Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World (2016)

I can remember a time before the World Wide Web became big.  When I was a child, we had connected computers.  Those that knew enough about computers could directly dial another computer for information, but it wasn’t until I was in high school that we started getting those AOL and CompuServe discs.  Suddenly, everyone and their pet Chihuahua had a Web site.  Nearly every national brand has a Web site.  (I remember bemoaning the fact that anyone could have a blog.  Now, here I am with one.)

Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World goes into the early stages of the Internet, before we even had the World Wide Web.  The idea was to be able to share information easily between scientists.  The movie doesn’t go into detail.  We start with Leonard Kleinrock explaining the first attempt at communication between computers.  We even get to see one of the first computers.  From there, the movie deals with other topics like privacy issues and security.

The movie is about one and half hours and is split into 10 chapters.  Each one doesn’t take too long and doesn’t go in to that much depth.  There’s nothing on the commercial aspect.  There’s nothing on eBay or search engines.  There isn’t even that much on the history other than the very beginning.  I’m sure that documentaries have been made already on some of the various subjects.  If I wanted to find something on the history of the Internet or security, I’m sure I could find stuff.  This documentary is probably meant more as an overview.  It’s just a way of showing a few aspects of the Internet.

I’ve always wondered if those involved in creating the Internet and the World Wide Web knew what they were creating.  Did they know that we’d have pictures of cats plastered all over the place?  Could they have foreseen Amazon and eBay?  (I still find it somewhat amusing that you can get a Pound-O-Dice.)   Email was an early aspect of the Internet, but we now have Google Maps.   Here I am posting a review on the Internet about a movie pertaining to the Internet that I watched via the Internet.

The Internet is almost like Frankenstein’s monster.  It is a force to be reckoned with and could go either way.  It seems ot scare a lot of people, but isn’t really that bad.  The Internet has changed a lot of aspects of our lives.  I remember having a conversation with a manager.  He was saying how maps were becoming irrelevant because of GPS.  Mapmakers won’t be out of a job. Their product will just look different.  The same goes for newspapers.  We’ll still want news.  The question is if they can adapt to a digital format.

IMDb page

The Unbelievers (2013)

Some movies are so great, you could spend hours extolling their virtues.  There are some so bad, you could spend days picking them apart and still not be satisfied that you found everything wrong with it.  Then, there are some that are neutral.  Somehow, you manage to watch the whole thing, but you’re left wondering why.  I came into The Unbelievers thinking it would be some sort of documentary or something on Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss.

Instead, it came across like Chariots of the Gods in that it was just a bunch of random footage strung together.  We get to see one of them talking on a radio show.  Next, we have someone giving a telephone interview.  (We only get to see their side of it.)  We get to see Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame and Penn Jillette, among others, speaking at a rally that Dawkins and Krauss also spoke at.  It’s almost like someone had a bunch of really great footage from other projects, but they didn’t know what to do with it.  Instead of throwing it all out, they gave it to someone to edit together.

This is where it’s going to be difficult to recommend watching this.  There’s no real plot and there isn’t enough of anything for it to be interesting.  I’m not even sure what the context was for each situation.  It’s almost like a best-of album or highlight reel.  It would have been nice if we had been able to see maybe one or two full interviews or lectures.  Instead, we’re off to the next engagement before we can form any interest in what’s going on.

I found this movie on Netflix through their streaming service.  I’m not sure if the DVD comes with any special features, but it would have been interesting to watch the movie with some sort of commentary track from either Dawkins or Krauss (or, preferably, both) explaining what was going on.  There’s so much potential here.  I thought this was going to be something about the advantage of science, as both men are advocates of reason.

This is something you’d probably watch out of desperation after you’ve gone through most of your other streaming options.  In this regard, I’m not entirely upset that I watched it.  At least I didn’t have to wait for it to be mailed to me.  As for my recommendation, It’s kind of like what the police might say in a move crime scene.  Move along.  Nothing to see here.

Official Web Site

THE UNBELIEVERS (2013) - Official Movie Trailer (Richard Dawkins & Lawrence Krauss)