Intelligent Design Theory: Science or Religion?

There's been a Darwin and evolution documentary on virtually every US science oriented cable channel since his birthday, and repeated more than once. PBS, National Geographic, Smithsonian, Science Channel, History Channel, with some dramatic scenes of Darwin's life -- none on a major broadcast network because it is obvious it won't get ratings (ever see an opera on CBS?). When a distributor buys a film, they have to find theaters that will show it. The only theaters are the art theaters which there are only a couple in each major metro area (there are two here in Costa Mesa, Orange County). If I were an executive in a studio distribution wing, or even an independent like Lion's Gate (one of the few), I would be in a debate with colleagues about taking on theater film distribution of this film. It's likely going to end up being sold to Science Channel, P BS, National Geographic or one of the other documentary channels on US cable/satellite TV. Of course, Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" was squelched by Disney executives, picked up by Lion's Gate, becoming the biggest box-office documentary to that date, and winning many awards including the Oscar. I haven't done any research on awards for this new film as far as winning anything. That would have a lot to do with being bought by a US distributor. Don't forget that Lion's Gate not only bought "Fahrenheit 9/11" (now a prophecy which came true) but "The Passion of the Christ" when no major studio distributor would touch Mel Gibson's religious snuff movie. The Weinstein brothers told Disney to shove Miramax where the sun don't shine and started their own independent studio/distributor firm which has been high successful.

"Inherit the Wind" shows up frequently on cable movie channels which is one of the few films that's been directly addressing the topic. In the film "Master and Commander," there is a Darwin-like naturalist figure who becomes a key plot character in that he finds the enemy in a cove on the opposite side of the island the captain allows him to explore for fossils.

This film will be in theaters around the world, but still quickly sold to television and on DVD.

Ben Stein's "Expelled" was not only loaded with inaccuracies, it was a propaganda film which was destined to sink into the dark sunset of right wing poisonous drivel.

Here's the trailer and notice the studio logo at the beginning? None other than Mel Gibson's company. Hmmm...irony finds it's way into the strangest places:

Wanted to edit this in but A2K has an itchy trigger finger on the deleting the edit button!

The only review and hardly glowing is from Variety but can find no entry into any cinema competition around the world. It looks like the film is just plain boring, not a specialty of the British but name some excellent, deeply involving films from England in the last decade.

"2001," remember, was basically an English film, shot in Shepperton Studios, as well as "A Clockwork Orange".

Film
Posted: Thurs., Sep. 10, 2009, 5:44pm PT

By DENNIS HARVEY

A Jeremy Thomas presentation, in association with Ocean Pictures, BBC Films, HanWay Films, of a Recorded Picture Co. production. (International sales: HanWay Films, London.) Produced by Jeremy Thomas. Co-producer, Nick O'Hagan. Executive producers, Peter Watson, Christina Yao, Janice Eymann, Jamie Laurenson, David Thompson. Directed by Jon Amiel. Screenplay, John Collee, from a story by Amiel and Collee based on the book "Annie's Box" by Randal Keynes.

Charles Darwin - Paul Bettany
Emma Darwin - Jennifer Connelly
Rev. Innes - Jeremy Northam
Thomas Huxley - Toby Jones
Joseph Hooker - Benedict Cumberbatch
Annie Darwin - Martha West
Parslow - Jim Carter

Despite its increasing presence in public debate, the battle between evolutionism and creationism seldom surfaces in popular entertainment. That fact lends an automatic novelty to "Creation," which portrays a Charles Darwin agonizing over whether to unveil the ideas that will upset -- to say the least -- his own and future generations of religious believers. But this handsome historical piece starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as Mr. and Mrs. Darwin isn't about science vs. faith so much as that well-worn dramatic hook, the loss of a child. Likely to earn just respectable critical support, the Toronto opener looks to be a medium specialty performer.

Opening title says the concepts detailed in "The Origin of Species" (published in 1859) have "been called the biggest idea in the history of thought. This is how it came to be written." Yet John Collee's screenplay, based on nonfiction tome "Annie's Box" by Darwin descendent Randal Keynes, accords the original book, its content and research far less importance than the conflict among the Darwins themselves, despite attempts by both the script and director Jon Amiel to integrate scientific and domestic threads.

In the present tense (mid-1850s), Bettany's 40ish Darwin is depressed and physically feeble, inattentive to both work and family; the source of this is clearly grief over the death of his favorite child at age 10. In flashbacks, we see the close relationship between him and young Annie (Martha West), who shares his unsentimental fascination with the natural world. Her illness and demise devastate both Charles and Emma (Connelly), causing the former to lose any remaining religious faith while the latter clings more strongly to hers.

Both parents have guilt issues around Annie's passing (as married first cousins, the Darwins feared their children might be genetically inclined toward poor health), but Emma has managed to pull herself together for the sake of their surviving children. (The Darwins had 10, two dying young.) She both worries over and resents Charles' distracted, weakened removal from family life since Annie's passing. Meanwhile, fellow scientific enthusiasts Huxley (Toby Jones) and Hooker (Benedict Cumberbatch) urge the country-house-bound recluse to finish "Origin," latter happily anticipating its publication will "kill God" -- precisely the reaction Darwin fears, largely due to the opposition of his devout wife and their good friend Rev. Innes (Jeremy Northam).

Amiel, demonstrating some of the visual panache more creatively deployed in earlier work ("Queen of Hearts," the "Singing Detective" mini) than later genre projects "The Core" or "Entrapment," finds opportunities to illustrate theories of natural selection and such in brief montages, sometimes deploying digital and time-lapse effects. But despite that and pleasant (if modestly scaled) period trappings, "Creation" feels somewhat static in storytelling terms. Once basic conflicts are established, we simply wait for Darwin to come to terms with his grief, marriage and imminent notoriety. Not much "happens," though the pic does its best to maintain energy in both physical presentation and mixed-chronology structure.

Leads are also a little monotonous: Bettany is appealing but this Charles is at times nearly a sickly bore, while Connelly, not an actor with much lightness, is OK but emphasizes Emma's grave concern and disapproval to the exclusion of nearly every other quality. (The real Mrs. Darwin was a highly accomplished person in her own right.) In the weird tradition of so many real-life acting couples, onscreen these two stars don't have much chemistry.

Supporting players are aptly cast if underused; screen debutante West, however, gets a little too much screen time (as both living little girl and ghost), Annie being written/played as the kind of wise, winsome, uber-precocious child that feels like a product of adult ventriloquism.

The English countryside looks gorgeous in Jess Hall's widescreen lensing, topping solid design contributions in a costume piece without crowd scenes or sumptuous interiors. Tech packaging is fine. In some spots Christopher Young's melancholy string-centric orchestral score owes a considerable debt to Arvo Part's "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten."


Camera (color, Super 35, Panavision widescreen), Jess Hall; editor, Melanie Oliver; music, Christopher Young; production designer, Laurence Dorman; costume designer, Louise Stjernsward; art director, Bill Crutcher; set decorator, Dominic Capon; sound (Dolby Digital), John Midgley; assistant director, Mick Ward; casting, Celestia Fox. Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Gala Presentations), Sept. 10, 2009. Running time: 108 MI

Not only that, but Icon is a US distributor so what the hell is this British "journalist" writing about? What's in that London fog? LSD?

Scientific American on Ben Stein's small-minded film "Expelled" -- he should stick to American money-grubbing topics.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ben-steins-expelled-review-john-rennie

His first "claim to fame" was as a speechwriter for Richard Nixon. Gag.

Yes, in actuality, the film was a total ass bomb that only barely cleared expenses because it was heavily funded going in by several Evangelical Organizations. EVen though the movie was made on a shoestring budget.(I think Stein didnt come pro bono)

I agree with Ros that , because "Expelled"was such a disastor, getting contracts to screen anything of that nature (be it science or YEC'ery) would be nigh difficult.


Maybe after a few years with the NEw interst of Disney in NAture films (like its old True Life ADventures), someone can try it again.

Well, if Mr. Stein, the obnoxious ass, wants to make a film "Alice's Adventures in Spinville."

I believe that STeins high water mark was his appearance in Ferris Bueller.

Thank goodness you're back safely effemm.

Did you see the Dawkins interview on Sky News earlier today. He admitted, he could hardly not do, that welfare was anti-evolution and that everything is meaningless. Including welfare obviously.

I think that Dr Dawkins is increasing his rate of rising irrelevance.

Even science ultimately has to have its own nut cases and Dawkins is it.

Ben Stein is the one who got "expelled:"

http://gawker.com/5331835/pitchman-ben-stein-gets-economist-ben-stein-fired-at-the-new-york-times

He's always been a tacky pitchman, no matter what endeavor.

What a douche bag is Ben STein. As an attorney (among other actual or claimed professions), he has taken part in a favorite activity for the legal profession. That is: Where an attorney takes on two associated jobs that are clearly conflicts of interest . Many attornies often do this and "define" conflict so narrowly as to allow them to work on both sides of an issue.



**** Him

You have to admire him effemm. You are hardly being Darwinian if you don't.

Considering all the disadvantages he must be labouring under to qualify for your title "douche bag" he seems to have risen quite high in the world. In fact judging from his Wiki entry he seems pretty good for a "douche bag". Maybe you have personal standards which leave the rest of us gasping with awe.

It is illustrative of the methods of anti-IDers that out of Mr Stein's extensive biography LW singled out his speechwriting for Mr Nixon as the excuse to "Gag" on and passed over the rest including his fulfilling the same role for President Ford. Those of us who admired Mr Nixon wouldn't have understood LW's professed gagging anyway and would assume he was sneakily playing on the known prejudices against Mr Nixon got up by left-wing militants to besmirch the name of a fine statesman.

It made me smile to see on blatant display LW's obvious contempt for the readers of this thread. One can hardly put much trust in LW's expertise regarding the education of a superpower's future hopes when his political prejudices have such a vice like grip on his critical skills and when he underestimates the capacities of his opponents to the extent that he thinks they will take him seriously.

If that is the definition of a "douche bag" then we have no alternative but to think that effemm includes the "many attornies" under its head.

He's an actor with the distinction of being in mostly bad comedies -- as far as anything to admire, try to admire this excerpt from Wikipedia. He's an economic idiot like the rest of the Bush Administration.

Financial Advice Prior to 2008 Stock Market Crash

On March 18, 2007, in a column for CBS News' online version of CBS News Sunday Morning, Stein famously proclaimed in the beginning of the subprime mortgage crisis that the foreclosure problem would "blow over and the people who buy now, in due time, will be glad they did," the economy was "still very strong," and the "smart money" was "now trying to buy " not sell " as much distressed merchandise" in mortgages as possible.[22]

On August 18, 2007, on Fox News Channel's Cavuto on Business, Stein appeared with other financial experts dismissing worries of a coming credit crunch[23]. The lone dissenter was Peter Schiff, who predicted that the mortgage sector would create a crisis leading to massive recession, a view that produced laughter from the other experts. Stein strongly recommended investing in then-troubled financial institutions[23].

Ben Stein: The credit crunch is way overblown. The [financial institutions] are being given away; they're so unbelievably cheap...The subprime problem is a problem, but it's a tiny problem in the context of this economy...It's a buying opportunity, especially for the financials, maybe like I've never seen before in my entire life.

[...]

Peter Schiff: This is just getting started. It's not just subprimes. This is a problem for the entire mortgage industry. It's not just people with bad credit that committed to mortgages they couldn't afford. It's not just people with bad credit who are going to see their home equity vanish... This is going to be an enormous credit crunch...

Neil Cavuto: You must be a laugh-riot at parties.

(LAUGHTER)

[...]

Ben Stein: ...subprime is tiny. Subprime is a tiny, tiny blip.

Peter Schiff: It's not tiny. And again, it's not just subprime. It's the entire mortgage market.

Ben Stein: You're simply wrong about that... Defaults for the whole mortgage market are tiny.

[...]

Ben Stein: I think stocks will be a heck of a lot higher a year from now than they are now.

A year and a month later, in the Global Financial Crisis of September 2008, global stock markets crashed, Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the US government, AIG was bailed out by the Federal Reserve, Merrill Lynch was sold to Bank of America Corporation, and Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs confirmed that they would become traditional bank holding companies.

You have hindsight on your side LW. There were plenty of financial "experts" saying the same sort of thing in late 2007. The British government was not far from that when the run on Northern Rock produced long lines of investors queuing in the rain.

I had been saying what Schiff said two years earlier and took to gold at $350-$370.

Well well, Stein has always embodied the "Lucy" principle,

"If you cant be right, be wrong at the top of your lungs"

Cavuto only booked Stein because he was a fellow traveler and a Bush apologist. The entire Fox klavern was always looking to defer the inevitable until the day that Bush had to Bail out all the securities.

Now that makes absolutely no sense at all. Darwin's theory isnt about how we "Admire" organisms. AFter all, if we manage to do ourselves in as a spcies, the concept of admiration will have little meaning in the cosmos.

On rethinking, ense was never your strong point anyway. neh?

Anyone laughing and believing the two idiots on that show over Peter Schiff is just another one of the herd of cows who dumbly walked right over the cliff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Schiff

There were far more credentialed economists who were ringing the warning bell than those who sat back and blurted out, "What, me worry?" The Alfred E. Neumans like the unqualified to even open his mouth Ben Stein are too seriously flawed to even laugh at.

Did Pope Splendious XXX follow all the economy pundits advice and run out to buy real estate, bank stocks, et al? If he did, my condolences.

Please name some famous speech that Ben Stein wrote for Gerald Ford? Perhaps it's the reason he wasn't elected.