Zeitgeist

Even if you have seen films like "Loose Change", did the film segment make you question or challenge your beliefs about 9/11? Explain.

My original beliefs towards the 9/11 incident were fairly two-dimensional to begin with. They were as limited as a news headline is brief. "Hijacker Flies Into Twin Towers" was pretty much all I knew about the incident until films such as Loose Change, and more recently, Zeitgeist. The use of conventions such as archival footage, and their technique involving hammering away at individual ideas in the paragraph shown to the audience certainly planted the possibility of an inside job scenario in my head (but it hasn't caused a change of heart towards what the real story could be).

What documentary conventions did this film employ?

Zeitgeist used film conventions such as archival footage and talking heads. Many video clips from news reports and witness accounts were used. Footage from some of Bush's presidential speeches were included, as well as some made by others of governmental office.

What aspects of the film make its assertions seem true? List three facts that support their claim that 9/11 was authored by the US.

“All the World’s a Stage”, attempts to prove that the US government plotted the 9/11 attacks in New York and contracted the dirty work to international resources. Provided evidence includes a mixture of the apparent “TV clips of witnesses describing a second explosion”, the questionable “government efforts to hide any conclusive evidence of a Boeing 757 hitting the Pentagon” and the perplexing “the demolition-like accuracy with which the buildings collapsed”.

What would make you think that the film's assertions are false?

The second part of the film opens with a paragraph detailing the "myth" of the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001 (called 9/11 from here on). The film maker has already reached a predetermined conclusion, and assumes you have as well, that the attacks on 9/11 were an inside job or something to that affect. Therefore this calls his entire analysis into question, however we will go on anyway, discussing each piece of evidence.

Why are critical thinking and research skills important when viewing a film like Zeitgeist?

If film-maker Peter Joseph can be credited for one thing, it’s flawlessly utilizing Dale Carnegie’s yes-yes technique to influence the viewer. Like any good conspiracy theorist, he starts with information that is true (yes #1), follows with information that is apparent enough to make the viewer question previous dogma (yes #2) and inserts his interpretation of what is driving those occurrences (in this case, that the US government intentionally detonated the twin towers). One major distinction between a conspiracy theory and a valid explanation is that conspiracy theories rarely work inversely as deduction.