I genuinely enjoyed watching this documentary. For me, it hit a rare sweet spot between education and entertainment. Also, given the particular scenario, the work through was logical, smartly structured and well displayed.
Unfortunately though, there is a major issue - not with the production, but with the conceptional idea emerging from January 6th "insurrection". Those citizen protests, however rowdy, where not a real insurrection. They were never a real threat to the democratic republic. Instead, it created just enough political noise to further cramp down on individual citizen rights and helped push more power to authorities. The makers of this otherwise technically good documentary, failed to recognize the real threat to the republic, the real insurrection. A threat not from it´s average citizens, but from it´s leaders and corporations. Yes, the real insurrection happened already!!! The US government has been systematically undermined by the military-industrial complex for 80 years. It´s hiding so incomparably powerful thruth´s and technologies from the american people within black SAP´s that it is able to steer legislature at will! This is the real threat, the real insurrection, and it already succeeded!
Plot summary
A bipartisan group of U.S. defense, intelligence, and elected policymakers spanning five presidential administrations participate in an unscripted role-play exercise in which they confront a political coup backed by rogue members of the U.S. military, in the wake of a contested presidential election.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
September 27, 2024 at 09:50 AM
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The Wrong Target
January 6th The Progressive Boogeyman
Documentaries like this only reinforce that progressives have created a boogeymen in their mind about the January 6th protesters. January 6th was a political protest that turned into a riot by a complete lack of security at the Capital. A real "insurrection" would have included armed combatants and the result would have been a bloodbath. The fact that this never happened (thank God) should tell everyone what they really need to know about "Documentaries" like this.
The bias of the producers and their identity politics devalues whatever aims this documentary was trying to achieve. In many cases I found the responses proposed by the former Democratic party office holders acting in this to be more disturbing than what they were trying to warn against. In multiple cases they attempted to justify the censorship of free speech, the invasion of privacy of U. S. citizens with illegal wire tapping and the declaration of Martial law.
I don't have much more to add that was not already mentioned in the 4 star review, "This Meeting Could Have Been an Email: "War Game" Is a Stuffy, Boring, and Self-Righteous Attempt at Establishment Agitprop" only that for the love of God someone tell Heidi Heitkamp she is not the POTUS.
Disregard the lower scores and decide for yourself
I almost didn't watch it because of one 4-star review but wanted to see for myself and I did my own research. I don't think we watched the same documentary. I thought it was compelling to watch. It wasn't a scripted film, but the filming of an actual exercise with a lot more bells and whistles than such an exercise would have had in real life. What's telling about this is that the insurrectionist team can lie with impunity and create all kinds of chaos and the government team has to abide by the rule of law and stick to the truth - just like one hopes the government would do in real life. So it isn't as gripping as it would be if Aaron Sorkin wrote the dialogue because these folks were behaving as best they could given the circumstances, trying to win a war game that - thank goodness - wasn't for real.
I have a lot of faith in our military, but it IS important to know that 1 in 5 insurrectionists were military, and many of our service men and women have been ill-treated, and could fall under the sway of someone like Michael Flynn. After watching The Brainwashing of My Dad, it's clear many people (military or not) are indoctrinated with false information and think they are being patriots but are just being manipulated, and the scenario portrayed in this movie is not that far-fetched. Mr. Goldsmith speaks to his own disillusionment eloquently and I don't think his concerns are overblown (and he actually testified before Congress so I think another reviewer protests too much).
Is this scenario scary? Sure. Is it possible? Yes. Being an American comes with rights and responsibilities. We must understand how government works, and what our responsibility is to uphold the Constitution. To be educated and informed, to fact-check stories and not rely on only one news source. To vote and to help ensure the safe secure transfer of power. It's an important, thought-provoking movie.