Into the San Fernando Valley we rode, 10.2 miles from Casa Avrech, to see Dinesh D’Souza’s documentary 2016: Obama’s America.
Karen ordered our tickets in advance through Fandango.
There are no theater listings for 2016 in the LA Times. They claim there was a computer glitch, but I think we all know what’s really going on. And the mainstream media wonders why ad revenues and subscriptions are declining.
The film was playing at the Burbank AMC 8, a multiplex with which we were unfamiliar. After parking, we made our way to the mall, lined up to get our tickets and discovered that we were at the wrong multiplex. We shlepped to the next multiplex. Wrong again. Finally, relying on Karen’s amazing inner GPS, we found the right theater tucked away — no, hidden — in a far corner of the mall.
I said to Karen: “It’s going to be empty. No one can find this place.”
We stepped into the theater… and it was packed.
Karen and I had to grab seats in the third row. So close you could see the grain of the film.
We expected to see a shrill hit job, an angry anti-Obama rant. Instead, we were treated to a revealing and nuanced psychological portrait of President Obama, a man America does not know. A man the American press was determined not to know. It was more important to elect a (sort of) African-American to the highest office in the land in order to gain some measure of redemption for the evils of slavery.
D’Souza leads us through Obama’s family history: a mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, so pathologically anti-American — my characterization, not D’Souza’s — that she sought out black, Third World men as lovers.
In the black community, such white women are said to be afflicted with “jungle fever.”
Stanley married Barack Obama Sr., a Kenyan exchange student, an alcoholic, a Communist, and a bigamist. Stanley did not know that Barack Sr. was already married to a woman back home in Kenya. After that marriage failed, Stanley married an Indonesian, Lolo Soetoro, who turned out not be radical enough for her. Meanwhile, Barack Jr. saw his birth father just once, when he was very young, and like so many sons of absent fathers, constructed an ideal image of his loser, dead-beat dad.
D’Souza visits Obama’s half-brother George in Kenya. George lives in a shack. Literally. But he does not expect his rich, powerful half-brother to help him. Clearly, George does not share Barack Obama’s political views. It is ironic, however, that President Obama, who presents himself as his brother’s keeper, is emphatically not. Recently, George contacted D’Souza, asking for a loan of a thousand dollars to help pay medical bills.
D’Souza builds a convincing case, using Obama’s current policies and the words from his autobiography “Dreams From My Father,” that Obama’s political ideology has its roots in the radical anti-colonial — these creatures view Israel as a colonial power — ideology of his father, his mother, the grandparents who raised him, and a succession of radical-leftist mentors, from the Communist anti-American agitator Frank Marshall Davis to the Jew-and-America hating racist Jeremiah Wright.
As the film progressed, Karen and I could feel a buzz from the audience. They were connecting with the film on a visceral level. When a NASA desk jockey talked rather stupidly about the new mission, as ordered by Obama, to do outreach to the Muslim world, someone yelled “Go NASA!” The audience laughed, remembering what NASA used to be. But look, the Muslim world is as far away and alien as Mars so maybe it will turn out to be a perfect job for Obama’s NASA.
When the film ended, the audience gave it a standing ovation. At some screenings the audience sings G-d Bless America.
2016 is bringing in huge box office numbers for a political documentary. The movie came in at 13th at the box office over the weekend. And the film’s per-screen average for Friday through Sunday soared to $7,391, the fifth highest average of any film over the weekend. These are amazing numbers for a little film that was all but ignored by Hollywood and the mainstream reviewers. The film opened in limited (and hidden) theaters, but is breaking wider all over the country. Do not miss it.
Driving back to civilization — I mean Los Angeles — Karen mused that D’Souza makes a fundamental error when he attributes President Obama’s radical ideology to the dreams of his father. In truth, his father was but a shadow. It’s the dreams, actions and pathologies of Barack Hussein Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, who, more than anyone else, shaped and nurtured the world view of America’s forty-fourth President.
D’Souza’s superb film should be titled: “2016: Dreams From My Mother.”
P.S. A few hours after seeing the movie, I said to Karen: “Romney is going to win. This film is as much a game changer as Paul Ryan.”
P.P. S. I’ve just got to point out that in the 1942 movie In This Our Life, Bette Davis plays a character named Stanley Timberlake. The film is kind of blah, but I sat through the whole thing waiting for the moment when some character would say: “Hey, Stanley, that’s a pretty weird name for a girl. What were your parents thinking?” Well, that never happens. Bette/Stanley plays scene after scene and no one seems to notice that her name is crazy. Sad, the way some screenwriters miss the elephant in the script.
If this movie is so great, what we really need to do is raise money to distribute it for free. The US and the world is in the balance! We can’t let the LATimes and similar institutions prevent the truth from getting out.
I believe other American Presidents have come from disfunctional family backgrounds. Clinton and Regans fathers were both abusive drunks. I think you’ll find that many highly ambitious people have something from their childhood driving them.
A few random points.
I don’t see what is wrong in Obama being anti Colonial. I am anti colonial. I would have thought most Americans are.
I also think it is strange that you seem to think President Obama should give money to his Kenyan half brother (who I believe he has only met once). I’m sure the temptation for him to do so is there. But it would reek of a pay off.
“Obama’s political ideology has its roots in the radical anti-colonial — these creatures view Israel as a colonial power”. What is your evidence that Obama views Israel as a colonial power. Personally I ignore anecdotes about Obama giving Netenyahu a DVD for a present. I think it is much more relevant that Obama has approved more military aid to Israel than any other President.
I think I am probably of a similar midset to the classic American swing voter. I would be a conservative democrat or a moderate Republican. As you know I don’t have much time for the anti Obama rhetoric. I think the claims that he is anti American, anti semetic, anti Israel, anti capitalist are complete fantasy. I think people on the right need and want to see Obama as such just as the left needed to see Bush as a brutal and ruthless gung ho, war mongering oil man when he was in fact a shrewd politician and a compassionate man.
That said, if I had a vote in November I would probably vote for Romney. As a European I have developed an enormous fear of debt. I know what it is like to wake up in the morning to find out that your country can no longer borrow money on the international markets. It is a paralysing experience and one which the US could very well experience if Obama were to spend in his second term like he did in his first. Focusing on this is how Romney will get elected. The intensive anti Obama stuff turns people off and will backfire. It will make moderates vote for Obama. It makes me want to defend Obama.
By the way, did you know Obama has a Jewish half brother
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9j7NzKX08s
Ted
Ted:
One can only have compassion for Obama and his truly dysfunctional family.
But we must be honest and explore the manner by which those dysfuntional people — whom he has twisted into noble heroes — have molded his particular world view. A world view that has been deliberately hidden by Obama, his handlers, and the press.
I should have explained that the current crop of post-modern anti-colonialists equate colonialism with capitalism, hence they are against free enterprise; one and all Socialists, Communists, big government statists.
Obama does not give money to Israel. Congress does. And that money is not direct cash, as with, say Egypt. It is credits to purchase military equipment. Money that comes right back to American workers.
Obama is not a friend to Israel. Over 80% of Israelis recognize this simple fact. His outreach has been to hostile and barbaric Muslims — with special emphasis on the genocidal yearning Muslim Brotherhood — who have returned his open hand with a clenched fist. Obama has consistently insulted and ignored Israel, going as far as banning Israel from Obama’s international forum on world terrorism.
Need I point out that Obama has done nothing to stem the Iranian nuclear tide. And when Obama had a chance to offer support for those who protested against the Islamist-Iranian theocrats he ignored those in the streets and the Iranian regime crushed the dissenters. Instead, he puts his faith in the UN, which is like asking the foxes to guard the chicken house.
Further, Obama’s White House leaked the details of a secret Israeli air field in Azerbejan, which was harmful to Israel’s national security, to say the least. A friend of the Jewish State does not sabotoge negotiations by demanding what no Arab ever demanded: that Israel stop building in Jewish neighborhoods. Obama’s hostility to the Jewish state cannot be inverted into friendship. That would be factually and intellectually dishonest.
The point of of “2016” is that the American press never vetted Obama because they didn’t want to. They did not want to face his deep 20-year association with Jew-and American-hating preacher Jeremiah Wright. They did not want to face the fact that Obama and Pentagon bomber Bill Ayres have a long friendship. Even the LA Times have gone as far as withholding a tape of Obama at a dinner offering a toast to PLO spokesman Rashid Khalidi. Do you believe for a moment that any American newspaper would do the same for a Republican?
ABC News is going to air a “special” on the Mormon Church. That’s weird. Where was their special on Trinity Church?
You would vote for Romney because as a European you have seen the devastation of debt. Good. I applaud you. But the roots of that debt lie in Socialist policies which never, ever work. Which bring only misery to the very people it claims to help.
These are the policies to which Obama ascribes precisely because of his radical roots.
I believe if you screened the film you would see Obama in an entirely different and more honest light.
Robert
Thanks for your long and thoughtful reply.
It certainly does seem that Obamas mother was a bit eccentric. But my own view on parenthood is that if you are loving, kind and supportive of your children then you qualify as a good parent even if you are a bit wacky.
You claim that “Obama 2016” has vetted the president the way the media never did. But surely before the 2008 election every politically attentive American knew who Wright and Eyers were. My own view on such things is as follows. There is such a thing as different political traditions. Obama comes from a different political tradition than conservative America. He is the first black President. The black American story is very different to the white American story. As you know anti establishment politics is much more prevalent in the black community than the white. As a liberal and black politican it is hardly shocking that over the years he has bumped shoulders with some radical individuals. The same is probably true even of conservative black politicians.
According to Ehud Barak President Obama is very pro Israel,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26xy6Gbb3XY
And surely Obamas decision to increse military aid to Israel (3.1Billion) to its greatest level yet is not insignificant.
Ted
As a TCK (Third Culture Kid), I can identify with Obama. Returning to America after living embedded in third world poverty against which even America’s poor are rich can be traumatic and disillusioning. The amount of food Americans threw away made me sick, let alone how Americans shop and entertain themselves. He and I are Americans, but we are also global citizens. It looks, from the movie, like Obama has chosen law. I eventually chose grace. In this election, Americans will be voting on their own judgment.
I am hearing impaired and need CC, so being in a theater isn’t for the deaf. I talked to Mrs. Gerald Molen several days ago, and she stated she thought the DVD with CC would be released for purchase about the 2nd week of October. As of right now I haven’t found it on amazon.com for pre-sales, but hopeful.
Kohana:
After you see the movie, let us know your opinion.
2 thoughts, well 5, after reading your nice review.
Your thoughts of the San Fernando Valley remind me of a New Yorker’s view of Manhattan vs the rest of the boroughs. There’s Manhattan, then everything else 😉
Was it hard getting over that mountain dividing Los Angeles and the Valley? 😉
I want to see the movie but suspect it would make me more depressed – how could so many be so stupid?
Ever notice when a good conservative movie comes you have to schlepp 20 miles across town to find a theater showing it? And it is virtually ignored by the establishment but still finds a good audience?
LA Times – to think – in 1960 when my family moved from LA (the San Fernando Valley – although just barely!) – my mother subscribed to the LA Times for 2 more years – getting it in the mail – just to be reminded of what she missed,.
The Times have changed – no pun intended.
I looked for it in my area only to find I’d missed it by a week, and that it only played for one day. But, it was in EVERY major theater in this area, including national chains and local independents, and it was the same story in the city 60 miles away where I work.
Heading to another state tomorrow, and I noticed the film is playing there in a major multiplex.
Bill:
Disparaging “beautiful downtown Burbank” has a long and noble history reaching back to Johnny:-)
Seeing the movie is not depressing for the simple reason that the theaters are filled with people who know what’s going on with this guy. It’s actually a great experience. The film is breaking to 1,000 theaters —which is amazing — and you really should run to see it.
Karen and I are going to see it again. (NOT in the Valley:-)) This time so we don’t have to sit so close to the screen. My eyeballs were bleeding.
I loved your review Robert. Two asides:
1. Olivia De Havilland plays Stanley’s sister Roy. I always like George Brent. Without him I’d not have seen this thing.
2. My point about Southern Newspaper editorials in the build up to the Civil War. Without the aggressive take the confederate public would probably not have embraced secession. They, and some of us now, believe what we read in the press.
Barry:
Thanks so much.
George Brent was pretty good. He costarred with Barbara Stanwyck in a few films from the 30’s where he is really in his prime. But ultimately, I find him kind of flat as a leading man. Which is another way of saying that he lacked charisma.
I especially like, and like him, in Female, Jezebel, The Great Lie, Experiment Perilous and Tomorrow Is Forever. In Jezebel his part is brilliantly written and beautifully played in what can only be descirbed as a grand company.
I found it very difficult to see where the movie was playing in Orange County or San Bernardino. I finally went to the Obama 2016 movie website where the theaters were listed. My husband and I also found the theater packed when we went last week (Brea Edwards). Fantastic film. The entire theater clapped at the end. I personally found Obama to be a sad, pathetic, pitiful child who like his mother had severe emotional problems. The very idea of bringing a young child accustomed to life in the US to live in the slums of Indonesia was crazy.
CJ Reott:
I think Stanley Ann Dunham was nuts. D’Souza does not dwell on her craziness. But her entire life is a testament to an unhinged personality.
You know, I could practically see you on horseback.
Alter:
I am the Hebrew Kid:-)
This movie would not be necessary had the media vetted Obama in 2008, just a fraction of the work they did on Palin. Every influence in his life from his mother to Wright to Rashid Khalidi was brushed off as “that’s not who he is” and the media said OK.
Did you and Karen get looks like you had three eyes when you got to the theater? It’s good to know conservatives in SoCal need at least a movie theater instead of a phone booth to hold a meeting.
Johnny:
I think this film is a game changer. Any liberal who sees this film with an open mind will be forced to confront some very obvious truths about their messiah.