Interesting viewing
Added 9/12/2009
This make interesting, if sometimes uncomfortable viewing. It spans the years introducing you to different systems and regimes in which the rise of white, educated and 'normal' people were the basis of some countries idealistic views to a propsperous and powerful future. This is not just about Hitler and Germany, but delves before this time, where perhaps surprisingly it uncovers that it was not just the Germans who had the view that 'white supremacy' was the way forward. Needs to be viewed with an open mind and looked at with a view to the 'bigger picture' that these people were attempting to obtain.
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A flawed work
Added 9/2/2007
There are admirable things in this film. The other reviewers give one a good idea of some of the admirable qualities. I do not wish to contradict them.
Still, there are some troubling flaws. One of the most serious is Peter Cohen's uncritically following the lead of eugenicists in conflating great MEN (=humans) with great males. Most certainly the eugenicists were sexist; indeed they were notoriously so. There is there no mention of this in Cohen's narrative, which is an unfortunate oversight, but not itself a fatal flaw. The problem is that Cohen seems to allow the eugencists' shaping of the issues to shape his own commentary, and his own thinking. He uses the terms 'man' and 'mankind' with great frequency, no doubt intending them to be understood inclusively (there are a few women depicted along with the men), but the text of the narrative simply follows the eugenicists in naming (and depicting) only males as exemplars of great men. Cohen makes no comment on the eugenicists' tendency to reduce women to mere vessels of greatness; indeed, Cohen's usage seems to suggest that there is no real problem with narrowing the scope of great men to famous males.
But of course there WAS a problem, and there IS a problem. The neglect of 50% of a child's genetic legacy (or the tacit presumption that all that matters in the case of women is physical beauty, itself a marker for physical health) is biologically flawed. Calling attention to it would have reinforced the point that eugenics was more deeply the product of social, political, and religious ideology than a set of scientifically-grounded theories, which was, of course, one of Cohen's main themes. The deeper problem is that critical and engaged viewers are bound to doubt the veracity of the vision of a critic who seems unaware of the problems of continuing to view half of humanity as essentially a footnote.
I bought the DVD hoping to be able to use it in class. Given Cohen's oversight, I cannot do so.
What did not influence my rating of the film but did sometimes awkwardly break the flow of the narrative was Cohen's insistence upon pronouncing 'the' as 'thA' whether it proceeded a consonant of a vowel sound instead of moving to 'thE' when appropriate in spoken English (I cannot produce IPA characters here). It's distracting, and unfortunate.
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A Prequel to 21st Century Bioengineering Issues
Added 3/9/2007
Peter Cohen's documentary provides an excellent overview of racial hygiene programs fostered by 20th century governments that sought to create utopian societies and citizens. The issues raised by this film are even more pertinent in the 21st century as pharmaceuticals and genetic engineering are already interceding into the natural biological functioning of human beings. Pressure is being brought to bear by society and corporations for even higher levels of individual performance and physical appearance. Science is being used to enable individuals to go beyond what would normally be humanly possible. There has been little public discussion of the implications of these bio-ethical issues as companies rush to patent bioengineering technology. Cohen's documentary is a good starting point to see where this merger of science and the desire for human perfectability began.
Other sources I would recommend:
"Theory of Evolution: A History of Controversy," taught by Prof. Edward J. Larsen. This is a college course available on DVD through The Teaching Company. Prof. Larsen explains the scientific theories (e.g., Lamarkianism) that are mentioned in Cohen's documentary. He also addresses the issue of eugenics.
"Better Than Well: American Medicine Meets the American Dream," a fascinating and even entertaining book by Carl Elliott, a professor of bioethics at the Univ. of Minnesota.
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Eugenics- The cathexis of science by ideology
Added 11/27/2005
This is film as literature. A dense, intelligent, thought provoking meditation on the (then) psuedo-science of eugenics, and how nascent and undeveloped scientific ideas can become the battlefield on which political ideologies wage war. In particular, the film shows that far from being the creation of Hitler and the Nazi party, eugenics theories and policies were widespread in the United States as well as in Europe. At one point, twenty US States had sterilization laws on the books. The Soviet Union also had it own form of eugenics it tried in implement so as to create the "new socialist man." If you don't know your Mendalism from your Lamarkiansim from your Lysenjoism; or if you can't tell your positive eugenics from your negative eugenics; or if you were unaware that the nudist movement was a result of eugenics ideas, you should really watch this riveting documentary. It inspired a research project for me and made me aware of the fact that with the patenting of the 60,000 human genes, eugenics is an issue we should all learn more about so as to prepare us for it's future formations and dangers. A brilliant film from a brilliant film maker. Also see this filmakers other documentary masterwork- The Architecture of Doom.
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