Thursday, June 3, 2010

Wii love it!

The Netflix-Wii partnership is brilliant. I thought Redbox was awesome, and then along came this little merger. I was too cheap to go for Netflix on the mailing system alone, but once the option to stream movies straight through your Wii came along, I gave in to the man (my husband).
Our options for kids-are-asleep movie nights have opened up. We can watch new movies, older movies that we have wanted to watch either because we are fond of them or we just haven't seen them before, or movies that are a little less commercial that we've heard good things about. Veggie Tales have turned into my favorite hey-watch-this-Tessa choice while I make Sunday dinners. We can turn a movie off if it isn't what we hoped it would be and we aren't out anything. There are no time restraints on finishing a movie. If I ever get the inkling, I can watch an actual episode of Lost. AND, we get to see documentaries that we never would have otherwise gotten our hands on.
I love a good documentary --the key word being "good". Jake and I have recently watched one on the Dark Ages (romantic as ever) and one on break dancing. But one has had me mulling about what was presented for a few days now. It's this one:

Now, I try to be objective when I'm watching documentaries because I know that they are often meant to get you to lean in a certain direction of thought. I went to a workshop once about how to critically watch a documentary, and because of what I learned there, I try to step back and notice the music, lighting, how the facts are presented, etc. if the documentary subject has a high emotional or political flavor to it. With that said, I figured that this documentary would be at least as conservative as I am, but I wanted to make sure that I paid attention to the other side of the argument and didn't get swept away in "Yeah! You tell 'em, Mr. Stein!"

If you haven't seen this movie or know what it's about, it deals with the taboo subject of intelligent design in the science world. It discusses the danger of teaching Darwinism without the freedom of teaching Intelligent Design in schools -and the scientific validity of latter having just as much (if not more) validity than the former. I was fascinated with the explanations of holes in Darwinistic theory on one side and the brutal attack on Intelligent Design on the other (which most of us have witnessed in the real world). The movie starts with images of the Berlin Wall going up and really encompasses the massive importance of freedom of thought and freedom of the exchange of ideas.

Okay, I'm finding myself wanting to go on and on about it, but I think it's best that you just watch it if you get the opportunity. Then, let's chat. I still believe what I believe with my whole heart, but another facet has been added to strengthen it, and it's strangely scientific.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Have you seen "The Art of the Steal"? It's a great documentary, especially if you are an art lover.

Maren said...

Noted, Marilyn. Thanks!

Heidi said...

I will check out Expelled for sure! I am with you on the whole wonderful Netflix instant viewing thing. It is awesome! I have another Netflix instant recommendation for you: an indie movie called Bella (made in 2006, I think). You would love it, I bet. I was sick this weekend and watched it twice....

Maren said...

Heidi - I have seen Bella. And you're right, I did love it. The Scottish/English film On A Clear Day is along the Bella lines of "I'm really glad I watched that", so if you haven't checked that one out, it comes highly recommended.

Maranda said...

Love the Wii Netflix thing as well. Thanks for the recommended flicks:)

BTW you kids are just so dang cute Maren.