Truth Retching Review

Alex Jones' new film arrived Friday night but I forgot all about it until today. No surprise, it breaks little new ground. It mostly amounts to a mash note to Luke Rudkowski, who gets star treatment. Andy Warhol was right.

There are some very funny bits. Alex focuses for awhile on these two guys walking across America for 9-11 Troof and against the war, and how the nasty cops keep harassing them. So, 3-4 incidents later (none of which end with them in the local hoosegow), we finally get an idea of why these guys might be getting a little extra attention from The Man. Turns out they're wearing orange jumpsuits and declining to provide ID while walking along the side of the highway. Jeez, can't imagine how that might arouse suspicion!

The focus is mostly on "The family members have questions" and "the air wasn't safe", which I suppose we should take as a victory. Yeah, there are a couple minor bits of true nutopia that Alex gives credence to. For example, countdown boy Kevin McPadden gets another minute or two to tell us the fourth--or is it the fifth--version of his story? Hilariously, it's still "I was standing next to Amy Goodman and I had to run for my life."

I also love the contrast between Luke in confrontation mode and Luke in getting around the cops mode. In the latter, he demands respect and gets offended easily, but when he gets the New World Order in his sights, it's "You're CFR scum, national sovereignty will prevail, etc."

The best part of the film undoubtedly is where the Truthers get to experience a little of their own, with chants of "A--Hole!" as they march. So much for all the cops in New York agree with us claims that Alex likes to make.

We get to see the big triumph of 2007 for the Troofers, when they saw that Geraldo Rivera was going live and chanted the Truther mantra over and over and over again. Geraldo says at one point that "When we come back we'll take you into the secret world of restroom gay sex, and I think these demonstrators are all into restroom gay sex." Jones gets hold of a bullhorn, and starts the chant, but now job is pronounced "jo-ob". Then Geraldo flips them the bird and calls them the "one of the least attractive demonstrator groups I've ever seen."

It's moments like that which makes me realize that perhaps Alex doesn't forget about entertaining us debunkers as well with his videos. Thanks Alex!

Near the end is Alex getting busted at that Geraldo bit of hecklivism. On the show the other day he was claiming how he wasn't going to even be in the movie, but then he got busted. Well, he gets some good facetime, now that they "had" to include him. He tries to paint a big smiley face on the 2007 anniversary fiasco, but sometimes the camera can't help showing the real picture:



And of course we all remember the pleas from Luke and the boys to please buy their tee shirts because they didn't want to be stuck with them. Luke mentions that all the "profits" from ChangeFest 2007 were donated to the Fealgood Foundatation; as usual we never hear what that actual amount was.

At 1:43:46 we get a brief bit of the Truthers doing some New World Order signal:



What the heck is that? Remember these are people who go all freakazoid when they see President Bush giving the "hook-em horns" signal, and suddenly they're doing it? Update: Later view shows it to be the peace sign. What they don't know the peace sign was patented by Monsanto in 1957?

We get the disgusting bit of Sabrina and Luke pretending to be family members to do a bit of hecklivism on Giuliani at Ground Zero. Definitely the lowpoint of the film for the Troofers. Sabrina is not a family member; her former boyfriend's father died in the towers.

Tony-Award Winning Nutbar Christine Ebersole gets the "Deep Thoughts" award for this observation:

"Authority is not truth. And we can look to the laws of the universe for truth. The laws of mathematics, the laws of physics, the laws of logic, the laws of chemistry, the laws of engineering, these are laws that God created that are supported by the universe. And we look to that truth to find the answers about what happened on 9-11."

Who says that all actresses are airheaded blondes in leopard-skin wraps? Alex plays some really martial-sounding music as Ebersole rants on and on; it's actually another funny bit.

More noticeable than what's in the movie is what's not in it. No DRG, no Dylan, Korey or Jason (except maybe briefly in 2006 anniversary footage). No Steven Jones, no Kevin Ryan. Indeed the only "evidence" guy they present in the whole film is Box Boy, Richard Gage.

I applaud the focus on air quality issues, but not the hyperbole. Jones claims at one point that 50,000 first responders are dying; that's an absurd number. Give us a hint, Alex, are 50,000 going to die over the next 10 years? That would be 13 a day. Even over the next 30 years it would be 4 a day; yet we see nothing like that, right?

The film is entertaining in parts, and since it's devoted to the "Troofers" themselves and mostly steers away from evidence it might get some fans in the community. However it skips over the 11th of the month demonstrations, which I have to admit has been one of the more successful innovations that the goofs have come up with recently, and focuses almost solely on New York and Rudkowski. It very much has the feel of a retreat towards the softer 9-11 issues. Zero discussion of the Pentagon, zero discussion of Shanksville.

More evidence that we're winning, I call it.