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Memorable, crazy movie

Best movie ever!

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It's difficult to get a handle on just what "Outrage" wants its audience to be outraged about. Ostensibly, it's the hypocrisy of closeted gay elected officials who support anti-gay legislation (or, at least, vote against pro-gay legislation). Yet the film spends considerable time on Jim McGreevey, the former New Jersey Governor, who was progressive on gay rights issues even while in the closet. And it features commentary from several conservative gays with groups like the Log Cabin Republicans -- people who are not in the closet, yet still support many of the politicians whose voting records the film condemns. Even Mary Cheney pops up, another out lesbian working for the Republican establishment the film takes great pains to portray as virulently anti- gay. Despite all this, the film sidesteps any examination of why someone might be gay and conservative other than the tyranny of the closet, for reasons that escape me. Their presence undercuts the film's basic premise, yet the filmmaker does nothing in the way of offering counter-arguments. Go figure.The end result is a muddle, neither as thoughtful or penetrating an examination of the closet as it might have been, nor as trenchant or consistent an expose as director Kirby Dick's last film, "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" (about the MPAA Ratings Board hypocrisy). Dick is a skillful enough filmmaker to put together the material he has in a way that held my interest, but it doesn't add up to much and doesn't contribute much to the "outing" debate that, frankly, peaked about 20 years ago. It also doesn't help that the film spends so much time on Charlie Crist, whose political fortunes seemed much brighter when the movie was made than they do now that he has lost his run for the U.S. Senate. That just adds to the feeling that this film is plowing over well-trodden ground that not many care much about anymore, which is probably why the film didn't get very much attention (at least, not compared to "This Film Is Not Yet Rated").

How funny that a film about the importance of forthrightness is so often dependent on anonymous sources and hearsay. Its politics aren't repellent at first, as Kirby Dick only outs politicians involved in public sex scandals. But then he just goes after whomever he pleases. Dick goes so low as placing a photo of Rep. David Dreier next to a disco ball and underwear-clad men at a pride parade. Then we're shown an embarrassing slip-up by news anchor Shepard Smith, a lead-in to outing him too. Many of these individuals' sexual orientation is none of our business. Being outed for hypocrisy is one thing; being outed anecdotally is quite another.The more aimless the documentary gets — and it meanders ceaselessly — the more frustrating its politics become, concealing an inconsistent moral standard with flashy graphics and rousing, but outrageous political claims. "If every gay person would come out of the closet, the gay rights movement would be over," claims one interviewee. This is the film's concluding point, with Harvey Milk discussing the importance of gay visibility. Inexplicably, the film fundamentally refrains from analyzing the irony that most of the high profile public figures outed here would never have gotten their positions if they were openly gay. Dick fails to realize his good intentions aren't a substitute for deeply flawed logic.43/100

Excellent documentary dealing with hypocrisy in our government.If you are a staunch Republican, you will loathe this piece as it brings out that many of our ardent conservatives are condemning the practice of homosexuality, vote constantly against bills that would help homosexuals, when in reality these legislators are closet homosexuals themselves.Larry Craig and other Republicans are prominently mentioned here. The Democrats don't get away with anything here either. Disgraced Gov. McGreevey and New York ex-Mayor Ed Koch are mentioned. Some really awful things are mentioned about Koch. Glad I never voted for him. Since Koch has never admitted to homosexuality, I am surprised that he did not take umbrage with this documentary coming out.

Outrage is aptly titled. Very aptly. It is an indictment of closeted politicians who lobby for anti-gay legislation in the U.S. They are dishonorable people who do dishonorable things out of weakness. If one were to tell me they thought this film was too judgmental of its subjects, I would disagree on the grounds that it remains objective to its found footage and interviewees, but I still might understand the opinion. The film is designed to outrage us by showing us the grave, sad and cyclical injustice that is being done to the gay community right this minute. But it should, because it is a view of the subject that is sadly muted in day-to-day consciousness.The reason we have generally successful politicians in a technologically developed melting pot like, apparently, the United States such as Sen. Larry Craig, Gov. Charlie Crist, Rep. David Dreier and Ed Koch is because people have family and friends whose rights as a person they vote against because they think Charlie Crist is just the most charming guy, or Larry Craig wants to do something as abstract and arguable as protecting our family values. The year is 2009 in a superpower country that claims to the rest of the world to be free and ideal. Is there any significant reason to be nice about it anymore? Kirby Dick went to great lengths to be more honest than anyone else has ever been about the MPAA Ratings Board for his vital documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated. Doing the same here is the sole key to his achieving a state of pure rage and disheartenment at the vanity, the spinelessness, the disingenuousness required to be embraced as a candidate in the Republican Party in this day and age. Yes, even that one. Of course he seems honest and down-to-earth and brave. The subjects of this documentary appear the same to that very constituency.In This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Dick actually began an official investigation into the lives of his subjects. Similarly here, he accompanies an investigator already working on uncovering the truth about the candidates who have fought to conform to an ideology in order to use a public office to seal the deal against those who share their pain and deal with it to more constructive ends. We see some of them, too. And they make a lot more sense when they talk, because they're Mass. Rep. Barney Frank, playwrights Larry Kramer and Tony Kushner, and columnist Michelangelo Signorile.The film is exactly what your conservative family and friends need to see. I know about the unspoken peace treaty on talking politics, and you don't have to. Just recommend a documentary that just blew you away called Outrage and tell them to sit down because they've got to watch it. It beats the eggshell-ridden small talk about school and work and other people.