Imminent Threat Review
By David Kempler
Imminent Boredom
Quickly after the 9/11 tragedy, Congress authorized the use of military force to deal with those that had been behind it. The bulk of U.S. citizens appeared to want revenge and Congress was determined to exact that revenge. The problem was that no one was quite sure who to seek revenge upon, although a couple of theories took hold.
In late October of 2001, Congress presented President George W. Bush with the USA Patriot Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001), which he immediately signed. From that point forward, government policy has been considered intrusive into the lives of American citizens by many.
In 2014, Edward Snowden brought it all to a fever pitch by revealing some of the actions of the American government in regards to the NSA's spying on us. How you feel about Mr. Snowden's actions is most likely determined by your political leanings.
"Imminent Threat", written and directed by Janek Ambros, examines the path American policy has taken towards trying to make America more safe in an ever more dangerous world. Clocking in at a short 73 minutes, amazingly it still manages to feel too long. This is because it feels amateurish. It relies primarily on a few people droning on about government abuses and also shows archival footage of the main players. In an attempt to lend an air of humor to it all, Ambros also intercuts old cartoons that add virtually nothing to the discussion.
This is a very important subject that should be examined in detail and hopefully a good documentary would present new insights into the problems of trying to balance security and privacy. Unfortunately, this movie sheds no new light and fails to entertain with its already well hashed over facts. There's a lot of meat on this bone, yet somehow Ambros manages to serve us mostly gristle.
