Taking Liberties Reviews

[Highly rated reviewer]

A film to make you thiink, perhaps angry.

This documentary film shows the wide ranging nature of the legislation passed in Britain over the last 10 years to restrict personal freedom, particularly the freedom to protest.

I feared it would be massively 'preachy' and so biased that any truth to its message was lost. However, overall I thought it carried things off really well. Perhaps because the application of the laws passed has been so extreme at times that they didn't have to look to hard for examples which made one's jaw drop open whilst thinking 'Is that really now illegal?' For instance, two harmless young people simply standing in the centre of London reading out the names of all of those killed in Iraq.

I do hope this gets a terrestrial tv airing as soon as possible.

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[Highly rated reviewer]

5 stars - Really?

I can't help but think all the four and five star reviews are more for the subject matter than for how this particular documentary is put together. To me personally what they are discussing is vitally important and the more attention is drawn to the liberties we have lost the better but having been looking forward to this for a while I was keenly disappointed in the first few minutes. Do we really need the sixth form-art students black and white menu with the overt comparisons to Nazi Germany? This is a comparison they make though out the documentary until you just want to say “Well, no, we’re not living in Nazi Germany are we, because if we were everyone involved in the making of this documentary and all the political dissidents (and I include myself in that) would have been tortured and then killed. I can’t help but feel this argument is just lazy. With no differences in the two main parties at the moment the job of opposition falls to us. We have to question and fight the government. As Mark Thomas says we are the checks and balances – but if we can’t raise our game to better arguments than the ones thirteen year olds use we are in trouble.

There are also serious questions to be raised in the editing such as in the sequence critiquing (rightfully) the media for using the image of a wounded man to sell us on the idea of longer and longer detention times (something the man in question absolutely opposes). Seconds later they are discussing a police raid and they introduce a clip of a massive guy, all in black, gas mask, flak jacket etc smashing through a window. Police footage? No, they’ve edited in a scene from a drama or film to emote an emotional response so you are more susceptible to they’re way of thinking. Pot – Kettle – Black. When all this is said and done however the production values are good and you can’t fault the effort put into it. I found the scene where the WW2 RAF veteran was dragged off particularly hard to watch and I would definitely say it kept my attention for the full running time.

The makers would do well to check out Outfoxed or Uncovered: The war on Iraq, in particular in which cold hard facts are meticulously used to dissect every reason, half truth and outright lie foisted on us in the run up to Gulf War 2.

too lengthy

Initially I thought I was going to enjoy this film as it was exposing the lies and how we are becoming a surveillance society. Then it went on and on and on about guantanamo bay and became rather boring and monotonous.

one star is taking liberties!

How the Tesco review site could give this one star without a glimpse of the film is a mystery!Seriously,it's not until you see a film like this where all the liberties we have lost over the last 10 years are given an airing that the loss of habeus corpus,the surveillance society ,the lack of freedom to demonstrate,etc,are given an airing,that one realizes how much one has ceded to an authoritarian government.(It has its funny moments too)

[Highly rated reviewer]

Losing Liberty

At least one of the reviews for this says that the film-makers are taking cheap shots by comparing New Labour to Hitler's fascist regime and state that we aren't living in nazi Germany.

I think they're missing the point. In 1932 Germans weren't living in nazi Germany, but by 1933 they were...

First they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemöller

How Did We Let This Happen?

Taking Liberties should be watched by everyone in the UK who values freedom - and that should be everyone in the UK. This documentary takes us step by step through the ways in which the Blair government slowly removed our fundamental liberties.

We've already lost a lot of freedom, hopefully this film will encourage more people to demand it back.

Eye Opening

Absolutely brilliant. You could not help feeling both involved, disturbed and helpless. Should be compulsory viewing for anyone on, or one day to be on, the electoral roll.

Everyone in britain should watch this

Documenting the Blair years and highlighting British peoples loss of civil liberties.

I think this will be a real eye opener to some in this country, personally I never noticed just how many times Blair tried to point out look Britain is not a policed state.....

Today this is entertainment, tomorrow I may not be permitted to write this, and you

would not be allowed to read.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Excellent!

Maybe the best documentory I (and my husband) have ever seen! We keep up to date with currant affairs and thought we knew our stuff about politics in this area, but this documentory taught us both that we have taken our eyes off the ball.

It should really be mandatory viewing for every British citizen!

[Highly rated reviewer]

Needs to be seen.

I've just ordered a copy to lend to all my friends. It's one small thing I can do to help spread the word. I urge people to view this film and do the same.