Product Details

• Actors: Sean Penn, George Lakoff
• Directors: Aldo Vidali
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Cinema Libre
• DVD Release Date: May 19, 2009
• Run Time: 124 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B0026B6WVM
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #197,134 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Deflating the Elephant: The Framed Messages Behind Conservative Dialogue" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

DEFLATING THE ELEPHANT: FRAMED MESSAGES BEHIND CONSERVATIVE DIALOGUE teaches us how language impacts our lives and more significantly, our political discourse. Language is influenced by what is known as framing, meaning every word is connected to a concept. How those concepts are used and repeated have proven to shape ideology, behavior and thought-process.

George Lakoff, author of Moral Politics: What Conservatives Know and Liberals Don't and Don t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate, dissects the conservative dialogue and provides explanations and examples on how they have spent the last 35 years perfecting their ideas and their language. Framed messages is a system and strategy that works. The key is to understand why it works. Also featuring Academy Award® Winner, Sean Penn.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what it pretends to be, October 26, 2010

By 

Farmer John (Ohio - United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Deflating the Elephant: The Framed Messages Behind Conservative Dialogue (DVD)

The back cover of this DVD states that "George Lakoff..., a professor of cognitive linguistics...dissects the conservative dialogue and provides explanations and examples on how they spent the last 35 years perfecting their ideas and language."

George does a fair job of this and does give some clear examples and explanations. Unfortunately he deviates from this goal too often and substitutes his own framing of topics rather than stick to clear facts. He commits the same errors of logic that he accuses the conservatives of. Additionally, the material is already dated with his frequent references to the Bush administration in particular instead of conservatives in general.

George would be ok despite these shortcomings, but the periodic ranting by Sean Penn was odd at first but downright embarrassing by the end of the video. I am neutral on Sean, but this video truly made me question his agenda. He seems to have a true hatred of Bush (I was no fan of the Bush administration but thought that Bush the person was doing the best he was capable of). Sean turns a mildly educational video into a far leftwing propaganda piece (suggestion to the producers - re-release this video with Sean completely removed).

Overall I got about 30-40 minutes of good information (at least a well presented point of view) from this 2+ hour video, but felt deceived by the way it was marketed to me.

(Not a very dynamic presentation. George is sitting if front of a map for his portion and never moves. Sean is sitting on a park bench. No fancy graphics or illustrations of the topics they are presenting.)