Decency (2013) User Reviews

The necessity of equality

[stensson · 7/10 · 4 March 2013]

It's dirty language and has been for long, talking about narrowing the chasms in society. Like it was something we got rid of at the same time the Communist system fell in Eastern Europe. That's regardless of whether we are among the few who gained from the new order or not.

Swedish documentary filmer Stefan Jarl has made an interview movie, there also economy journalists from conservative newspaper harshly criticize the bank system of today and the thoughtless belief in present capitalism as the peak of history.

This subject is of course very urgent, but letting the whole film be based mostly on interviews anyway takes the effect away a little.

It's a great message dulled down by tedium.

[jmalmsten · 3/10 · 4 March 2014]

I won't try to argue that the message here is unnecessary. We could all use with a bit more "Goodness". But apart from that, there isn't much more done in this production.

In Sweden it got a bit of notoriety since it was released during election and Swedish state TV refused to show it. Resulting in words like "censorship" to be flung about by cultural activists. But actually seeing the result itself I wonder if it's not just that the film isn't quite up to snuff. Yes sure. That same TV was part of the production and one might assume that it was part of the deal to show it. But it just gets tedious and even more aggravating when one of the producers starts to walk around and behaving like a jerk-wad while the movie follows like this is some sort of revolutionary new way of making documentaries. Acting like as if we hadn't even heard of neither Moore or Spurlock and doing a very lazy imitation of recent docu-trends.

No. This is a ten minute short at best. And still could have done with more variation and a sense of showmanship.