Review of The Unbelievers (2013) by Brad S — 01 Oct 2014

A documentary film that starts out as one thing and ends up entirely, and disappointingly, something else by the end.

The film starts out as what appears to be a travelogue of appearances and speaking tours by famed scientists Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss as they jet about the globe speaking to each other in front of audiences.

The conversations are engaging, stimulating and thought-provoking. For a while. But there's something odd in the atmosphere that begins creeping up from stop to stop: a haughty smugness. You begin to see that these men are not so much presenting arguments, or teaching us about critical thinking or views of scientists presenting their understanding of life, but rather they too easily fall into convincing us that they are the smartest men in the room. It becomes a bit alienating as a viewer.

And then you see why: the film reveals itself a self-congratulatory and suddenly shameless propaganda movie for the secularist and atheist movements by the time the stars of the film end up at a big outdoor rally for their cause, complete with hollywood stars prattling on about life, the universe and everything in monologues that really dumb down what we were listening to from Dawkins and Krauss before when the movie started.

What happened? The movie would have fared far better by just staying focused on the discussions between Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss for a couple hours. Point the camera at the stage and just let it roll.

Oh well. I had respect for these guys until I got to the end of this film and they turned into rather smug and condescending dolts when flocked among their own true believers.