'Expelled' fails to make the argument

Film omits little details like separation of church and state

By Mark Olson

April 18, 2008

(D) Someday perhaps it will be possible to look back on Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed as a relic and reminder of the rhetorical logic employed during the era of George W. Bush. Until then, it should be seen simply as a tiresome ideological bludgeon, an attempt to deceive audiences into believing it is one thing when it is, in fact, quite another.

Entertainer, pitchman and political commentator Ben Stein begins the film by intoning that there is a growing conspiracy within the academic and scientific communities blocking out proponents of "intelligent design" as a means to explain the origins of life and human development in favor of lock-step enforcement of Darwinist theories of evolution.

By setting the argument up in this way, one which is never fully pursued or proven, Stein has, of course, attempted to use a textbook tactic of Karl Rove to reframe the discussion, putting it in terms by which his side seems the valiant underdog, suppressed and belittled by their opponent, while turning notions of right-and-wrong, freedom of speech and even the meaning of science upside down. When in doubt, Stein falls back on vague claims regarding "freedom" and "dire consequences for every American." (Sound familiar?)

A newspaper movie review is, of course, not really the forum for debating the ins, outs and what-have-yous of intelligent design, but it certainly can be said here that if a film like Expelled is meant to be the vanguard action for turning public opinion, the movement has a long, long road ahead.

Directed by Nathan Frankowski and co-written by Stein and Kevin Miller, the film follows along gamely but charmlessly on the Michael Moore path, with its hapless everyman guide, ironic use of antiquated educational films and even showing host and crew half-heartedly kicked out of the Smithsonian.

The film quite pointedly never particularly makes the case for intelligent design, also never fully explaining how the concept is not, as its detractors would have it, simply shoehorning a space for faith-based creationism within the boundaries of science. Also notable in its absence is the notion of separation of church and state.

All this is without even touching on the most spurious and risible sections of the film, in which Stein visits a Nazi sanitarium and concentration camp, attempting to draw a line from Darwin to Hitler to Stalin to John Lennon (for real).

Expelled has already kicked up quite a dust storm within the confines of the Internet, as a series of preview screenings around the country have led to various garden-variety contrived controversies both pro and con. Some of those interviewed onscreen have subsequently claimed they were approached under false pretenses, and even the rights clearances for songs and animation used in the film have come under scrutiny.

In some ways the film is itself an afterthought, a formal necessity toward the ultimate aim of mobilizing and propagating a specific agenda. As a work of nonfiction filmmaking it is an atrocious sham, and as agitprop it is too flimsy to strike any serious blows. The most rational, genuinely effective way to deal with Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is to not be drawn into its web, to simply ignore it.

>>>Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (Rocky Mountain Pictures) A documentary starring Ben Stein. Directed by Nathan Frankowski. Rated PG for thematic material, some disturbing images and brief smoking. Time 90 minutes.