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‘Civilization in the Danger Zone’ Offers Bleak Peek at America’s Future

Doc details numerous threats facing nation without much razzle, dazzle

Conservatives have dramatically upped their game in the documentary space.

Thank both technological advances and the rise of talented, right-leaning filmmakers like Justin Folk (“What Is a Woman?“) and Eli Steele (“How Jack Became Black“)

“Civilization in the Danger Zone” offers a throwback experience. The film’s production design is straightforward and clean, and the talking heads prove sober in their analysis.

What’s missing? A greater sense of theatrical flourish and an ability to lure skeptical viewers to the film’s admittedly powerful point of view.

Civilization in the Danger Zone Trailer

“Civilization” breaks down why so many Americans fear the country’s best days are behind it. Forces have aligned to disrupt societal pillars like faith and family, and our youth are taught to reject the country’s core strengths.

“On a tissue of ignorance and lies, we have come to think that the founding of America is an evil thing,” says Hillsdale President Larry P. Arrn, summing up much of the film’s critique of the modern school system.

An impressive array of talking heads, including Rod Dreher, Victor Davis Hanson, Powerline’s John Hinderaker, Heather MacDonald, Rich Lowry and more methodically share how the modern Left, without being aggressively name called, is loosening the bolts on the American superstructure.

This isn’t an overtly partisan affair, at least on the surface.

Those weaned on political podcasts won’t hear much name calling … or names in general, at least along the lines of Biden, Bush, Trump or other hot-button politicians. The themes are broader, with director Gloria Z. Greenfield interweaving them into the sweep of history.

The film also taps Jewish intellectuals to broaden its spiritual approach and give greater context to the problems embedded in modern America.

The film quickly assumes its visual format, darting from cogent interviews to the “Ken Burns Effect,” where still images come to life, gently, with a crush of zooms and pans.

It makes the experience akin to a power point presentation, one with dynamic information that still may make the viewer’s attention drift elsewhere.

The film’s villains are numerous, from schools that fail to teach students Judeo-Christian values to an entertainment industry beholden to China’s propaganda machine. That segment proves powerful, in part because conservatives rarely address it in the fashion it deserves.

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Clocking in at a little over an hour, “Civilization” is a bracing experience, a roll call of societal ills with no easy answers.

Pop culture may lead the way, at least if conservatives can mirror the Left’s ability to weaponize films and TV shows to debunk narratives corrupting the Body Politic. 

“Civilization in the Danger Zone” understands the necessity, and power, of pop culture but struggles to rally its resources to open otherwise shuttered minds.

HiT or Miss: “Civilization in the Danger Zone” offers a chilling explanation for the nation’s decline, but it may not coax the unconvinced of that fact.

3 Comments

  1. As much as I share in the sentiments of this production, documentaries like this are a waste of time. Preaching to the choir doesn’t bring in the new converts the church needs to make any headway. Just helps the choir members feel a little better about themselves for an hour or two.
    If conservatives want to have any impact making the kinds of cultural changes they espouse, they are going to have to do it the way the left successfully has done it – through storytelling. They will need to start producing their own fiction movies and TV series that are not overtly political but contain basic core conservative values. Get into the entertainment game and make your points with subtlety and nuance and lead the audiences to the logical conclusions.
    Impressionable Gen-Zers are not going to see this documentary.

  2. I’m curious about why the reference to Powerline’s John Hinderaker is stricken through in the list of talking heads.

    I have my own issues w/ Powerline. They have a long-standing practice of censoring readers’ comments which do not violate any of their rules of engagement. Most recently, I was spitefully booted from their website – including deletion of a few months of my prior posts – when I posted an image of an ugly email response from PL’s Scot Johnson, after I emailed asking why a half-dozen of my posts of memes were suspended from their Saturday Morning “Week in Pictures.” IMHO, a perfect example of how unchecked powers can be abused by dictators. Anyway…

    I’m just being nosy. Can someone help me out with the reason for the strike-through of Hinderaker?

    Much Thanks

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