Listonixio
Fresh and Exciting
Frances Chung
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Kamila Bell
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Bumpy Chip
It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
nyrone
I just finished watching 'This Revolution' and I must say that it was far, far better than some of the average review scores from mainstream media organizations that it has been receiving...but that's exactly the point! The stupid, corrupt, idiotic mass-media corporate scumbags that pollute the world with their false bile obviously could never begin to fathom the beauty and courage of this small independent film about a group of anti-war, anti-neo-con protesters who are working to just find a bit of peace in this increasingly selfish, money-obsessed world.This is a brilliant film for anyone who cringes when they switch on mainstream rubbish like CNN, NBC and FOX NEWS and recognise the gargantuan lies staring them straight in the face. This is for the people that absorb the words of people like Noam Chomsky, Bill Hicks, John Pilger, Michael Moore, Ralph Nader, Immortal Technique, Hugo Chavez, Tariq Ali, Frank Zappa and George Orwell and despair at the so-called 'democracy' or 'political system' that we as a people have found ourselves in. The film also features a cameo by 'Immortal Technique' who is probably the most brilliant, witty, tightest, revolutionary rapper working in the US at the moment...(we all await the middle passage!)This film represents truth and light in a time of pitch-black political darkness. The protesters portrayed are just like the real people who marched all over the world, sick of the lies, sick of the imperialism, sick of the dead children as collateral damage, sick of arrogant, blood-thirsty politicians dreaming of oil, sick of the way the media always shows one side of the ever-complicated story. It's a film about some of these things...and much more..I wish I see more heavily-political films like this being made...that are not afraid to be polemic and personal with regards to the immoral and racist actions of the goverments of Bush, Blair and Howard... We NEED more voices like this in the world. Congratulations to all the cast & crew It's a work of passion, but its paid off... You guys have made a truly honest film in a world and industry filled with lies...10/10 GET HOLD OF THIS MOVIE!!!
Gregor Wossilus
I saw this movie at the Munich film-festival. Due to the nature of film-festivals I did not know very much about what I was going to see since the info on all the movies shown is very limited. From the first moments on the rapid and rough style of Marshall's picture grabbed me by the throat and held my interest until the end. THIS REVOLUTION has a feel of a modern reality show like the ones we see on MTV. Like it or not this is current and pretty "Zeitgeist"! This should appeal especially to younger audiences. It certainly would be a great thing if younger people watched this film. Marshall has a lot to address and delivers something that regular Hollywood fails to accomplish: He really changes your perspective on things. His film gets you thinking, especially after leaving the theater. Since Marshall wrote, shot, edited and produced the whole thing in the very short period of 100 days I am even more astonished how well it came out. Marshall delivers a clear and classic 3 act structure! That works well of course but Marshall - coming from a documentary background - also succeeds in filling in a lot of documentary like bits and pieces which launch a lot of social background at the viewer. Furthermore everybody gets a good idea of how divided America really is at the moment. If you take nothing at all from this film this still won't escape you. To me as a German this is particularly interesting. OK, the love story sometimes slows the movie down, the main character is not always sympathetic. But considering all the achievements Marshall made in this film and how big the impact of the movie was on me, I consider this minor flaws. This is a modern, controversial, exiting, stylish and very original movie that grows and grows and grows on me after seeing it. And that is certainly a good thing to say about a movie. Go see it. Especially when you don't share the same political view...it could be very inspiring! And if it annoys you...even better! Controversy means movement, and movement means change! For me as a German I can say that I am very happy to see a controversial film like this coming out of America these days. We all can look forward to more feature films from Marshall!
sdnoble
There's a scene in Butterfly, Jose Luis Cuerda's film about the lead-up to the Spanish Civil War, where the teacher removes a book from his bookshelf and briefly considers giving it to the protagonist, a seven year-old-boy. The book is by Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin. It is quickly returned to its place on the shelf.Is the filmmaker suggesting we aren't ready for such ideas? The scene in Butterfly provides a metaphor for the way anarchism and politics in general have been treated by filmmakers. With few exceptions, either such topics aren't broached at all, or they are broached in such a way as to leave the viewer completely mystified. "Social Realism", according to the online artcyclopoedia, "is a rather pejorative label in the United States, where overtly political art in general, and socialist politics in particular, are extremely out of favor".Which is perhaps why I enjoyed "This Revolution" so much. There's nothing shameful about expressing overt political sentiments in art, and there's nothing shameful about going overboard either. Witness John Heartfield, or Josep Renau, or Jean Vigo, or Pier Paolo Pasolini. Better sorry than safe, and better to risk being labeled pedantic than pussyfoot around the issues in the hopes of appeasing the critics.The film is honest. Marshall may not be in the same league as Pasolini, but as another reviewer pointed out, he's not ending his career but beginning it. There's nothing in This Revolution that can't be forgiven in light of the budget constraints and timetable. If nothing else, it's a lot of fun. Watch for Immortal Technique's piece and the 9/11 rant; watch for the RNC footage, which is electrifying (you won't always be sure what is staged and what isn't); and watch for the reference to Malatesta, who I'm pretty sure has never been mentioned in the medium before.Get off your high horse and I think you'll find Marshall's film refreshing and timely. We need more of this stuff.
BlindFish
I caught a screening of this at the True/False Documentary film festival in Columbia, Missouri, and I was pretty disappointed. I was expecting a cool documentary into the protest and activism surrounding the RNC, but what I got was a largely flawed, bad-acted, fictitious, conspiracy ridden badly woven tale. I'd heard of its neo-documentary technique, "blending both True and False" but I expected more along the lines of a fictitious storyline developed for a better personification and to create a sense of unity between real interviews, but it was more along the lines of a terrible made-for-conspiracy theory TV movie.The acting overall is terrible except for Rossario, which is not surprising considering the Director at the screening said most of the lead characters had no acting training, his excuse being that he wanted them to be real. Heres a hint, real people can't act, but actors can usually act real.It would of been not so cornily offensive if it wasn't blatantly obvious about how keen he was to push this extremely radical conspiracy theory onto us throughout the whole movie, its especially hysterical when we get a scene where the director cameos and starts ranting on about ridiculously stupid theories and secret agendas. The movie also does a good job of laughably stereotyping every single role, it tries so hard to romanticize these street activists and stamp a big 'Good' or 'Evil' on every character.Skip it, maybe find yourself a nice real documentary/