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SILVER SCREEN LIBERTARIANISM FROM AARON RUSSO - Our publisher screens the new film from producer Aaron Russo and gives you the skinny. [View the film trailer.]
G21 WORLD HQ - During my youth, when I was first settling into Austin, Texas, with the woman who would be my future wife, I worked for the U.S. Census Bureau. I was one of the minions of the Maps department, charting out central and south Texas for the field workers who would count the population, census tract by tract.
The head of my department and many of the people who worked there were members of the Libertarian Party. They were nice people, friendly and funny and a joy to work with. From then until now, I've generally found Libertarians to be mostly smart people with cutting senses of humor and a very well-developed bullshit meters.
However, I've always privately described libertarians as "Republicans who've had the last remnants of their hearts surgically removed." You see, for all their "live and let live" and "freedom is paramount" rhetoric, below the surface of most libertarian philosophy is a "Hell take the hindmost" ethos that I find troubling.
I share this with you, Gentle Reader, because we should get my personal prejudices out of the way before we consider the film before us.
The press release I received from the distributor of producer Aaron Russo's new documentary film, "America: Freedom to Fascism" which will go into national distribution in July, begins thusly:
CANNES, FRANCE - Aaron Russo's incendiary political documentary which exposes many of the governmental organizations and entities that have abridged the freedoms of U.S. citizens had its international premiere at Cannes and won a standing ovation. The event, which was held on the beach and filled to capacity, was open to the public and drew a crowd of people who stood along the boardwalk to watch the film.
Through interviews with U.S. Congressmen, as well the former IRS Commissioner, former IRS and FBI agents, tax attorneys and authors, Russo proves conclusively that there is no law requiring citizens to pay a direct tax on their labor. His film connects the dots between money creation, federal income tax, voter fraud, the national identity card (which becomes law in May 2008) and the implementation of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to track citizens. Neither left nor right-wing in perspective, the film concludes that the U.S. government is taking on the characteristics of a police state.
Most people know Russo as the producer of the Bette Midler film, "The Rose" and Eddie Murphy and Dan Ackroyd's "Trading Places." What is little known is that Russo was a candidate for governor of Nevada and also ran for the Libertarian Party's Presidential nomination during the 2004 election cycle.
Russo brings the themes of his Libertarian philosophy to this new film. He charts through its progress the Libertarian arguments that:
- There is no law that requires the payment of personal income tax.
- The Federal Reserve Bank is a private corporation that should be abolished.
- The U.S. Treasury should print money for itself and return to the gold standard.
- The proposed National ID Card should be repudiated and refused.
Unlike the documentary from our friend Danny Schecter of the MediaChannel.org reviewed in this magazine, Russo's documentary brings to mind the work of film-maker Michael Moore. One suspects this is almost by intent. Though Schecter's documentary and Russo's are both distributed by the same California distribution company, Cinema Libre, the two could not be more different.
This suspicion seems especially true when viewing Russo's "got ya'" interview with former IRS Commissioner Sheldon S. Cohen. There is something just a little too Moore-ish, for want of a better description about this encounter. That weakness aside, the film is powerful, as the Cannes review suggests and well worth your attention, even if you don't completely sympathize with its Libertarian themes.
Prominently featured in the film is Russo friend and colleague, Republican maverick (and not in the milquetoast, John McCain mode) U.S. Congressman Ron Paul (R.-TX). The Texan brings strong support to Russo's major thesis because many of the positions are ones that he himself has publicly espoused.
In fact, what most makes Russo's film work and promises to make it compelling viewing for many Americans are the interviews with former government officials like former Assistant Secretary of Housing, Catherine Austin Fitts, and former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees like former Special Investigator, IRS-Criminal Investigations Division, Joe Banister, and former IRS Agent Sherry Jackson. Ms. Jackson has since become a prominent tax protestor, after discovering, she claims in her interview, that there is indeed no law requiring average working people to pay a tax on their incomes.
This is incendiary stuff.
Not surprisingly, the review from Daily Variety, the industry organ, posted in its online version of the film was less than complimentary. The reviewer, Leslie Felperin, wrote on 25 May, 2006:
" ... However, the strong case built in pic's first half is weakened by the vaguely argued contention in the second that the land of the free is becoming anything but. Attack focuses on the Federal Reserve, the Patriot Act, the abolition of the gold standard, and not-yet-ratified plans to introduce identity chips on currency and in citizens in the future."
Russo uses cartoons and clips from old films to illustrate some of the more humorous points he means to make in this film, which, sadly in our view, gives the documentary a very low-budget feel and provides a less than favorable comparison to the work of a Moore or a Schecter or even "Super Size Me"'s Morgan Spurlock. Thus, there are a number of points where the viewer will likely ask for more. Nonetheless, many of the arguments made in the film are strong enough to along overlooking some of the production values exhibited and hold the viewer's attention.
So overall, This Reviewer does recommend that you see the film when it's screened at your local Cineplex in July. Tell a friend, in fact. These are challenging arguments that many Americans need to consider about their government. At the very least, it might provoke further investigation, and that is what democracy requires of us all.
Closer to the national release, your World's Magazine hopes to bring Mr. Russo to these pages to address some of the issues raised by this review and share with us his outlook on this project. Stay tuned.
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