Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media

Mark Achbar

Overview

"This documentary that explains the thoughts and actions of Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, comes to DVD with a standard full-frame transfer. The English soundtrack is rendered in Dolby Digital Stereo. There are neither subtitles nor closed-captions on this release. Supplemental materials include reflections by Chomsky on the film, an interview with Michel Foucault, biographies, production notes, and clips from a 1969 debate with William F. Buckley. This is a solid release from Zeitgest."

Product Details

Release Date:	03/26/2002
UPC:	0795975101332
Original Release:	1993
Source:	Zeitgeist Films
Language:	English
Time:	2:47:00
Sales rank:	53,751

Special Features

Noam Chomsky reflects on the film; Extended excerpts from the 1969 "Firing Line" debate with William F. Buckley Jr.; Never-before-seen 1971 discussion with Michel Foucault; Filmmaker bios and production notes

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Carl Schultz

Composer

Technical Credits

Mark Achbar	Director
Peter Wintonick	Director,Producer
Colin Neale	Executive Producer
Dennis Murphy	Executive Producer

Scene Index

	Introduction
	Notes on Process
	The Man
	Early Influences
	Vietnam--A Turning Point
	On His Role
	The Media
	Thought Control in Democratic Societies
	A Propaganda Model
	The Gulf "War"
	A Case Study--Cambodia & East Timor
	Concision--A Structural Constraint
	"Sports Rap with Noam Chomsky"
	A Cabal of Anti-Conspiricists
	Media in Media, Pennsylvania
	Alternative Media
	The Linguist
	Basic Premises
	Nim Chimpsky: Chimpanzee
	And the Elusive Connection to His Politics
	The Social Order
	On Education
	Anarchism/Libertarian Socialism
	Resistance and Critical Analysis
	The Critics (Media-Based)
	William F. Buckley, Jr.--"Firing Line"
	David Frum--Journalist, Washington Post
	Jeff Greenfield--Producer, "Nightline"
	Karl E. Meyer--Editorial Writer, The New York Times
	Peter Worthington--Editor, The Ottawa Sun
	The Critics (Other Elites)
	Fritz Bolkestein--Former Dutch Minister of Defense
	Michel Foucault--Philosopher
	Yossi Olmert--Tel Aviv University
	John Silber--President, Boston University
	Tom Wolfe--Author
	The Frat Man from Laramie
	L'affaire Faurisson: An Issue of Peculiar Persistence
	The Middle East
	Support for Palestinian Rights
	After the Accord
	Central America
	Invasion of Panama
	Nicaragua
	El Salvador
	The Film
	Chomsky's Reactions
	Dedication to Emile de Antonio
	Production Chronology
	Who's in the Film
	The Filmmakers
	Festivals and Awards
	How to Order the Film
	Resource Guide
	Index

Editorial Reviews

Noam Chomsky is one of the most provocative and thought-provoking political analysts in America (even his detractors, several of whom are interviewed in this film, acknowledge his intelligence and influence), but most of Chomsky's admirers will concede that his style as both a writer and speaker is a bit on the dry side -- he often sounds like the veteran academic he happens to be. But with Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, directors Peter Wintonick and Mark Achbar have created a superb "Beginner's Guide to Noam Chomsky" that streamlines many of his most important and influential ideas without dumbing them down, presenting them in a manner that's often witty and consistently entertaining but doesn't compromise their importance or the gravity of the issues involved. Wintonick and Achbar cleverly use the sort of visual tricks one might expect from a network television documentary, though in the service of a film that calls the integrity of the mass media into question, using intelligent and subtle humor to create a useful visual corollary to Chomsky's statements (such as the sequence in which they compare the New York Times' coverage of Cambodia and East Timor by lining the clippings up next to each other). Manufacturing Consent is hardly the last word on Noam Chomsky, but it's a powerful and compelling look at a major thinker and makes clear why his ideas matter.

Chomsky is in the prophetic tradition and you can no more truly argue with him than you could have with Isaiah or Ezekial. In an age of equivocation and moral muddle, Chomsky knows what is good and strives to serve it.

The Guardian

Praise for the Film:



"An invigorating introduction to one of the least soporific of American minds." - The New York Times



"A juicily subversive biographical/philosophical documentary bristling and buzzing with ideas - it may have you groping in vain for the remote control to rewind back to the last thought. [It] is politically and intellectually potent, even infuriating, whether you agree with Chomsky or disagree with him." - The Washington Post



"Challenging without being wild-eyed, controversial without stooping to aphorism. What we have here is the unravelling of ideas at a pace neither brisk nor languorous, listen carefully and you can easily follow the thread." - The Globe and Mail



"An immensely accomplished, entertaining examination of the man and his ideas." - The Philadelphia Enquirer



"A sparky and provocative portrait." - The Guardian



"A gem of a biography" - The Sunday Times

From the Publisher