The thesis is good. But like many of Adam Curtis's documentaries this can feel like it takes too long to get to the point. For the curious (and montage averse) the Chapo Trap House podcast had an interview with Adam Curtis (Episode 65) in which the thesis was outlined much faster, and in more amusing fashion.
>But like many of Adam Curtis's documentaries this can feel like it takes too long to get to the point.
That's the style. Personally, I dig it, and enjoy (and recommend) everything he's done. I love his use of music and old, stock footage. And he always has an interesting thesis, agree with it or not.
I disagree. I listened to the Chapo Trap House podcast with Adam Curtis and was incredibly disappointed. They seemed to have barely superficial familiarity with HyperNormalization or Curtis' work in general. It was awkward. Curtis can talk at length linking topics like government, culture, science fiction, and 21st century monetary policy together while the podcast guys made lame jokes that did not really fit with the theme or mood.
I disagree that it takes too long. I wallow in it:
- Russian folk punk
- Avant garde theatre theory to control the spectacle
- Trump's roots in the banksters' destruction of New York
city government by financialization
- The elites not as MoTU, but as clueless story chasers --
now without a story
I recommend setting aside a couple of hours and enjoying this.
Agreed, a tremendous work with a dream like quality, a phantasmagoria contrasting vapid American consumer culture, against bloody reality in the lands the great powers toy with.
Also interesting observations on William Gibson's work and the genesis of the EFF.
Definitely worth watching in it's entirety.
It's central thesis, that the current state of affairs has become too complex to predict for elites, and that either a fake, simplified reality is both created and presented to the masses, and also willingly retreated into.
Plus great stuff about the cynicism created by the failure and capitulation of social movements.
One of it's assertions is that Gaddafi willingly accepted a false role as a global supervillian because he liked the attention and status, and was in fact not actually responsible for some of the terrorist acts attributed to him, was completely new to me.
History and reality is hard to know in an age of state sponsored manipulation campaigns, intelligence and counter-intelligence, spycraft and subterfuge.
One has to look at any attribution as highly suspect in this environment. Cui bono?
The setting up of Gadaffi as a fake supervillan to cover Assad's dirty work is a cases study in US/ UK doublespeak, and propaganda - well worth watching.
“I really was astonished when I went back to the 1980s how much of what they claimed was Gadaffi was actually Assad using all these strange terrorists in Damascus...rather than deal with something complicated, Western powers found that Gadaffi who had until then been isolated and ignored by the Arab world, fitted the bill of a cartoon villain." - Adam Curtis
This was mentioned here a couple weeks ago. I watched it and his previous film, Bitter Lake, in quick succession. Both were really interesting and well worth the time.
This movie is so much nonsense. It angers me that I was persuaded to watch this and it's irritating to see it so heavily promoted.
It is interesting (and a bit amusing) to note that the thesis of the film, like most conspiracy theories, creates a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. When people surrender to more and more outlandish theories to explain the world then the actual events -- the facts on the ground -- appear to be more and more outlandish. Conspiracy theories therefore must become more and more extreme. It's like once you accept that vaccines are poisons you eventually have to accept that that all the world governments have gotten together to secretly poison their own citizens because reasons. Since there's no end to this it may be interesting to see if Curtis can top his own nonsense.
Adam Curtis is, by far, the best documentary maker I know. His origin-of-terrorism doc "Bitter Lake" gives an insight no one else will.
Hypernormalisation is, also because it is simply the most recent, his best docu imho. If you liked this, take a look at The Century of the Self as well.
I used to love his documentaries. I'm a fan of the music, and the aesthetic. I haven't seen HyperNormalisation, and plan to.
But, years later I look back and kind of think, 'huh, was there really substance to these films, or are the more art piece than legit documentary?"
From what I recall, they're not exactly clear on the sources for claims, and the filmmaking style is fairly manipulative – dramatic music and ominous stock footage that would make almost any politicians look like lizard people.
edit: Also, not saying they'd be 'bad' if they're more 'art' than 'documentary', but that context is important and I know from experience it's easy to take films at face value.
Narrative aside, there is some amazing footage from the 70s and 80s just seeing those clips made the whole thing worth it.
Taken as a whole it comes off as a conspiracy theory and I think that was intentional, but the individual parts contained a ton of interesting factually correct history tidbits paired with said footage.
Not really a documentary -- just an extended op-ed piece. If you already have any deep knowledge of the topics he goes into, he's not terribly convincing (sometimes even getting a bit looney.)
On the other hand it's nice to see a brazenly unapologetic Marxist, rather than the milquetoast, watered-down socialists the media normally present.
In my book this is a post-truth for the left. All my hip friends shared this on FB months ago. Hypnotizing voice, amazing imagery, cool music, selective facts, far fetched conclusions, simplifications dressed as induction. Thanks but no thanks.
I'd watch Oh Dearism II first [1] as it's only 5 minutes long. Then read Sarkov's "Without Sky"[2]. These two pieces of information are the best way to ground yourself against both "news" and apathy.
2014 - "Things are increasingly chaotic, along with the reporting of the events in the culture of 24-7 rolling news, sound-byte feeds and the Internet. The result, as we see, is not a coherent public understanding of these complex events, but more a profound mass-confusion, with discourse destroyed"
21 comments
[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 63.3 ms ] threadThat's the style. Personally, I dig it, and enjoy (and recommend) everything he's done. I love his use of music and old, stock footage. And he always has an interesting thesis, agree with it or not.
[0] http://www.talkhouse.com/comedian-tim-heidecker-talks-with-a... [1] https://art19.com/shows/under-the-skin/episodes/cfb8056a-1cb...
Also interesting observations on William Gibson's work and the genesis of the EFF.
Definitely worth watching in it's entirety.
It's central thesis, that the current state of affairs has become too complex to predict for elites, and that either a fake, simplified reality is both created and presented to the masses, and also willingly retreated into.
Plus great stuff about the cynicism created by the failure and capitulation of social movements.
One of it's assertions is that Gaddafi willingly accepted a false role as a global supervillian because he liked the attention and status, and was in fact not actually responsible for some of the terrorist acts attributed to him, was completely new to me.
History and reality is hard to know in an age of state sponsored manipulation campaigns, intelligence and counter-intelligence, spycraft and subterfuge.
One has to look at any attribution as highly suspect in this environment. Cui bono?
“I really was astonished when I went back to the 1980s how much of what they claimed was Gadaffi was actually Assad using all these strange terrorists in Damascus...rather than deal with something complicated, Western powers found that Gadaffi who had until then been isolated and ignored by the Arab world, fitted the bill of a cartoon villain." - Adam Curtis
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/entries/f77519ae-1ab6-...
It is interesting (and a bit amusing) to note that the thesis of the film, like most conspiracy theories, creates a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. When people surrender to more and more outlandish theories to explain the world then the actual events -- the facts on the ground -- appear to be more and more outlandish. Conspiracy theories therefore must become more and more extreme. It's like once you accept that vaccines are poisons you eventually have to accept that that all the world governments have gotten together to secretly poison their own citizens because reasons. Since there's no end to this it may be interesting to see if Curtis can top his own nonsense.
Hypernormalisation is, also because it is simply the most recent, his best docu imho. If you liked this, take a look at The Century of the Self as well.
But, years later I look back and kind of think, 'huh, was there really substance to these films, or are the more art piece than legit documentary?"
From what I recall, they're not exactly clear on the sources for claims, and the filmmaking style is fairly manipulative – dramatic music and ominous stock footage that would make almost any politicians look like lizard people.
edit: Also, not saying they'd be 'bad' if they're more 'art' than 'documentary', but that context is important and I know from experience it's easy to take films at face value.
Taken as a whole it comes off as a conspiracy theory and I think that was intentional, but the individual parts contained a ton of interesting factually correct history tidbits paired with said footage.
On the other hand it's nice to see a brazenly unapologetic Marxist, rather than the milquetoast, watered-down socialists the media normally present.
2014 - "Things are increasingly chaotic, along with the reporting of the events in the culture of 24-7 rolling news, sound-byte feeds and the Internet. The result, as we see, is not a coherent public understanding of these complex events, but more a profound mass-confusion, with discourse destroyed"
[1]https://thoughtmaybe.com/oh-dearism-2 [2]http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue582/without_sky.html
But it is and interesting view of the described events.