THIS WILL BE A DIFFERENT TYPE OF REVIEW
Hey there everyone! And how is everyone holding up during this pandemic? Here in Hawaii, the lockdowns are slowly easing as the cases bounce near the flatline. A few days ago, we actually had zero infections!
People are walking around, going to beaches, sunbathing. I’m not sure if we legally can do this at this moment, but that’s what’s going on here in Hawaii. Tourism, though, is still dead. But it’s nice to get out.
So a few days ago, I finally got the opportunity, between BBQ’ing and biking, to watch the viral short film called “Plandemic” The entire film was not shown in its entirety, as this was the first part to a series. Finding the actual film proved to be quite a task as Vimeo, YouTube, and Facebook, removed it because it flew against their community guidelines.
When this pandemic is over, our government will have to address the actions of these Social Media companies. Corporations that make money on the 1st amendment, are ironically, at the same time limiting American’s free speech. Even though they have the right to do this because they are not government institutions, they have become the conduit to freedom of thought, freedom of religion, and freedom of expression. And even if a video or a post is offensive, or even flat out wrong, that material is protected speech. There is a gray area that they are profiting from, and it has to be addressed.
With that being said, onto the review:
So for this review, I’m not going to get into personality types, deep criticism on the director, or editing choices. I want to focus primarily on one element, which is HONESTY, an overlooked essential element of filmmaking.
All great movies are honest. And when I mean honest, this means that characters behave withing the real-life personality profiles, science follows the rules of their world, folklore is respected, and the director removes their agenda from the narrative. In other words, stories are supposed to describe an account, not to create one.
This is why the recent Star Wars Movies failed miserably. Instead of respecting the folklore, and listening to the motivations of decade-old characters, Kathleen Kennedy embarked on a mission to push her version of female power. And this is how we got a character like Rey, who was all powerful (she could even levitate, heal, and teleport things), and could defeat Palpatine, with very little training.
Fans rejected the new Stars Wars because it gave the middle finger to the canon.
Honesty counts.
When honesty goes out the window, and it often does, that is when a filmmaker fails.
And this is why the movie “Plandemic” is not a good film. It is an example of agenda based storytelling, and should not be considered a documentary. In fact, it treads more along the lines of propaganda, than anything substantial.
The hypothesis of the film is clear, that the current pandemic was planned from the get-go, and was an elaborate scheme to enrich people and pharmaceutical companies. But instead of putting their own hypothesis on trial, they present a one-sided case, with only one witness.
For about 90 to 95% of the film, the audience is spoon-fed medical theories and stories from Dr. Judy Mikovits, whose viewpoint falls in step with the producer/interviewer Mikki Willis. Willis does not challenge Mikovits on any of her claims, nor does he bring in any opposing opinion.
Whatever she said, was considered factual.
After I finished watching the film, I had to do my own investigation to see if Dr. Judy Mikovits was telling the truth. And, well – she wasn’t.
Her claim that she helped discovered the HIV virus was false. She wrote a PHD thesis in 1991 on the “Negative Regulation of HIV Expression in Monoctyes.” No one suppressed it. Nine years earlier, when Mikovits was only 22 years old, was when Luc Montagniere, a French Virologist discovered the HIV virus and won the Nobel Prize for it.
The government didn’t send her to jail for no reason either:
In 2005, Mikovits was hired by Harvey Whitemore, who created the Whittemore Peterson Institute (WHI) to find a cure for his daughter’s Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). Mikovits was hung up on the idea that a novel mouse virus was the root cause of CFS and eventually published her findings to The American Journal of Science.
Unfortunately, her conclusions were found to be not only inaccurate but purposely manipulated to show false positives. In other words – she lied to the science committee – pretty much, committed fraud. Consequently, she was fired by the Whittemore Peterson Institute and ended up stealing company property, including company notes on CFS research. The Whitemore Insitute feared that Mikovits would destroy decades worth of research, and the police raided her house to get the stolen property back. Eventually, Mikovits would surrender the stolen documents.
There was no government conspiracy to get her. She was a thief.
How can a producer decide to overlook her lies? Or more so, hide it from the audience? The whole truth is that they chose to not tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the doctor because it would discredit her theories.
After watching the film, I googled almost every claim that she made and found more than one scientist, virologists, and doctors who refuted her claims. Were the other scientists right? Who knows. But the opposing viewpoint apparently was out there, and it was never introduced in the film. Again, you have to ask “Why?”
“Plandemic” is the definition of irresponsible filmmaking. This is not an investigative report like “Dateline.” To release a film like this, when fear and paranoia of the entire world is at its peak, is just bad news. A producer should present both sides of the argument and let the audience decide. A PRODUCER SHOULD BE HONEST – ESPECIALLY NOW. People need the whole truth, both views – not lies, that will make the paranoid even more paranoid.
But even with that being said, this film should not be censored.
I do find it rather hypocritical because the producers are complaining that they are being censored unfairly on social media, but at the same time, they are accusing people being murderers and censoring them from appearing in their film. Doesn’t Anthony Fauci to the Pharma companies, to virologists and engineers who create vaccines, have the right to defend themselves from Mikovit’s accusation of murdering millions? I think so.
Now, this is just Part One of a series. Maybe Part Two or Three, we’ll get the opposing viewpoints. But as of now, and from the title of the film, this entire show looks as though it has an agenda.
GRADE: F
If you are looking for a good documentary on the current pandemic, I would suggest checking out the Netflix documentary, “Pandemic.” There, you will find a plethora of different doctors, bio-engineers, scientists, who have devoted their lives to fighting pandemics (which was the flu at that time). There are opposing opinions – if you’re wondering.
This documentary was made a year ago before the Coronovirus was released, and it’s eerie to see these experts from different countries, from different religions, different backgrounds, predict what we are going through now. They didn’t predict that it would be COVID-19 that would hit us, but some type of world pandemic.
For hope, check out and follow Dr. Jacob Glanville’s work, who may have created an actual cure. He is featured in the documentary Pandemic, which at that time he was creating a universal flu vaccine to wipe out influenza indefinitely:
Steve Young
