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Movies / On DVD / Hijacking Catastrophe
Hijacking Catastrophe

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Hijacking Catastrophe (2004)

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Reviews Counted:18

Fresh:15

Rotten:3

Average Rating:6.9/10

Runtime: 68 mins

Genre: Education/General Interest

Synopsis: Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire examines how a radical fringe of the Republican Party has used the trauma of the 9/11 terror attacks to advance a pre-existing... Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire examines how a radical fringe of the Republican Party has used the trauma of the 9/11 terror attacks to advance a pre-existing agenda to radically transform American foreign policy while rolling back civil liberties and social programs at home. The documentary places the Bush Administration’s false justifications for war in Iraq within the larger context of a two-decade struggle by neoconservatives to dramatically increase military spending in the wake of the Cold War, and to expand American power globally by means of military force. At the same time, the documentary argues that the Bush Administration has sold this radical and controversial plan for aggressive American military intervention by deliberately manipulating intelligence, political imagery, and the fears of the American people after 9/11. Narrated by Julian Bond, Hijacking Catastrophe features interviews with more than twenty prominent political observers, including Pentagon whistleblower Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, who witnessed first-hand how the Bush Administration set up a sophisticated propaganda operation to link the anxieties generated by 9/11 to a pre-existing foreign policy agenda that included a preemptive war on Iraq. At its core, the film places the deceptions of the Bush Administration within the larger frame of questions seldom posed in the mainstream: What, exactly, is the agenda that drove the administration's pre-war deceptions? How is 9/11 being used to sell this agenda? And what are the stakes for America, Americans, and the world if this agenda succeeds in being fully implemented during a second Bush term? FEATURING INTERVIEWS WITH: Tariq Ali | Benjamin Barber | Medea Benjamin | Noam Chomsky | Kevin Danaher Mark Danner | Shadia Drury | Michael Dyson | Daniel Ellsberg | Michael Franti Stan Goff | William Hartung | Robert Jensen | Chalmers Johnson | Jackson Katz Michael T. Klare | Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski (Ret.) | Norman Mailer | Zia Mian Mark Crispin Miller | Scott Ritter | Vandana Shiva | Norman Solomon | Greg Speeter Fernando Suarez del Solar | Immanuel Wallerstein | Jody Williams | Max Wolff -- © Media Education Foundation [More]

Director: Sut Jhally, Jeremy Earp

Director: Sut Jhally, Jeremy Earp

Reviews for Hijacking Catastrophe

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1 - 18 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Is there a direct connection between 9/11, the invasion of Iraq, Hitler, Gary Cooper, George Bush, shock and awe, condoms and toasters, shopping, and the fall of the Soviet Union? These filmmakers think so.

Full Review Source: WBAI Web Radio | comment Comment
05/15/07
Prairie Miller
Prairie Miller
WBAI Web Radio

[I]n our toxic media environment... Hijacking Catastrophe becomes even more vital for anyone who considers himself informed on current events...

Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | comment Comment
01/12/05
MaryAnn Johanson
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher

An intellectually steelier case against Bush, his cabalistic administration and the Iraq war than Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
10/21/04
Ernest Hardy
Ernest Hardy
L.A. Weekly

The most outspoken and yet in some ways the calmest of the new documentaries opposing the Bush presidency.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
10/15/04
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Although the positions are by now familiar, especially for those who have seen the previously released films on the subject, there's enough solid and persuasive analysis here to give this effort a fresh urgency.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
09/22/04
Frank Scheck
Frank Scheck
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Serious, sober, even chilling, and answers the question of why the U.S. went to war in Iraq better than any other recent film or television show on the subject.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
09/18/04
Eric Monder
Eric Monder
Film Journal International

This hard-hitting documentary criticizes the macho underpinnings of an American foreign policy based on military prowess to establish global dominance.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
09/12/04
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

The film's form is measured, but its message is incendiary.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
09/10/04
Maitland McDonagh
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide

There's really nothing new here ... and lacking the drama and humor of Fahrenheit 9/11, it is even more likely to be preaching to the converted.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
09/10/04
Megan Lehmann
Megan Lehmann
New York Post

There's nothing like facts to prosecute a case, and this documentary about the Bush administration's pre-9/11 determination to invade Iraq is nothing if not fact-based.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
09/10/04
Jack Mathews
Jack Mathews
New York Daily News

No doubt it's a strong case. Why, then, does it feel so unconstructive?

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
09/10/04
Jordan Reed
Jordan Reed
Boxoffice Magazine

Where Hijacking does its job best is in laying out the historical details of what Kwiatkowski calls the 'storyline' leading up to the Iraq invasion, a narrative fiction prepared and sold by neocons to a gullible, and scared, public.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
09/10/04
Michael O'Sullivan
Michael O'Sullivan
Washington Post

This sobering documentary proposes that the real reason for the war with Iraq is a two-decade, three-administration, neo-conservative master plan to take over the world.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
09/09/04
Anita Gates
Anita Gates
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Less a movie than a litany of arguments intended as, or at least only useful as, a brickbat in the discourse, aimed at your neighbor's Republican noggin.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
09/07/04
Michael Atkinson
Michael Atkinson
Village Voice

It’s the alpha male pathology that drives men to war and motivates them to want to protect their own that Hijacking Catastrophe explores most effectively.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
09/05/04
Ed Gonzalez
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine

A solid primer on the errors of the Bush administration.

Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
08/17/04
Harvey S. Karten
Harvey S. Karten
Compuserve

Though unabashedly one-sided, the documentary avoids being didactic and makes its case clearly and forcefully.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
08/11/04
John McMurtrie
John McMurtrie
San Francisco Chronicle

Goes beyond simple Bush-bashing to paint a horrifying portrait of organized U.S. imperialist expansion and public deception stretching back to the early Reagan era.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
08/11/04
Dennis Harvey
Dennis Harvey
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 18 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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