Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 4:35am

Obama 2016 Out on DVD

Dinesh D’Souza’a Obama 2016 is out on DVD.  It has no special features, but I would recommend purchasing it if you didn’t see the movie.  During its theatrical release earlier this year it earned a stunning 33,000,000 which is fantastic box office for a documentary.  Here is my review which I originally posted on September 2 after seeing the film in a theater:

My family and I went to see the documentary Obama 2016 yesterday.  The documentary is based on Dinesh D’Souza’s book The Roots of Obama’s Rage which posits that the key to understanding Obama is that he is motivated by the same anti-colonial ideology that motivated his Kenyan father.  I disagreed with his thesis, so I was uncertain whether I would enjoy the movie.  Read below for my review of the film.  The usual spoiler alert applies.

We saw the movie in Kankakee, Illinois at the Paramount Theater.  I was surprised that over 200 people were present at the 1:00 PM showing which was astounding for a documentary in a relatively small community like the Kankakee-Bradley-Bourbonnais area.  The crowd was rather a good deal more serious than most movie going crowds.  They were obviously there to learn as well as to be entertained.

I was pleased at how good the production values were for the film.  It cost 2.5 million to make and every dollar was well spent considering the polish of the final product.  Dinesh D’Souza appeared on-screen as the narrator and did a first-rate job.  He came across as someone genuinely curious to find out what motivates Obama.  We follow him as he goes to Hawaii and Kenya to talk to people who knew the young Obama and his father.  He also speaks to authors who have written about Obama, including  Shelby Steele and Paul Kengor who has written a biography of the communist Frank Marshall Davis who served as a mentor and substitute father figure for Obama.

The central figure in the movie is Barack Hussein Obama, Sr.  Born in Kenya to a Muslim family, he attended Christian mission schools and converted to Christianity (as a young man before meeting Ann Dunham, the mother of President Obama, he would renounce Christianity and become an atheist.).  A bright student, he received a scholarship from a program organized by nationalist leader Tom Mboya.  The money for the program came from black Americans and the Kennedy family.  At 23 he went to the University of Hawaii and met Ann Dunham who was 17 years old.  Dunham’s family was of a radical bent politically, and she quickly fell in love with Obama who was a black nationalist and a socialist.  They married, Obama neglecting to mention to Dunham that he was already married in Kenya and had two kids.  Soon after President Obama’s birth the couple separated, with Dunham going to the University of Saint Louis, and Obama senior graduating from Hawaii and going on to Harvard where he earned an AM in economics.  Obama senior eventually went back to Kenya where he became a senior economist in the Kenyan government.  He and Dunham divorced in 1964.

Obama junior grew up idolizing his absent father.  When he was 10, his father made a month’s long trip to Hawaii to visit him, which confirmed in his boy the belief that his father was a great man.  Only after his death in 1982 did Obama learn that Obama senior was a drunk who beat his four wives and who died in poverty as a result of his alcoholism.

D’Souza contends that from his father, and other far left individuals that he encountered during his early life, Obama embraced an anti-colonial ideology that views the United States as evil, Israel as evil and capitalism as evil.  That statement over-simplifies D’Souza’s argument to some extent, but that is what it boils down to.  If Obama is re-elected, D’Souza believes that the US will be militarily weak, confronting an ever more radical Islamic threat in the Middle East and our economy will have gone over the debt-cliff and be in shambles.

D’Souza makes a persuasive case in his film.  I agree with D’Souza as to Obama’s disdain for capitalism, his suspicion of US power in the world, his contempt for Israel and his fondness for radical movements in the Third World.  However I disagree that these are an inheritance from his father.  Obama’s views are fairly typical of modern-day liberals and reflect intellectual trends that have been dominant on the port side of our politics since circa 1972 when the McGovernites captured the apparatus of the Democrat party.  I believe that Obama would hold the same views if his father had come from Harlem instead of Kenya.  Obama’s mother was probably a much greater influence on the young Obama and she was a typical far Left academic, filled with Third World romanticism, in short the type of individual who rose to dominate the Democrat party in the seventies.  Obama’s beliefs are not exotic as D’Souza claims in his film, but rather typical of what is embraced by most Democrat politicians.  More’s the pity.

Having said that I would still give the movie a thumbs up.  I found it entertaining and informative and encourage people, especially those who know little about the background of Obama, to see it.  The movie has become an unexpected hit, earning over fourteen million dollars thus far, which is phenomenal for a documentary.  This is a film that people will not only see, but also talk about, judging from the rapt attention that the audience was paying to the film in the showing which I and my family attended.

 

 

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Phillip
Phillip
Sunday, October 21, AD 2012 6:53am

Saw it yesterday. I disagree with D’Souza’s contention that it is anti-colonilism that motivates Obama – unless this implies the anti-colonialism of Marxism. Ultimately, I believe Obama is a Marxist.

I dread the possibility of an second Obama term. I think the long-term consequences (including a completely radicalized Supreme Court) will result in a fundamental change in America.

I still do not like Romney. But he is to be tolerated in the face of far, far, greater evil.

philip
philip
Sunday, October 21, AD 2012 10:22am

At the conclusion of the documentary a handful of observers at our showing broke into applause and requests to “tell your family” about this work.
In 07′ Rush L., Glenn B. and a few others tried to convey to the public of Obama’s past acquaintances. Deaf ears syndrome in 08′.
Please Lord, not again.

WK Aiken
WK Aiken
Monday, October 22, AD 2012 6:40am

It will be interesting to see the extent to which it is even mentioned in the Oscar contentions next spring.

Jeanne Rohl
Jeanne Rohl
Monday, October 22, AD 2012 9:09am

I have seen the film twice and even though it is very disturbing, I fear that the American people are so ignorant, and yes I mean ignorant that they won’t even get half of it. Those of us who are old enough to remember the aftermath of WWII and praying non stop for the conversion of Russia and being terrified of the Russian threat have no idea of the horrors of the likes of Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin and their ilk. 50 years ago today my husband was sitting on the Czech border on red alert, prepared for war. I don’t think most people realize how close we were to a real WWIII. They were TOTALLY prepared for it and he was prepared to die. There was a Catholic priest with his unit and they were all allowed to go to confession. I truly believe that we are at that precipice again with this president. The only difference is that this president is so arrogant and so pompous and does not love our country and all it stands for as did President Kennedy. This situation we are in has been written about for years and years. This has not just been sprung on the American people, all of these warnings have been poo pooed as “conspiracy theories”. They were not, they are not and now we are left to reap the reward of an illiterate population whose main goal is to let someone else do it. Welfare for all. Lock step zombies waiting for the check from the government to come in. They have been trying to conquer us from within and the time is upon us. They think their plans are coming to frutation over this last 100 years or so. I blame both parties for allowing this to happen, I blame the leadership of our Church for their wishy washy handling of the truths of the faith, but mostly I blame us for falling for what surely has been as plain as the noses are our face. Right is wrong and wrong is right. “If i get told one more time that I am “more Catholic than the Catholic Church”, I swear I am going to fall off the face the earth. Please God Help Us. Really, what were the Crusades about?

philip
philip
Monday, October 22, AD 2012 3:13pm

Jeanne-
I do feel your angst.
As far as falling off the face of the earth…
Don’t go!
We need you. Just keep smiling and know that your not alone in this upside-down culture.
AA-1025 (anti-apostle 1,025) comes to mind.
It’s a story of infiltration of the Catholic church with the intent to destroy her.
Short read, however it is interesting.
Whats Obama’s intent?
The documentary helps us to answer that question.

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