Customer Reviews

DisinfoTV on DVD

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I stumbled across this DVD while i was trying to spend a gift certificate in a local big-box electronics store, and i couldn't be happier that some freak on the payroll decided to order it.

If one of the guys from the Onion, a couple of writers from The Daily Show, the director of "Dancing Outlaw", the staff of "Adbusters", Larry Flint and Shirley McClaine ever decided to make a TV show, "DisinfoTV" might be the result.

You will see wild conspiracies espoused by wackoids. You will see profiles of amazing and disturbing artists (such as Joe Coleman). You will see toothless hillbillies being lit on fire and having their faces spray-painted silver by their relatives. And much more. Much, much more.

Suffice to say that even if you only visit the fringe occasionally, you will not regret spending some of your hard-earned sheckles on this DVD. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll wish that BBC 4 had had the balls to pay for more episodes of this brilliant show.

As it stands, you'll have to be satisfied with the 260 minutes that are on this disc. I will say, though, that the extra feature titled "McTime" is worth the price of admission, alone. Watching a prankster invade McDonalds dressed as Ronald and then seeing fake lawyers canvassing Scottish neighborhoods trying to get all of the people with the surname McDonald to change their names is priceless.

If you watched "The Yes Men" and liked it, if you thought that "SuperSize Me" was even remotely amusing... if you've ever seen "Dancing Outlaw", then you must own this disc.

Richard Metzger forever walks the borderline between "finder of interesting fringe stuff" and "clove-smoking, all-black-bewardrobed, college freshman majoring -- one might say almost achingly so -- in media studies." Metzger's pretentiousness can reach comic-bookian proportions, as when he iconically gels little devil horns into his hair, raises a smoking cigarette, and cocks an eyebrow like media studies frosh from the previous analogy doing a Spock imitation. Likewise, Metzger's stated modus operandi almost borders on self-parody (mainstream people are greedy - for instance they buy themselves needlessly expensive cars; therefore I am morally superior to them as a member of the counter-culture; and the best way to defeat them is to take their money; therefore i take their money and buy myself needlessly expensive cars).

On the other hand, Metzger has a good nose for finding people at the fringes and counter-culture who can spin a good yarn in explaining their radical philosophies. The people interviewed range from apparent schizophrenics to conspiracy theorists, attention-seekers, delightful crackpots, college professors, and avid hobbyists. The entertainment level is consistently high.

Disinformation was a TV show that lasted 2 seasons in the UK - 16 episodes of 30 minutes each. The Scifi channel ordered a recut version boiling those 480 minutes down to 4 episodes of 60 minutes each. This disc is those 4 recut one-hour episodes, plus one of the original UK episodes (on author Howard Bloom), and a short piece on copyright issues related to MacDonald's. The product Disinformation: The Complete Series is this disc plus a second with about 2 hours of highlights from the Disinformation Convention.

Pretty cool show. I can see why it was canceled so quickly. Not for the squeamish; it holds a magnifying glass to the freak culture in typical 'disinformation' style. Topics range from the MK Ultra conspiracy, to talking plants, to the trans-sexual revolution, to white trash abuse with 'uncle goddamn'. They interview lots of artists and musicians, and most of them are pretty far 'out there', but it's interesting. This isn't something you buy for your grandma or show to your kids, but it has some definite re-watch value for it's target demographic.

I have read several books and own other documentary style DVD's from the Disinformation brand and been very pleased. This DVD however was a real disappointment. I have a bizare sense of humor but too many segments of this DVD focused on pornography or other aspects of erotica. Not my thing. The remainder of the nut-jobs were interesting and sometimes funny. Brother Theodore was hysterical. I wish however that I hadn't bought this DVD (even though t was only $1) and will likely dump it at my local used DVD and CD store for 50 cents.

This show starts out with the pretentious claim that they will reveal the truth that giant corporations don't want you to know. In reality, its largely interviews with schizophrenics and bad performance artists.

Maybe rent, but definately don't buy. The only nuggets I found were an interview with Grant Morison, a somewhat amusing group that does theater to surveillance cameras, and the stop-action robot sex animations. The rest is garbage, and the use of mentally ill people as freak-show entertainment is not exactly high-minded television.