America: From Freedom to Facism is one of those movies that is meant to inspire its viewers to action, to start a revolution, and to bring down the curtain to reveal the wizard behind it. Frankly, it almost works. It’s a solid piece of filmmaking with some staggering frightening information–that is, if the information is true.

Unfortunately, I’m unsure how much of it is. There are some major holes in the film’s key argument: that Americans are not required to file a 1040 or pay income tax (which they are, I discovered at a bit of research) and that the country is slowly being destroyed and its people enslaved. Now, this is not an anti-Bush documentary like so many others of this current period in history; no, this is a condemnation of the invisible hand controlling every administration. Again, this is all highly speculative, but that does not make it any less intriguing or sincere. Frankly, unlike a Michal Moore doc, Freedom to Facism actually seems honest, with a desire to expose frauds despite the need for speculation in order to so. The film really seems like a desperate attempt on the part of the filmmaker to get Americans afraid and rallied to action because his fear is real, and his desire to do good is genuine.

The reason he doesn’t succeed with me as a viewer is that the documentary in full seems to fall victim to “slippery-slope” antireasoning which makes the whole thing seem more silly than inspiring. A great deal of speculation is used in the film to make the case for these assertions, and just going on the filmmakers’ word is difficult, especially given the current climate of distrusting filmmakers in the documentary genre. Of course, this is only a conclusion I reached after the film ended, while watching it, I was completely immersed and concerned; it was not until I took inventory of the presented information that I realized just how speculative it was.

All that taken into account, I am giving America: Freedom to Facism a tentative 5. It is interesting food for thought even if it may not be accurate, and I am unsure if I think its really a movie that the undiscerning viewer should see. I am not sure what else to say–oh, wait I am, as of this post, the full movie is available on Google, so I will say this: Check it out here, and let me know what you think!