Name: The Human Experiment
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2015-04-17
Duration: 1 h 31 min
Rating: 6.8
Cast: Sean Penn

"The Human Experiment" makes Fox News look fair and balanced

I wasn't planning on seeing "The Human Experiment" but needed something to bridge the two films I did want to see today. I'm sorry I saw it as the experience was detrimental to my blood pressure. I should preface the following by saying that I'm a card carrying ACLU liberal who thinks that practically all public pronouncements from "big business" is self-serving B.S. Yet movies like this do far more harm than good by making it easy for the pro-business, anti-regulation, right-wing in this country (aka, Republicans) to say "See, the left is just as biased as the right".

The cinematography is top notch. However, the movie relies exclusively on anecdotes and emotional appeals rather than data to make its case. The few factual assertions are almost all half-truths, misinformation, or outright falsehoods. An example of the latter is that your skin provides a direct path for "chemicals" into your blood (this was in the context of skin care products). That is not true.

Note that I deliberately used scare quotes around the word chemicals because that is how it is used throughout the film. The people who made and appear in the film don't seem to be aware that everything is made of chemicals and all chemicals are toxic at a high enough concentration or under certain conditions. Consider the chemical dihydrogen monoxide (http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html). Or ascetic acid (a common component of salad dressing). Yes, those examples are silly but that's the level of argument made in this film.

The documentary is a form of non-fiction storytelling that aims to present factual information, insights, and perspectives on real-world subjects, events, issues, or people. Documentaries can cover a wide range of topics, including history, science, culture, social issues, nature, biographies, and more.

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The Human Experiment

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