Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

 

Story:

Hosted by Ben Stein, this controversial documentary examines how pro-intelligent design scholars and scientists are often chastised, fired or denied tenured positions by those who believe in Darwin's theory of evolution. Nathan Frankowski's film explores how scientists who believe in God are oppressed and how the acceptance of Darwinism might have played a role in the formation of the Nazi regime. (NetFlix)

Review:

After an odd introduction focused on the Cold War that ended up holding more significance to the filmmaker than it probably should have, the documentary starts off strong by approaching in an interesting way the question of evolution vs intelligent design in academia. The filmmaker Stein brings viewers into the discussion by explaining the stories of a number of professors with sterling backgrounds who were thrown out of their positions for teaching against evolution.

The documentary borders on really compelling here as Stein’s interview subjects explain how they feel they were fired simply for writing about a theory that is opposite of what is currently accepted in their academic field. When examined out of context, the idea that a professor in a field that has two central theories (each with numerous followers) would be fired for supporting one of the two theories sounds preposterous.

It may have just been wishful thinking, but the film’s beginning suggested that the entire documentary would retain the strength of the first few minutes. However, as the film progresses, the central argument strays further away from reasonable until it becomes practically ridiculous.

Stein has something gripping in his discussion of academic freedom, but he lets the narrative digress when he links other infamous events and trends to Darwin and his theory of evolution. The problem here is the film uses only extreme examples to make its point. In the midst of calling out specific sections of Darwin’s text, Stein links the theory of evolution to deviant behavior in Soviet Russia, suggests Darwin directly inspired numerous horrific actions undertaken by Nazi doctors, and places evolutionism at the core of a lengthy attack on abortion.

It’s clear Stein wanted to make a point, but the use of these drastic examples hurts the film. I write this because the “what if” factor in the academic debate at the core of the film was interesting enough to prompt me to analyze the film’s premise with an unemotional, unbiased analysis.  But as the film fords on, Stein boldly removes any “what if” factors that don’t mirror his own and takes the film on an increasingly divergent tangent.  This path the story takes ultimately isolates viewers who lose step with any part of Stein’s logic. In essence, the film then quashes any viewer’s patterns of thought that do not mirror the film’s own.

I understand some people will like this film and they will find no fault with Stein’s connection of the pieces in his documentary’s puzzle. However, I felt the Michael Moore-ish tactics used and the far too bold examples cited only amounted to poor filmmaking and one of the lowest forms of debate. Ben Stein is a smart guy with a long career in multiple fields which often highlighted his intelligence. But any documentary filmmaker who can make a valid point should be able to do so without bringing up Naziism, the “us vs them” mentality of the Cold War, and other hot topic issues that instantly divide people.  I'm not sure why a smart guy like Ben Stein had to argue like he was making a pre-election political commercial, but it didn’t make for a great documentary.

Reviewed by Ryan Pollyea for Documentary Film Online on March 08, 2011

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