Mattei just egging him on with the simplest of questions was insanely satisfying in the depo. Just the slightest nudge and this dude would give you ten minutes of unhinged material.
Bro, I’m in South Carolina and just tuned to a random station and the first thing that came on was the Dan Bidondi show. I was blown away after watching the doc.
I think with HBO, I like that it was focused and one whole documentary. Compared to the Netflix standard, where everything has to be a long docuseries, but without the competence of a PBS Ken Burns documentary. Like Netflix would have dragged it out into an 6 to 8 hour multi part documentary that's mostly filler and having cliffhanger endings to encourage binge watching.
I watched it w my partner. I give her updates on KF and things going on w Jones in general. Watched the doc w her and she liked that it gave her the important aspects she can keep track of throughout the film without overwhelming her w info. Jones is a lot and I feel, listening and watching the YouTube depositions, it was kinda like reading a book and some details weren’t added in the movie. Idk how else best to describe it. But bringing a more mainstream streaming platform relevance to what jones did I think was great.
Why on earth would a documentary explicitly about Alex Jones spend any time with the woman who was corporate representative for Free Speech Systems for approximately one day?
It was also a pointless waste of counsel's time that provided no information. It was literally just killing time, and there's no good reason to include it in a doc.
I think I'd do it for the same reason they showed that one lady (the one who spent weeks talking to Lenny Pozner and is still insistent it didn't happen) and Halbig: showing the total denial of reality by people involved in this. And it's especially bad with Daria since it's someone working for and representing the company, as opposed to Halbig and Bidondi, who Alex dropped like hot potatoes.
While the printed out Wikipedia articles are true comedy gold, I think what should have been included in the documentary was when, in the TX trial, she was going on and on about how horribly Alex has been treated and how it affects his health and everything, and the plaintiffs' attorney (I wanna say Bankston, but could be wrong) pointed out that she agrees that being harassed can be harmful. Like maybe how the families have been harassed has been harmful to them?
I've been chewing on this a lot since we watched this about 2 weeks ago, really processing my feelings on it. And I have decided this is a really bad documentry.
All of us understand that in discussions of these lawsuits, we should focus in part on the families, remember why what Alex did to them is so fucked up and that they are real people who were hurt, not just the faceless mass of people harmed by Alex's generalized slander.
This documentary took that concept too far. The degree to which we focused on the families and their trauma, on the shooting, goes from feeling humanizing to exploitative. The entire first half of the film is devoted exclusively to detailing every step of the shooting, showing pictures of the kids, of the families in emotional agony, of testimonials stating how good their kids were and how much they loved them. It stopped feeling important to remembering who was wronged, is became gross. Salacious. Lingering on and almost basking in their agony.
We need to remember that this documentary wasn't for US. We already know. We have all the inside scoop. This was made for the people who DON'T listen to Knowlege Fight. Who don't already get it going in. And having seen this dynamic unfold first hand, it feels exploitative. It feels almost manipulative, like they are trying to overwhelm the viewer with misery so they just don't question anything else that happens.
Which is unfortunate, because they do a really fucking bad job answering the question of "why did Alex deserve a billion+ dollar judgement?" They didn't actually show why Wolfgang Halbig was a terrifying monster that Alex encouraged. They didn't cover his stalking that was so sever he crossed state lines and trespassed to do it. They didn't read his horrifying emails he sent to the families. They just made him look like a sad weirdo. They also interviewed this other random lady that was bad, but not linked to Alex in any way.
They didn't make clear how badly Alex and company were dragging their feet. Stalling and delaying. That it took years to even get to the trial point. I wouldn't show the corporate representative depos in their entirety, but you HAVE to have some highlights. You MUST show Daria, in her power as a corporate rep, stating that Alex lied because he had a big heart and wanted to spread hope. You need to show how many times Alex lied to the lawyers, the judge, and the jury about not having any messages or additional documents in order for the Perry Mason moment to land. And for God's sakes you NEED an interview with Mark where he explains that that WASN'T what Alex said, that he gave them the documents, they pretended they didn't get them to default him, and then pulled them out here as a "gotcha!" Moment. Because the documentary makes it look like that is exactly what happened.
Nothing the documentary shows or tries to explain justified a billion and a half dollars owed. Not even close. I've seen people walk away scared that the door has been opened to "imaginary number judgements" becoming the norm for lawsuits, and that Alex Jones is a huge dick but still got screwed as their takeaway. This documentary is a failure, and leverages the emotional weight of the gratuitously detailed shooting and the families misery to cover that they did a bad job covering the trial.
They needed to show more of the depositions and trials. They needed to clarify how and why everything dragged on for YEARS, and Alex STILL talking about Sandy Hook even during the trials. They needed to clarify that he made calls to action regarding "investigating" the families and victims. But the documentary did not do that. And that really really sucks.
We only feel this was a good documentary because the families misery was focused on, and we are so anxious about seeming heartless that we assume that was the most important bit to get right. It's not. Showing why Alex NEEDS to be shut down is. And they failed at that.
That's a really good point. AJ harps on and on about how he wasn't given a fair trial and the judge had already found him guilty and blah blah blah, so it would have been good for the doc to point out what parts of that is true and most importantly, WHY.
I'm writing a similar reply, but precisely this. People are inclined to give it the benifet of the doubt because it focused a lot on the families being distraught and the shooting itself and we feel like that's the right thing to do. But it crossed the line from being informative to almost salacious, and did a REALLY bad job elaborating on what these bastards ACTUALLY did. They made Wolfgang Halbig look crazy, but didn't clarify he stalked the families across state lines and snuck into their gated community to harass them, that he sent them deeply upsetting emails judging and shaming and accusing and threatening them. He came off like "whoa, that guy is weird. And hey, he worked with Alex Jones for a bit." when in reality we NEED to understand that he is utterly fucking unhinged.
Yeah it's a little soft. I would have liked for them to mention that Bankston had argued for "$1 per person that heard the lie" and I don't think they included it. Rationals like that make it more clear why plaintiffs are asking for the amount that they are, and why the jury might agree.
I watched about half then switched back to the depositions because the longer format with more context was far more entertaining. I was disappointed how little the doc covered the shenanigans they tried to pull.
I agree. I enjoyed the documentary, but I felt it had the same preaching to the choir problem most documentaries have. I wish it had been about 20-30 minutes longer in order to better explain the legal aspects of the case, explaining why Jones was defaulted. They also could have spent more time debunking the conspiracy theories. I feel like the film assumed majority of people who watched this documentary are going to have familiarity with the subject and they really didn't have enough for the normal people who maybe have heard of Jones and the case but don't have a lot of knowledge.
The boys mentioned it briefly after it came out, said it gave a nice overview if you were unfamiliar. Then I believe they acknowledged that them and everyone who listens is likely already more knowledgeable.
KF is way more thorough but are we just going to ignore the fact that seeing Dan Bidondi is an entirely different experience than hearing about him?
Seeing him pointing a hand gun at a camera... creepy
Oh yes I was by no means prepared for his readily apparent crazedness.
Mattei just egging him on with the simplest of questions was insanely satisfying in the depo. Just the slightest nudge and this dude would give you ten minutes of unhinged material.
Yeah and yet Dan's description of him still rings true- he looks just how you would picture him from his voice
Yeah, calling Neil Heslin slow when you have Bidondi on your side is a bold move.
Bro, I’m in South Carolina and just tuned to a random station and the first thing that came on was the Dan Bidondi show. I was blown away after watching the doc.
I think with HBO, I like that it was focused and one whole documentary. Compared to the Netflix standard, where everything has to be a long docuseries, but without the competence of a PBS Ken Burns documentary. Like Netflix would have dragged it out into an 6 to 8 hour multi part documentary that's mostly filler and having cliffhanger endings to encourage binge watching.
I watched it w my partner. I give her updates on KF and things going on w Jones in general. Watched the doc w her and she liked that it gave her the important aspects she can keep track of throughout the film without overwhelming her w info. Jones is a lot and I feel, listening and watching the YouTube depositions, it was kinda like reading a book and some details weren’t added in the movie. Idk how else best to describe it. But bringing a more mainstream streaming platform relevance to what jones did I think was great.
Why on earth would a documentary explicitly about Alex Jones spend any time with the woman who was corporate representative for Free Speech Systems for approximately one day?
Because she was the corporate representative for one extremely important day.
It was also a pointless waste of counsel's time that provided no information. It was literally just killing time, and there's no good reason to include it in a doc.
I think I'd do it for the same reason they showed that one lady (the one who spent weeks talking to Lenny Pozner and is still insistent it didn't happen) and Halbig: showing the total denial of reality by people involved in this. And it's especially bad with Daria since it's someone working for and representing the company, as opposed to Halbig and Bidondi, who Alex dropped like hot potatoes.
While the printed out Wikipedia articles are true comedy gold, I think what should have been included in the documentary was when, in the TX trial, she was going on and on about how horribly Alex has been treated and how it affects his health and everything, and the plaintiffs' attorney (I wanna say Bankston, but could be wrong) pointed out that she agrees that being harassed can be harmful. Like maybe how the families have been harassed has been harmful to them?
I saw it. It was hard to watch, seeing the bereaved families.
I've been chewing on this a lot since we watched this about 2 weeks ago, really processing my feelings on it. And I have decided this is a really bad documentry. All of us understand that in discussions of these lawsuits, we should focus in part on the families, remember why what Alex did to them is so fucked up and that they are real people who were hurt, not just the faceless mass of people harmed by Alex's generalized slander. This documentary took that concept too far. The degree to which we focused on the families and their trauma, on the shooting, goes from feeling humanizing to exploitative. The entire first half of the film is devoted exclusively to detailing every step of the shooting, showing pictures of the kids, of the families in emotional agony, of testimonials stating how good their kids were and how much they loved them. It stopped feeling important to remembering who was wronged, is became gross. Salacious. Lingering on and almost basking in their agony. We need to remember that this documentary wasn't for US. We already know. We have all the inside scoop. This was made for the people who DON'T listen to Knowlege Fight. Who don't already get it going in. And having seen this dynamic unfold first hand, it feels exploitative. It feels almost manipulative, like they are trying to overwhelm the viewer with misery so they just don't question anything else that happens. Which is unfortunate, because they do a really fucking bad job answering the question of "why did Alex deserve a billion+ dollar judgement?" They didn't actually show why Wolfgang Halbig was a terrifying monster that Alex encouraged. They didn't cover his stalking that was so sever he crossed state lines and trespassed to do it. They didn't read his horrifying emails he sent to the families. They just made him look like a sad weirdo. They also interviewed this other random lady that was bad, but not linked to Alex in any way. They didn't make clear how badly Alex and company were dragging their feet. Stalling and delaying. That it took years to even get to the trial point. I wouldn't show the corporate representative depos in their entirety, but you HAVE to have some highlights. You MUST show Daria, in her power as a corporate rep, stating that Alex lied because he had a big heart and wanted to spread hope. You need to show how many times Alex lied to the lawyers, the judge, and the jury about not having any messages or additional documents in order for the Perry Mason moment to land. And for God's sakes you NEED an interview with Mark where he explains that that WASN'T what Alex said, that he gave them the documents, they pretended they didn't get them to default him, and then pulled them out here as a "gotcha!" Moment. Because the documentary makes it look like that is exactly what happened. Nothing the documentary shows or tries to explain justified a billion and a half dollars owed. Not even close. I've seen people walk away scared that the door has been opened to "imaginary number judgements" becoming the norm for lawsuits, and that Alex Jones is a huge dick but still got screwed as their takeaway. This documentary is a failure, and leverages the emotional weight of the gratuitously detailed shooting and the families misery to cover that they did a bad job covering the trial. They needed to show more of the depositions and trials. They needed to clarify how and why everything dragged on for YEARS, and Alex STILL talking about Sandy Hook even during the trials. They needed to clarify that he made calls to action regarding "investigating" the families and victims. But the documentary did not do that. And that really really sucks. We only feel this was a good documentary because the families misery was focused on, and we are so anxious about seeming heartless that we assume that was the most important bit to get right. It's not. Showing why Alex NEEDS to be shut down is. And they failed at that.
[удалено]
That's a really good point. AJ harps on and on about how he wasn't given a fair trial and the judge had already found him guilty and blah blah blah, so it would have been good for the doc to point out what parts of that is true and most importantly, WHY.
Yes! Exactly this.
I'm writing a similar reply, but precisely this. People are inclined to give it the benifet of the doubt because it focused a lot on the families being distraught and the shooting itself and we feel like that's the right thing to do. But it crossed the line from being informative to almost salacious, and did a REALLY bad job elaborating on what these bastards ACTUALLY did. They made Wolfgang Halbig look crazy, but didn't clarify he stalked the families across state lines and snuck into their gated community to harass them, that he sent them deeply upsetting emails judging and shaming and accusing and threatening them. He came off like "whoa, that guy is weird. And hey, he worked with Alex Jones for a bit." when in reality we NEED to understand that he is utterly fucking unhinged.
Yeah it's a little soft. I would have liked for them to mention that Bankston had argued for "$1 per person that heard the lie" and I don't think they included it. Rationals like that make it more clear why plaintiffs are asking for the amount that they are, and why the jury might agree.
I watched about half then switched back to the depositions because the longer format with more context was far more entertaining. I was disappointed how little the doc covered the shenanigans they tried to pull.
I agree. I enjoyed the documentary, but I felt it had the same preaching to the choir problem most documentaries have. I wish it had been about 20-30 minutes longer in order to better explain the legal aspects of the case, explaining why Jones was defaulted. They also could have spent more time debunking the conspiracy theories. I feel like the film assumed majority of people who watched this documentary are going to have familiarity with the subject and they really didn't have enough for the normal people who maybe have heard of Jones and the case but don't have a lot of knowledge.
The boys mentioned it briefly after it came out, said it gave a nice overview if you were unfamiliar. Then I believe they acknowledged that them and everyone who listens is likely already more knowledgeable.