2016: Obama’s America (Dinesh D’Souza/John Sullivan, 2012): USA

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.  Viewed at Century 10 Downtown, Ventura, CA.

  The national debt increased by nearly $5 trillion in the eight years of the Bush Administration, and disturbingly has expanded another $5 trillion in the less than four years of Obama’s Administration (now approaching the $16 trillion mark), despite his campaign promises to cut the deficit in half.  Writer/director/theorist Dinesh D’Souza attempts to explain President Obama’s reckless spending in his first term, and the possible destructive consequences of a second term, if elected, in 2016:  Obama’s America.

Running on a campaign of Hope and Change, Barack Obama’s enthusiasm seemed to sweep the nation back in 2008, but it was the hope and dreams of his father Barack Obama Sr., a staunch African Socialist and anti-colonialist, to which changes he intended to inflict on the United States.  Instead of a collective thought on perfecting America’s liberty, as many believed, Obama’s intention seemed to put in practice a type of African Socialism – if applied here, basically means share the collective wealth, deserved or undeserved, and level the playing field at home and abroad socially, economically, and militarily – where “Americans can be taxed up to 100% of their income.”

Posing the question “where will we be in 2016?”  D’Souza takes us on a journey into Obama’s past, which spanned the globe from India to Kenya, to Indonesia and ultimately to Hawaii, proving his theory and explaining Obama’s radical choices through dialogue and chilling voice-overs culled from the voice of Obama himself and his memoir Dreams From My Father. 

Born in Mumbai, D’Souza compares and contrasts himself with Obama; they’re the same age, graduated in the U.S. at the same time, married the same year, but opposites in ideology, yet D’Souza was intrigued by the hysteria of “hope and change” and published a book in 2010 on his discoveries into Obama’s past, titled The Roots of Obama’s Rage. 

D’Souza’s case in point is the hero worship of Obama Sr. by Barack Jr., who held his father in high esteem based on the info his mother fed him.  Only spending one month of his entire life with his father, it wasn’t until adulthood that Jr. found out the truth about Sr. – that he was a drunkard, an abusive father and husband as well as a bigamist, and embittered and poverty stricken before his death from an auto accident in 1982.  Discovering this, Obama Jr. fell into an emotional tale-spin and then sought to fulfill his father’s socialistic fantasies, that the “sins of colonialism be set right, and America be downsized.”

Covered also is Obama’s connection with his pastor, the inflammatory Jeremiah Wright, his mentor the communistic writer/activist Frank Marshall Davis, and his association with Bill Ayers, co-founder of the 1960’s terrorist group Weather Underground.

This is not your typical political documentary, although it leans right, D’Souza respectfully appeals to our intellect rather than our emotions – the antithesis of a Michael Moore film.  He interviews younger half-brother George Obama in Nairobi, and rather than cater to tricky editing, he chooses to include a portion where George refuses to defame his brother, even though it is evident that George has been castigated from the President’s inner family circle for opposing viewpoints – despite Obama’s famous quote “I am my brother’s keeper.”

Thrilling and fast-paced, about 90 minutes in length but easily feels like 60 – another 30 minutes would not have hurt the film – there’s typical talking head coverage, A-roll B-roll footage, archival video, montage, Obama’s VO narrative and fast-paced cutting, with an especially eye-catching title and opening sequence with cross-cuts from India to the U.S., etc.

2016:  Obama’s America opened in July on one screen and took in $31k, it has had a limited release, emerging slowly a few screens at a time, but it’s since been declared a box office hit, with domestic gross now over $9 mil.

This is not a depressing downbeat film, rather an empowering spine-chiller that provokes applause from the audience.

 

 

 

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Published:
08.26.12 / 8pm
Category:
Documentary, Films