Reviews of Frontline (1983) and related work
- Episode: “The Merchants of Cool” (2001)
- Episode: “Growing Up Online” (2008)
- Episode: “Top Secret America: 9/11 to the Boston Bombings” (2013)
- Entry: United States of Secrets (2014)
- Episode: “Gunned Down: The Power of the NRA” (2015)
- Episode: Divided States of America – Part 1 (2017)
- Episode: Divided States of America – Part 2 (2017)
- Episode: Bitter Rivals: Iran and Saudi Arabia (2018)
- Episode: “United States of Conspiracy” (2020)
Frontline (1983) IMDb
Review refers to scattered episodes.
PBS documentary series launched in 1983.
moving picture non-fiction series
‣ “The Merchants of Cool” (2001) IMDb
References here: Freddy Got Fingered (2001).
episode moving picture non-fiction
‣ “Growing Up Online” (2008) IMDb
episode moving picture non-fiction
‣ “Top Secret America: 9/11 to the Boston Bombings” (2013)
Seen in 2017.
Black-budget US institutional responses and growth following 9/11, creating a “terrorism industrial complex”.
Based on the series of investigative articles in The Washington Post in July 2010, by Dana Priest and William Arkin. It’s got the generic ominous background “music”, but its a pretty good introduction to the theme, if not actually a factual overview of the various companies and other organizations. The level of opacity is suggestive for a contemporary Delta Green.
episode moving picture non-fiction
‣ United States of Secrets (2014) IMDb
Seen in 2016.
The reaction to 9/11 in US SIGINT circles, projects THINTHREAD, PRISM etc., the consequences for phone and IT companies, instances of questioning the legality of these programs, and finally Snowden’s whistleblowing.
Overly dramatic and somewhat poorly filmed, including the dreaded “data beep” sound effect to superimposed captions, meaningless footage of some helpful technician running traceroute etc. There is little attempt to explain the technical nuances, but the human aspects of the story are well told.
moving picture non-fiction series
‣ “Gunned Down: The Power of the NRA” (2015) IMDb
Seen in 2015.
episode moving picture non-fiction
‣ Divided States of America – Part 1 (2017) IMDb
Seen in 2017.
episode moving picture non-fiction
‣ Divided States of America – Part 2 (2017) IMDb
Seen in 2017.
episode moving picture non-fiction
‣ Bitter Rivals: Iran and Saudi Arabia (2018) IMDb
Seen in 2018.
This seems to have been two hour-long episodes of Frontline (the second having IMDb ID 8070416), whereas I saw three hour-long episodes on SVT. Where SVT got the extra hour I don’t know.
The shared recent history of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and other countries pulled into their religious conflict: Iraq, Syria, and, in 2018, Yemen.
This paints the broad picture well, but prefer Bitter Lake (2015) for background.
episode moving picture non-fiction series
‣ “United States of Conspiracy” (2020) IMDb
Seen in 2020.
Seen with Swedish-language narration on SVT.
Alex Jones’s career as a symptom of conspiratorial authoritarianism rising from the 1990s.
The most interesting interviews are with Jones’s former co-workers and Jon Ronson, the documentary filmmaker who profiled Jones in The Secret Rulers of the World (2001); he says Jones’s narcissistic personality disorder might have something to do with his behaviour.
Despite a lack of hard facts about Jones’s economy and legal battles, the program is a good overview, enough to support Charles Stross’s 2020-09-21 argument that “conspiracy theory as a world-view in fiction” was made unfunny and therefore unwritable by the popularization of grand conspiracies on Facebook, a factor mentioned only briefly in this documentary. There are a few brief cuts where Jones sounds funny in the grip of his greed and mental illness, but the tragedy of it all is a lot more powerful.
References here: Faktafel på SVT Play.