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Comment by rahoulb | Hacker News Reader

I don't get why people wouldn't see it.

At the beginning it has a speech about the failure of democracy, how violence is the only legitimate force in the universe. Government by an elite, with restricted rights for civilians (want children? become a citizen), a propaganda network, a perpetual state of war; including belittling the enemy ("I find the idea of a bug that thinks offensive") and belittling anyone who wants to live differently (mormon extremists).

What it doesn't have is any major character questioning the state that they are living under - but then looking around today, sometimes that seems pretty accurate as well.

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> What it doesn't have is any major character questioning the state that they are living under - but then looking around today, sometimes that seems pretty accurate as well.

That's the "problem" - the film assumed the viewer had enough brain to see the satire instead of spelling it out. Apparently that wasn't true of most reviewers at the time. (I saw it when it came out and loved it. Much more than the book which was depressingly fascist apologetic.)

I saw it when it came out and loved it. Much more than the book which was depressingly fascist apologetic.

Maybe people were projecting the book onto the movie?

I suspect they were projecting the book onto the movie so strongly that it actually drown out the movie. That or they were just upset that the movie didn't feature the wildly unfilmable powered suits.

Rather, this seems like a clear case of Poe's law.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law

> What it doesn't have is any major character questioning the state that they are living under - but then looking around today, sometimes that seems pretty accurate as well.

One scene I liked is when the only person in the film questioning the state, a TV reporter, is saying something like 'maybe this war wouldn't have started if we didn't attack them first, so maybe should we leave them in peace' and is promptly interrupted by zealous marines

I don't think people got it, simply because it hit far too close to home. The message in the film and the message in the media at the time were too closely aligned.

"Would you like to know more?" was Fox News. The movie presaged an age where knowing more actually meant: "knowing only what we want you to know" ..

well, in "Escape from Guantanamo Bay" they did show a one who got it :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_rzQtNGaZU&feature=player_d...

It had Doogie Howser wearing a Nazi uniform for gawdsakes!

In hindsight, I should have seen it for the terrifying homogenization of fascism that is the norm today.

Agreed. I had no idea there was any such controversy surrounding the film. I watched it when it was first released and I'm pretty sure most people watched it knowing from the outset it was a satire?

I was living in the US at the time and I assure you, lots of people, critics and magazine writers didn't quite 'get' it. Which in some ways made the movie's message even more powerful.

If they failed to see that, the Nazi uniforms should have been a dead giveaway. Plus Neil Patrick Harris in a Darth Vader suit...

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