Product Details

• Format: NTSC
• Region: All Regions
• Studio: CustomFlix
• DVD Release Date: July 13, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00066FFJ4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #245,000 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you love the American Democracy, see this film., October 5, 2004

By 

American Patriot "Fan of Democracy" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mark Crispin Miller in A Patriot Act (DVD)

Mr. Miller is very charismatic. His riveting performance is reminiscent of Spalding Gray's "Swimming to Cambodia". Miller says he is neither Republican nor Democrat, but a patriot. He uses video clips and historical references to reveal how the Bush administration has been waging a stealth campaign against our Constitution, slowly and steadily moving the US toward religious law. Most people know about the corruption, the greed, the secrecy and lies that have characterized the Bush/Cheney years. But I don't think many people realize that our very democratic ideals are at risk under this President and the religious right that forms a majority of the Republican party these days. See this movie before you vote!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Patriot Takes on Bush's Patriot Act, October 15, 2004

By 

William Hare (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mark Crispin Miller in A Patriot Act (DVD)

Mark Crispin Miller opened the eyes of Americans interested in the dumbing down of the political process with his riveting work "The Bush Dylexicon." Whereas Orwellian Doublespeak had been a familiar term for years, a reference to how ordinary language had been contorted to produce a devious result through citizen brainwashing, the influence of Bush political consultant Karl Rove has resulted in Rovean Doublespeak as symbolized by what Miller sees as the "Bush Dyslexicon."

Bush's brand of dyslexia involves taking language and twisting it to his advantage, along with symbols, to create subservient followers in the same way that occurred in George Orwell's classic future shock novel, "1984." While many critics have laughed at Bush and mocked him for his stumbling, repetitious, error-filled seeming combat with the spoken word, Miller cautions that this is an oversimplified analysis fraught with danger.

The cowboy image of Andover preppie and Yale and Harvard student of privilege George Bush, along with his "ah shucks" manner in which he reeks havoc with the English language, is according to Miller a cynical "just plain folks" mask for the real agenda that Bush, Rove, Cheney and other operatives seek to achieve. Through using symbols and language in a seductively repetitious manner citizens are sought to fall into line behind this self-deprecating "common man" who "makes mistakes like I do."

Ironically mistakes are something that neither Bush nor those who serve him admit to in the important policy realm. What Miller reveals in this captivating DVD is how symbols are twisted to serve the hidden agenda of emasculating freedoms and traditional government protections. A classic example is the Patriot Act. Its sweeping ramifications would make traditional American patriots such as Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry stiffen in protest. By using a word with a positive connotation like patriot the Bush Administration seeks to lull Americans to sleep as the sharp erosion of liberties guaranteed under the Bill of Rights are stripped away under hopefully sleeping eyes.

Through using news clips and historical examples Mark Crispin Miller, an expert in the field of language and symbols and a professor of media ecology at New York University, unravels the real strategy behind the "just plain folks" image of George W. Bush. The real agenda according to Miller is to strip our freedoms away and destroy the safety net provisions of government in such a manner as to render the citizenry subservient, in the manner of the citizens of Oceania described with graphic prescience by George Orwell in "1984".

There is a new Big Brother that has emerged, to once again use Orwell terminology. This is embodied in the corporate-dominated, neoconservative junta of George Bush and Dick Cheney, which came to power through a one vote Supreme Court majority and began governing as if it had received an overwhelming mandate.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smart, Insightful, Slightly Frightening, December 10, 2004

By 

Jaylyn (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mark Crispin Miller in A Patriot Act (DVD)

After the elections, and after I literally scratched a hole right through my head, you couldn't flip through the TV channels and not come across some sort of documentry reguarding Bush's crooked politics. So exhausted with trying to figure out how this man is again our president, my husband came across A Patriot Act and decided he couldn't stop tormenting himself so we watched it, and I grabbed a bottle of wine and a soda glass and figured I'd hear all I've already heard before. Then I wasn't sure if what I was hearing was the wine, so the next afternoon I watched it again with a clear head and almost fell out of my chair. These aren't just one man's opinions, but clips and quotes from Bush and his administrations own lips that are perfectly and clearly suggesting such things as women and non-Christians being reguarded as mindless, buldge crazed, faithless second class citizens. (Listen carefully to the flight suit comment). For those who are too involved in their lives to notice, mark Crispin Miller rewinds, slows down and clearly explains in an almost comical way how the Bush administration is letting us know under no uncertain terms their plans for us. Only, when you really listen, it's not funny at all. But of all the documentries I've seen reguarding the Bush administration this is the best by far. There's no images of war and people screaming and crying, it doesn't fill you with greif that gets lost after a few days. This is an intelligent disscussion that leaves Americans who understand the values and importance of the Constitution with an urgent need to respond and fight for what we are on the verge of losing.