How sad is this?

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Blistering performances.

-this review was one I wrote in Dec 2003. my opinion hasn't changed- I watched Innocents Betrayed. I have to be blunt. I was not impressed. To me, it was more an anti-government film than a Pro-Gun film. All I saw was how governments in the last 100 years have killed people. I fail to see how arming those people could have made any difference what so ever. If the people do not have the will to resist, they won't, no matter what tools they have. There is a quote at the beginning of the film that goes something like those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it. Well, like it or not, its human nature to forget. Just look at the past. Go back further than 100 years. Mankind keeps making the same mistakes over and over. The hype of this film was that it would radically change people's minds about gun control. Well, it misses horribly. It gives quick snippets of death tolls from regimes in the last century. The impression I got was that I should fear my government. It just showed bad governments doing bad things and that they continue to do so throughout time. I got more out of the two interviews at the very end than I did from the film. Governments are something to fear. I don't care if you are armed or not. Once a government gets enough power, the people are doomed no matter what. Our government has gained too much power already. There are too many people in this country that either don't want to resist or who just don't care. Just look at the US population and compare it to the NRA membership. I wanted my parents to watch the film. They are from the mid-west. Lived there all their lives. Dad is upper 60s, Mom is middle 50s. They are neither pro or anti gun. They do not own any guns, but have accompanied me to the range and shot some of my smaller caliber weapons. To them, its not about exercising their 2nd Amendment Rights. Its about getting out of the house and doing something different. They could just as easily take a drive out in the country. Only my Mom watched the entire film. She almost fell asleep watching it. She thought it was more about how governments abuse their power than gun control. She made a comment about 9/11. "What difference would guns have made? The plane was taken over with box cutters. I would risk a few cuts and some spilled blood to save my life." On a technical note, the content was cheap and thin. The editing was worse than amateur. With the apparent resources they had, they could have made a much better film. Someone needs to go back and start putting in some cold hard facts. It needs better presentation so people won't fall asleep. My mother, who is no director, agreed about the presentation. I would have spent more time on facts about the results of gun control in the US. There were two good examples towards the end: the lady at Luby's in Texas and the Carpenter Family in California. These are two very good examples of how gun control kills. Why weren't they explored further?? Where was Ruby Ridge?? Where was Waco??? Plenty of examples that were not shown. Take my advice, don't waste the time or money. I am embarrassed by this film and will not show it to anyone else. The producers of this film need to go back to the drawing board and make something with REAL impact.

This movie first shows some incidents in foreign countries where people were massacred. It discusses how, in many of these incidents, the future victims' weapons were confiscated beforehand.Yet the video never tells how many weapons the underdogs forfeited. It also does not extrapolate on how much of a difference it would've made even if the victims WERE equipped with firearms during the massacre. Most of the victims were killed by soldiers: weapon experts. Even if the victims had weapons, they wouldn't defeat an army.One example was of a Chinese farming village versus the military. Another example was of Buddhist monks in Tibet (I've never heard that Buddhist monks WANT to go to war). And another in Uganda, where one tribe's weapons were confiscated and given to another tribe. What if neither tribe had weapons in the first place? We hear about the people killed in the Holocaust, that they were forced to forfeit their guns too. But I doubt that very many of the Jews/Gypsies owned guns. It's the movie's responsibility to tell me those numbers. It also talks about Japanese-Americans who were placed in concentration camps in the US during WW2. The filmmakers probably don't realize it, but they were implying that Japanese-Americans would have had a better outcome had they drawn weapons on the American military, instead of going peacefully to the camps.They also argue that you should be allowed to bring guns into family restaurants (citing a single incident in which 23 people were killed in a cafeteria). And they are against gun locks, describing a SINGLE incident in which TWO kids were killed by an intruder. They also boldly imply that people should be allowed to bring guns on planes, and that 9/11 could have been prevented if people were allowed to bring guns on planes. In this part, though, they use no narration, just flashing text and pictures. If they had said anything, it would have been such a ridiculous statement, so they chose not to talk instead.They also don't explain why the US had 13,000 murders in 1998-2000, while Japan had 637 and the UK had 850 (www.nationmaster.com). The latter two nations don't allow its citizens to normally purchase guns.I give it a 3 because it taught me a little about foreign genocide, and it was short.

Innocents Betrayed shows what happens when ordinary people allow themselves to become powerless and give all of their trust to central authorities. Here's a fact that very few people know: the central authorities (usually known as the governments) killed more men, women and children in the 20th Century than did all of the wars combined. That's correct: 170,000,000 people were murdered by their own governments; in most cases, the victims had no power to defend themselves.Most people have heard of the Nazi Holocaust -- but few know much about the massive genocides of Soviet Russia, China, Cambodia, Uganda and Guatemala. Only because of the recent film, Hotel Rwanda, do more people know about the calculated mass murder there -- Innocents Betrayed came out 2 years before Hotel Rwanda! The second half of the film shifts focus from the world's genocides to the American experience with citizen powerlessness. Viewers may be quite surprised ... I won't give it away.Innocents Betrayed includes a lot of still photo and video materials, and enough facts and figures to prove its point. This is not a stodgy "educational video" by any means -- the stories move steadily with appropriate voice-over and music, so that viewers can follow them. As the end approaches, however, the pacing picks up quite dramatically.I've seen the film several times: I am always stunned and amazed at the end. And very motivated to prevent such atrocities from happening again. See it -- lend it to others -- talk about it. Be part of the generation that says "never again" and means it.

This is a very disturbing movie. Not because of the images -- by now most educated persons probably know that 20th Century governments butchered 200 million or more people -- but because of the blunt and matter-of-fact way it illustrates some of the precursors to genocide. Intellectually I understood the historical connection between authoritarian states, civilian disarmament, and genocide but now I understand it viscerally as well. From the first time I saw that roving gun sight until the final credits this documentary alternately horrified and enraged me. However, not everyone will finish this film feeling thoughtful. It does challenge some fundamental assumptions people make about genocide but I think that is a good thing. Pretty darned good for a movie with only a $90,000 budget.