Loose Change Second Edition Full Review
Loose Change Second Edition Full Review
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Roger Peters
12/3/2005
Two nights ago I was lucky enough to receive a pre-production copy of Dylan Avery's 'Loose Change - 2nd Edition'. It's hard to believe it has only been 9 months since the release of the first edition, longer ago than even Griffin's speech on CSPAN. Time moves faster and faster in the 9/11 truth movement, and it seems only fitting that a new version of Loose Change be released. After grabbing the DVD from my mailbox I went straight to the DVD player, ready to see what Dylan had come up with.
Presentation
From the opening mock FBI warning screen it was apparent that this movie was coming from a newer, younger generation of political activists. The hiphop began, and so did the movie. Throughout almost the entire movie some very fresh hiphop tracks helped set the tone, set the pace, and set this documentary apart from almost all other 9/11 related DVDs, except perhaps GNN's 'Aftermath' which was also directed with a sort of modern hiphop style. While the majority of the movie was set to hiphop, at no point was the music overpowering, nor did it take away from the movie, but instead it established the films attitude - this information is fresh, from the underground, and important for all of those of the 'hiphop generation' to take action on.
The production value of 'Loose Change - 2nd Edition' goes much further than just the soundtrack though. The film featured numerous newly created scenes including 3D renderings of the official descent path of Flight 77 into the Pentagon, traveling between points of interest via global satellite maps, overhead renderings of proposed scenarios, and good use of zooming, panning, and tracking of film clips. The menu system is what you would expect from a commercial DVD with very lengthy video clip backgrounds and menu to menu transitions. It is also worth mentioning that the entire movie is filled with overlayed quotes related to almost everything covered.
Overall the production value of 'Loose Change - 2nd Edition' is the best seen in any 9/11 documentary to date, bar none.
Content
About 60-70 minutes into the 120 minute DVD I had to turn off the movie and meetup with a relative that had just arrived in town. After stopping the movie and getting ready to head out I was visibly shaken. Despite having researched 9/11 personally for over 15 months, accepting most of the theories presented, and having seen at least a dozen other 9/11 related documentaries, I was literally shaking, and was glad for a break to shake it off. Something about this DVD in particular had really hit me.
After finishing the DVD I thought that I should run through the DVD again to try to take some quick notes on the content covered so that I could give some sort of brief breakdown on the information covered. About an hour later I ended up with around 300 notes or so. To try to summarize this movie was pretty futile given the number of facts that were run through at an almost dizzying pace, but I will do my best.
The scene selections on the DVD are broken down in the following order:
- Timeline
- Credits
- Pentagon
- WTC
- Flight 93
- Oddities
- Qui Bono?
The scenes listed on the DVD line up with the notes I had taken, but I will expound a bit on what was in section.
Timeline
Basically a short run through of events related to 9/11 that took place leading up to 9/11 dating back to Operation Northwoods. Included in the timeline were references to the history of remote control flights, military drills related to 9/11, PNAC's Rebuilding America's Defenses, Silverstein's purchase of the WTC lease, put options of 9/11 related stocks, pilots being banned from carrying guns, warnings issued to government officials prior to 9/11, and the CIA meeting with UBL in Dubai. It then followed with a brief timeline of the events on 9/11 jumping all across the country on a sort of GoogleEarth type of 3D satellite globe. The events of 9/11 in the timeline included the actions of the wargames on 9/11 and where they took place, followed by a summary of events depicted through clip after clip after clip of mainstream media. The numerous mainstream media clips of the events of 9/11 reminded me how astounding the footage just from CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, and Fox could be.
Opening Credits
The opening credits are really the start of the movie. The previous timeline scene was a sort of introduction while the opening credits seemed like a break to get ready for the material that was coming up and give credit to those that put it all together. The credit section was backdropped with a famous interview with Hunter Thompson shortly after 9/11 in which he states that as a man familiar with the inner workings of the U.S. Government he could see how 9/11 was an attack that would help Bush facilitate his agenda and suggesting quite firmly that the American people were being lied to.
The credits scene was a lot like a music video of sorts. While a hiphop track set the mood and Hunter Thompson set the stage, more media clips of the 'collapses' of WTC1 and WTC2 were shown from angle after angle leading up to a sort of 'break it down' type of section in the hiphop track which covered WTC7 through multiple clips of WTC7 mixed with controlled demolition footage. The opening credits section alone would make a great 9/11 mixtape video addition.
Pentagon
The Pentagon section of LC2E opens with a new 3D simulation of Flight 77 on its 7000 ft., 270 degree descent to hit the Pentagon. Throughout this and the following animation quotes are being displayed from various sources on the maneuvers exhibited by Flight 77. A new 3D simulation showing the ground level path of Flight 77 through the lightpoles and into the Pentagon is shown as well. About 25-30 different subjects related to the Pentagon were covered including an interview with Hani Hanjour's flight instructor, analysis of plane parts, analysis of Pentagon damage and holes, shockwave comments, 2nd fireball video footage, comparisons to other plane crashes, witness media footage, and a bunch more.
WTC
I jotted 80+ notes on the topics covered in this section. Point after point were hit, including: detailed background information and specifications of WTC1, WTC2, and WTC7; speed of collapse; official story; history of major building fires; Galileo's law of falling bodies; expert comments; MASSIVE amounts of media footage; interviews with firefighters; quotes from blocked fire fighter tapes; Columbia University seismic recordings; molten steel quotes; squibs/explosions; how demolition could have been done; Marvin Bush connections; removal of WTC steel; CDI ties.
Flight 93
This section is definitely the most controversial of the DVD. Instead of arguing that the plane was shot down over Shanksville, the DVD goes a completely different route, suggesting that Flight 93 landed in Cleveland on 9/11. Using newly created overhead map style renderings a timeline of how Flight 93 may have landed in Cleveland is presented. Obviously some will take offense from the suggestions made, but I actually found this section to be quite interesting as it is not something that is argued by any other DVDs which I own. A quick listing of my notes includes: numerous media clips, interviews, and quotes; Cleveland airport timeline; forced evacuation of Cleveland airport; comparison of 2 planes evacuated at Cleveland airport after forced evacuation.
Oddities
This section basically goes over oddities and inconsistencies related to 9/11. From issues with the black boxes not being recovered (or being recovered and denied) to the cell phone call anomalies ('Mom, this is Mark Bingham'), this section is a quick run through of oddities, and I found the section on the UBL confession tape to be quite good. Some notes I jotted down included: detailed black box segment; passport found at GZ; tail numbers of planes still listed as active; Flight 93 voice recording from blackbox; Project Achilles; articles on cell phones in commercial planes; voice morphing technology media coverage; alive hijackers; no highjackers on flight manifests; UBL confession tape.
Qui Bono?
This section runs through a few different examples of who benefited from 9/11. Perhaps the most interesting section of this segment involves the coverage of the gold stored at the WTC - how much there was, and how much was recovered. I found the gold topic to be quite interesting as it is not an angle which we generally hear much about. Topics covered: Larry Silverstein; put options; gold in WTC; Bush's agenda fulfilled through 9/11.
Ending
The movie closes with a quick spot on how anyone who questions 9/11 is bashed by the media, followed up by a plea to activists to do whatever it takes to get this information out. There is also the statement of 'ask questions, demand answers', a tagline frequently used here in our ads. There was also a quick listing of 9/11 related websites, a very short list of only 4 or 5 sites, and I was quite honored to see 911blogger.com listed.
Extras
There is an extras section on the DVD as well which contains a first hand look at what the guys who created Loose Change were up to on 9/11/2005 in NYC. This rundown of their actions on 9/11 gave a bit more insight into who these guys are, and what they are all about, and I thought it made a good addition. I found the section with Jason Bermas at ground zero to be a great show of his character, and I was very impressed with his abilities to rattle off facts back to back to back. The extras also showed how these three guys plastered NYC with flyers on the morning of 9/11, and showed how they are active in other ways than just DVD creation.
Summary
It is quite apparent from the very start of the DVD that this is not your parent's type of documentary. Through the use of hiphop and fancy production techniques this DVD sets itself apart from all previous 9/11 related DVDs, and sets itself up to be the 9/11 documentary for the hiphop generation. The authors of this DVD would be well served to get this DVD in the hands of people like Immortal Technique and other underground hiphop artists.
Loose Change Second Edition was created by individuals not afraid to ruffle some feathers of other 9/11 researchers. It appears that the creators of this film are not concerned with sticking only to things that everyone in the 9/11 community agrees with, but instead they decided to cover what they wanted to cover regardless of who might agree or disagree with any specific topic.
Given the number of topics covered in this DVD the creators would be well served to continue to flesh out an online reference to accompany this film. In fact, I would argue that a book or pamphlet should accompany this DVD, there is just that much stuff in it. I personally was hit by a number of things which I would like to do some research on, topics which I have not seen much on before in the 9/11 community.
Overall Loose Change Second Edition has the highest production value of any 9/11 DVD to come out, and it is one of the most information packed 9/11 DVDs I've seen covering around 300 different 9/11 related points in just 2 hours. Undoubtedly some will take issue with a few of the topics covered (most likely the Flight 93 or Pentagon section), but those that do so would be well served by actually watching the DVD to see the points covered before issuing any such comments.
Loose Change Second Edition is one of the best 9/11 DVDs to come out in my opinion, and I hope we can expect more from Louder Than Words in the future.
