Alt-Right: Age of Rage

The alt-right movement is a worthy subject of a documentary as the rise of hate crimes and hate group activity thanks to a President that supports them tacitly or at least has worked with advisors that support them like Bannon. (Look at all the 1 star reviews from people who clearly haven't watched this film). Unfortunately, this documentary is not the documentary I was looking for to help me learn more about them and efforts to push back against their raciest speech and actions. It mostly consists of going between various alt-right spokesman like Spencer and Mciness as well as anti-facists like Daryle Lamont Jenkins. As other reviewers have suggested, some background information would be useful for context. Are there any groups in the middle The closest is Southern Poverty Law center, Mark Potok, who I found the most reasonable in this film. I would have liked some person or even a voice to help tie everything together. Occasional text transitions to time and place don't quite do enough. As a 99 cent rental from iTunes, I don't regret watching it. I just wish it had been a little more cohesive and useful. This documentary is a place holder until something better comes along.

I watched Alt-Right: Age of Rage to get a neutral look at both sides of alt-right movement and they did not disappoint. You will hear close up interviews with both Antifa and Alt-right leaders without biased assertions that are sometimes prevalent in other documentaries. Watch this and receive some insight into Antifa and the Alt-Right actions and motives leading up to and during during the Charlotesville riots. Its a good documentary that seeks to understand and inform.

I find it interesting that the negative reviews of this movie are from both sides of the political spectrum. Some are angry that anyone would give someone like Richard Spencer this much face time, and others are angry that Antifa isn't shown in more of a negative light. The film does portray the new alt right as tantamount to Neo-Nazism, but I found it interesting to learn that this is something Spencer and his followers refute. Ultimately this film presents us with the argument of if the rise of white supremacy in the United States is something to be seriously worried about, or is something to ignore and not give attention to. I wasn't bored watching this movie. It was well edited, interesting enough, and overall worth watching.

Alt-Right: Age of Rage was well-received at its world premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. It provides a detailed examination of the ideology of Richard Spencer, Jared Taylor, David Duke and several of the other so-called "alt-right" leaders. What it really reveals is that this movement is just a rebranding of the same old KKK white supremacists who are wearing suits instead of hoods. Director Adam Lough spent time with these cretins and let them do much of the talking so that showed much of their true colors. (It actually reminds me of the film Jesus Camp where the directors let a nasty ugly group of individuals reveal themselves before the cameras.) Still at 112 minutes the film was really too long and showed too much coverage of these individuals in a way that became slow and repetitive at times. By focusing on the coverage of their most recent events such as Charlottesville, they failed to really provide historical context for these movements and connect them back to the long history of white supremacy. They could have benefited from including historical interviews with academics who have studied the history of the far rigtht. They also could have done more to linked the alt-right much more directly to the coded language of Trump's 2016 campaign and to the writings of Steve Bannon and Breitbart. This movement gained credibility through its rebranding which allowed it to promote the Trump movement. The heart of the film was the powerful voices of Richard Cohen of the SPLC and activist Daryl Lamont Jenkins who each in their own way are fighting back against the alt-right. Daryl is a truly heroic figure. Still there were often ideas that were raised and not followed through on. At one point, Cohen appears to critique Antifa tactics for opposing the alt-right, but instead of exploring this insight, the director just moves on. While the film is revealing as a starting point for exploring the alt-right it lacks direction and scholarly exploration of this important subject matter which should concern all of us. Good start, but it could have been a lot better.

I can see where someone on the right anywhere would not like this documentary since it truthfully calls them out. There are good interviews and the makers even make a solid effort to allow alt-right figures to speak for themselves. There may be degrees of hate on the right but this program shows how its all tied together. The only justification that the right puts forth that makes any sense is free speech but it doesn't take away from their ugliness or the right of decent people everywhere to oppose their bigotry and white supremacist views.