MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed Rated PG

Directed by Nathan Frankowski. Documentary

Movie Review by Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

I’ll give the filmmakers of this incredibly stupid documentary credit for truth in advertising. You really do need to leave your intelligence behind while watching this movie. “Expelled” has been marketed as a cheeky conservative expose á la Michael Moore that exposes the persecution that members of the academic community face when they try to present the idea of “intelligent design” into college classrooms. I had my doubts about this thesis, but Ben Stein (business professor / actor / political speechwriter) actually found a few professors who lost their jobs over this issue. And if you can’t trust a bitter professor who has just been denied tenure to tell you the truth, who can you trust? Well, for starters, how about interviewing the people who disciplined these teachers, just to see if their claims have any veracity? Sorry, there’s no time for that, since the other thing this film wants to show us is how the theory of evolution is wreaking havoc with everything, and even leading formerly religious people away from God. Stein really enjoys chatting things us with Richard Dawkins, the British evolutionist and outspoken atheist, but he doesn’t care to spend five minutes with Francis Collins, the evangelical Christian evolutionist. The film gets really creepy when Stein tries to link Darwinism with Nazi concentration camp genetic experimentation. Truth be told, things are not as dire as this film seems to suggest. Many ID-friendly scientists have already responded to this film, saying that they do not face persecution for their beliefs. And there are many Christians who can see God at work in evolution. What is most disappointing about “Expelled” is that the filmmakers had access to intelligent evangelical scientists and theologians (including John Polkinghorne and William Dembski) and still failed to generate an interesting discussion about intelligent design. When neither “intelligent design” or “Darwinian evolution” is sufficiently defined, all that is left is an alarmist – and ultimately boring – ninety minute rant. Or devolution, if you will.

Pitchfork Rating: No halos. (Since I’m not even clear about the point of this film, I cannot in good conscience reward even one halo to this misguided mess.) Two pitchforks. (For clumsy attempts at alarmist propaganda that uses communism and the Holocaust as scare tactics.)