Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (2008)

Director:

Nathan Frankowski

Writers:

Kevin Miller (writer)
Walt Ruloff (writer)

Release Date:

18 April 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Tagline:

Big science has expelled smart new ideas from the classroom...What they forgot is that every generation has its Rebel!

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Freedom | Academia | Censorship | Civil Liberties | Freedom Of Speech

US Showtimes:

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Cast

Ben Stein	...	Himself - Host
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
David Berlinski	...	Himself
Anderson Cooper	...	Himself (archive footage)
Caroline Crocker	...	Herself
Richard Dawkins	...	Himself
William Dembski	...	Himself
Michael Egnor	...	Himself
Guillermo Gonzalez	...	Himself
Adolf Hitler	...	Himself (archive footage)
Robert J. Marks II	...	Himself
Stephen C. Meyer	...	Himself
Stephen Meyer	...	Himself
Paul Zachary Myers	...	Himself (as P. Z. Myers)
Paul Nelson	...	Himself
William Provine	...	Himself
Michael Ruse	...	Himself
Margaret Sanger	...	Herself (archive footage)
Gerald Schroeder	...	Himself
Eugenie C. Scott	...	Herself
Michael Shermer	...	Himself
Mark Souder	...	Himself
Richard Sternberg	...	Himself
Jonathan Wells	...	Himself
Pamela Winnick	...	Herself

Also Known As:

Crossroads (USA) (fake working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for thematic material, some disturbing images and brief smoking.

Runtime:

USA:90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor) | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Baylor University, Waco, Texas, USA

Company:

Premise Media Corporation

Trivia:

The film sets up the lecture scene as if it were an actual university lecture. While filmed at Pepperdine University, the auditorium had been rented by the producers and the lecture was not an officially sanctioned event. Pepperdine officials confirmed that the audience was made up of paid extras with only "two or three" actual students attending. Pepperdine administration claims that their student body, while overwhelmingly Christian (Pepperdine is a private Christian college), accepts evolution and does not accept the concept of Intelligent Design. Ironically, Michael Shermer, one of the "Big Science" interviewees in the movie, is a Pepperdine graduate.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Jimmy Kimmel Live!: (2008-02-15)" (2008)

Chances are, your mind is already made up on the subject of ID/evolution, and either way, this film will confirm your conviction.

There was already great controversy about this film before its release. I have to admit, I was expecting a slightly more objective film than what I found in the theatre.

Any objectivity that the film pretends to have goes out the window when it decides to forgo usual labels like 'scientists' and 'theory of evolution' in exchange for 'Darwinists' and 'Darwinism'. Anyone with a fairly decent grasp of the many various areas of science from High school will be stumped by these bizarre labels. I now half expect us to start referring to Gravitational theory as "Newtonism" and people who believe in gravity as "Newtonists". It's dishonest and misleading, trying to make people forget that evolution is a science and think that its some sort of indoctrinated belief worshipping Darwin.

If you have a healthy understanding of science, this film will make you cringe and sometimes gasp in outrage. If you believe God created us all as we are today, this film will pander to you, though I'd naturally warn against taking anything in this film seriously.

Perhaps the most shocking thing about this film is its blatant attempt to link evolution to the holocaust and the Nazis. Let's set aside for a moment the fact that eugenics and the tactics the Nazis employed were more reminiscent of selective breeding, something humans have been doing with domesticated animals and plants for many, many centuries, long before proper understanding of the mechanisms behind selective breeding came to light in the 19th century when Wallace and Darwin introduced theories of evolution via natural selection. This attempt to link evolution to the holocaust begs the question: WHAT on earth does this have to do with evolution as a valid scientific theory? If people misuse gravity to throw people off tall buildings with the intent to kill them, does this mean gravity itself should be rejected as science? It's merely a cheap tactic to sour people to evolution, and to see this and know that some people will be completely taken in by such shallow, emotional manipulation really disappoints me.

As for the style of documentary itself, it doesn't make up for its incredibly poor content. It's obviously taking after Michael Moore, but I find Moore's work obnoxious and manipulative, and Expelled parroting his style is even more dismal. I could do without every interview with a scientist being punctuated by stock footage of Nazis and the soviet union. As for Ben Stein - his monotonous drone is not good for a documentary, and obviously I didn't find his sarcastic voice overs particularly funny since its hard to find such blatant ignorance dressed up as rebellion anything but sad.

So, only a 3 from me. It's a dishonest, manipulative film. Creationists will eat it up, the rest of us will bluster angrily at the nonsense and the lies, but invariably I don't think this will change much. It's preaching to the choir of miffed creationists who are reeling from repeated defeats in court over trying to inject religion into science classrooms. I will be sad if it converts anyone who is on the fence, so there should definitely be a follow up film that shows the controversy accurately, to compensate for the deceit and propaganda that Expelled spread. It's a shame though that creationists would likely boycott it.