with the Mark Thomas (who appears in the film) comment that "If You're not p*****d off, you've not been paying attention". It shows by example the story of the gradual erosion of our civil liberties that has been occurring in the recent years, concentrating particularly on the last decade. This is a subject which should have us all handing over our hard earned to be educated and entertained by.

The artful thing about this film is the fact that it cleverly manages to take a fairly dry subjects of civil liberties and human rights, "Not normally box office dynamite" to quote Chris Atkins, and present it in an entertaining and even amusing way. Very much in the tradition of The Road to Guantanamo this film is as shocking but with a greater capacity to entertainment, which will hopefully mean that it will appeal to a wider audience.

Whether you believe that it is the press to blame for forcing gullible media hungry politicians into rushing through knee jerk, badly drafted laws or that there are more sinister forces at work or especially if you are blissfully unaware of what your government has been doing in your name this film holds something for you. See it and tell your friends!