I only watched this 'cause a friend of mine who is into conspiracy theories recommended it, and it's week 5 of quarantine, I'm bored, and I figured I'd try and be open minded. While the content is interesting and some of it I know is true, the way it's all strung together to have some deeper meaning is a stretch. It seemed more like the main guy had time on his hands after his injury to think and had a lot of ideas. Ran into another friend who also had ideas. Then, said, "Let's do a movie about it!" We all have ideas and theories, it doesn't mean they're true or they are cohesive. Like, he never really says what it all means, just that the CIA is involved and they're feeding propaganda through media. Sure, sometimes that is true in news or media, but the whole Big Brother / Satanic / MK Ultra thing was a bit much.
And what does a stuntman know about the process of what goes on behind the camera? He's the on-set guy. He doesn't deal with any of the business side, pre-production or post production, and he's typically in and out. Stunt men don't remotely deal with the people who would be involved with the CIA, if that were true. I have a stunt friend he probably knows, as she worked on one of the films he did, and I worked in the areas of film and TV where I would have been getting some government direction if that was actually a thing. The only outside direction I ever got was from networks who restricted violence after 9/11, which made things challenging on superhero shows for them to fight monsters they weren't allowed to punch. But, that was it.
And after living in LA for 22 years, and DC for 6 years, if there was a branch of the CIA or government that gives film & TV direction or tells them what to do, there would be a big department in DC. They do everything big. There would be no need for it to be secret as the government loves to be involved in everything and put their stamp on it. They LOVE regulations. There are LOTS of things that get involved with film and TV. That's nothing new. There's movies and TV based on toys, theme parks, products, etc. Just about anyone can get involved in the film business so long as they have the money. When TV first came out they were produced by products and were beholden to that company. Same for radio. Hollywood's one and only objective is to make lots of money so the producer's can buy their own island. It doesn't go much deeper than that. Occasionally they get on their high horse about politics in film and TV because they like to believe they're smarter than everyone else, but, that's about it. Disney putting stuff in cartoons to raise morale during the war is nothing new. They did it in Superman comics too. It's not propaganda, it's what is relevant to the time period.
I don't in any way believe in Pizzagate. I hung out at the coffee shop next to Comet pizza for years, ate at Comet every 3 weeks, and know the employees in most of those shops, and know for a fact nothing was going on there. The whole idea was ridiculous. But I'm willing to accept that maybe there was something to Podesta based on those e-mails and the media made the whole thing sound so ridiculous that everyone dismissed it. That's possible. For one thing Besta Pizza that had that triangle symbol on the sign, was not next to Comet pizza, it was 3 shops down and had zero relation to Comet pizza. Different owners and they had nothing to do with each other. Also, Besta Pizza was the size of a closet and there is no room for a trafficking ring. And there's no secret tunnel underneath. That was completely made up by conspiracy theorists, and they took pictures of children of Comet employees and tried to make it look like they were victims. So, the theorists used and manipulated children to create something untrue. It just seemed like homophobia, targeting a gay store owner, as some think all gay people are perverts, which is ridiculous. Pedophilia has zero to do with sexual orientation. Statistically there are probably more straight pedos, so, what does that say?
Also, the Katy Perry thing was ridiculous. Plenty of artists start in Christian music or gospel and turn to secular music 'cause there's no money in Christian or gospel music. And there are plenty of other big artists like Taylor Swift who have zero weird things that could even remotely be tied to satanism. Beyonce, Rhianna, Drake, Selena Gomez, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Josh Groban. Where's the satanism in their music videos? Lady Gaga did crazy stunts 'cause she was insecure about her nose and wanted to distract from her insecurities by everyone focusing on her crazy outfits and music videos. Sia has hair covering her face and a mini me version of herself to avoid people talking about her age. None of them have anything to do with satanism.
Again, it was interesting. And things like Operation Paperclip were true, but, again, it had to do with rocket scientists, so, I'm not sure if it's true they brought over medical scientists too. That seems a bit too coincidental they were able to round up all their scientists. But even so, the only reason they brought them to U.S. is because they knew if they didn't the Russians would take them and use them to get ahead in the Space Race, and could build weapons. That makes sense and nothing conspiratorial about that. There's a great podcast called Moonrise that talks about the German rocket scientists coming to the U.S
I would say watch this with an open mind but don't get sucked in. People like to grasp on to conspiracy theories because it makes them feel better where they're at in life, thinking there's some greater force keeping them down.
Oh, and the editing is horrible. Scenes are cut together too quickly and it gave me a headache and motion sickness. I had to shut off the last 7 minutes 'cause I thought I would be ill. So, not the most professional but still an interesting watch.
