"Over America" Review Filled with Politics

[TheRealBob]

I find it somewhat ironic that we are forbidden from talking about politics in the forums on this site, yet the official site review of Over America by Lindsay Maye is loaded with them:

The chief deficit of this title lies squarely in the narration. The puffy-chested voice of Tom Skerritt presides over the playback, spouting an atrocious blend of "God bless the U.S.A." clichés and platitudes, which only help to further the current national paradigm of how supposedly "great" this country is, with a rich history and a bright future.

I haven't seen this title, and maybe I too would find it excessively and falsely patriotic, but I think that could be noted in the review without the reviewer having to trot out their opinion that this country is only "supposedly" great, and apparently without a rich history or a bright future.

Unbelievably, the reviewer takes to task a title that apparently consists of flyovers of scenic sites for not addressing slavery and other dark areas of our (non-rich) history:

The problem is, of course, that this script is ironically disrespectful of U.S. history; it does not have the decency to acknowledge the nation's true legacy, however dark it may be. A brief mention of the conflicts that "pioneers" caused the "American Indians" in the Midwest chapter is noted, but not expanded upon. Slavery is ignored altogether - perhaps that is why there is no coverage of the southeast U.S. on this disc. The influence and legacy of the Spaniards is highly downplayed, as well. Names of locations in California, Texas, and the Southwest chapters are pronounced in an anglicized manner, abbreviated (Los Angeles is referred to as "L.A."), or just not spoken altogether.

The review is permeated with sputtering about how it is improper to called the USA "America". Just one example:

Ultimately, the most problematic feature of the series is the use of the word "America" to refer to the United States. America refers collectively to North, Central, and South; an entire land mass spanning its own hemisphere. Its colloquial use as a term for the United States is incorrect at best, and worryingly jingoistic at worst. The power of words helps push along the aforementioned paradigm of the country, aiding to give its populace a myopic view of the planet.

Yes, next time you're singing "America, the Beautiful", keep in mind that you're being "incorrect at best, and worryingly jingoistic at worst".

The fact is that only in certain quarters does the term "America" for the United States cause such concern. It is an accepted term almost everywhere, and from the context it is very clear in almost every situation what the term means. Most other countries call us "America". The continents are called "North America" and "South America". Very rarely, if ever, are the continents referred to together as "America". I'm not even sure if that is correct (as opposed to saying "North and South America" or "the Americas"). Virtually nobody would say, "I'm in America" if they were in Mexico City or Brazil.

Yes, there is a group that gets worked up about this, but I think it's a bit manufactured. There are many other situations where a smaller geographical area shares the same name as the larger geographical area of which they are a part, and nobody gets bent out of shape about them. And what is the alleged crime anyway? That someone outside of the USA in North or South America doesn't have a one-word term to describe the two-continent group they're in without being ambiguous about it due to our sinister co-opting of the word "America"? Oh, the humanity!

The use of "America" to refer to the U.S. in an official production as this is especially unacceptable. Even if this series' purpose is more for entertainment than education, proper terminology should always be utilized. We are not America. We are merely one part of a whole.

Using the term "America" to refer to the United States in a context where it is completely unambiguous it not quite the hate crime this reviewer makes it out to be.

Perhaps someone with less baggage should have been assigned this review.

[Mxr5150]

I agree with you, and that is said without any of my own political beliefs. She doesn't sound very objective at all and it's hardly critique of a Bluray disc in my opinion.

[TheRealBob]

Originally Posted by Mxr5150

I agree with you, and that is said without any of my own political beliefs. She doesn't sound very objective at all and it's hardly critique of a Bluray disc in my opinion.

Actually, in retrospect I'm not that happy with my review of the review (although I'll let it stand for the record). I should have just pointed out where the reviewer was interjecting politics without discussing my take on those politics.

Although, having said that, let me add to my mistake: In the last few days I came across a very leftist article. I'll spare the group the details, but I found it amusing that this article's long thesis culminated in a set of questions about what certain current events meant for "America", how would they impact "America's" future, is this still the "America" we grew up with, etc. I had to think back to the Over America review and laugh at how this article I was reading, which was very far to the left of the mainstream, apparently wouldn't be considered sufficiently centrist by the standards of the Over America review on a site which strives to avoid political discussion.

Back on point, this is a SCENERY BD, for crying out loud. Why it's supposed to address negative episodes in our history is beyond me. If they really demand balance in a SCENERY title, they should instead be insisting it show an equal number of ugly locations so we see the whole gamut of American scenery. Ugh. Well, at least that would make sense.

It's just unfortunate that people are going to read that review hoping to find out if it had a lot of good scenes, if it covered all the ones you'd hope to see, and if the resolution of the picture looked good, but instead they're going to get a political screed.

[Gremal]

I will defend the reviewer and the administrators of blu-ray.com because as a reviewer, one needs to be honest about his/her impressions. A publisher (in this case the site's administrators) needs to be willing to run with the uncensored review to have integrity. Whether the reviewer then gains or loses integrity with the audience is a separate issue.

My reviews of a couple titles have been colored by political/personal bias and to the credit of the review editor and site developer/administrators, they ran the reviews. Honestly, my views are different than Lindsay's, but we should just take a reviewer's political bias for what it's worth. As much as we may not agree, censorship is much worse than allowing the opposing view to stand, even if it may be clearly wrong.

And let's also remember that the reviews serve a different purpose and provide a different function than the forums. Allowing political discussions in the forums is a recipe for complete disaster. I know this from my experience on other forums. It's wise to keep politics out of the forums so things remain as civil as possible.

[BLUNT]

Originally Posted by Gremal

I will defend the reviewer and the administrators of blu-ray.com because as a reviewer, one needs to be honest about his/her impressions. A publisher (in this case the site's administrators) needs to be willing to run with the uncensored review to have integrity. Whether the reviewer then gains or loses integrity with the audience is a separate issue.

My reviews of a couple titles have been colored by political/personal bias and to the credit of the review editor and site developer/administrators, they ran the reviews. Honestly, my views are different than Lindsay's, but we should just take a reviewer's political bias for what it's worth. As much as we may not agree, censorship is much worse than allowing the opposing view to stand, even if it may be clearly wrong.

And let's also remember that the reviews serve a different purpose and provide a different function than the forums. Allowing political discussions in the forums is a recipe for complete disaster. I know this from my experience on other forums. It's wise to keep politics out of the forums so things remain as civil as possible.

One sided honesty......... is a recipe for complete disaster, at least in this case. SAD

[jkwest]

that review is atrocious...

I will tell you right now, if one of us had made a post with those exact speaking points about this Blu-ray, we would have received at least an infraction. Let alone our post being edited...

I, for one, think speaking your mind and being able to is a good thing....however, the politic police on these forums should not be so one-sided.

Lindsey...great speaking points...but, wrong place to put em...