The Unbelievers (2013)

Being an atheist in the public is really an interesting subject. Especially in the US it's a sensitive area, so I was told that this movie would be about this.Well, it's not really, but the bigger problem is, that instead we get a 70 minute self-hooray, which was even for me as an atheist just too annoying after a while.I would've loved to see in the movie deep thoughts, which I could show to a religious person and make him think. Instead we get a lot of pointless montages with bad cuts, where someone says something and the crowd goes nuts.What exactly was this movie made for? Atheists watching this won't get really more connected to the subject, religious persons won't even have the interest to keep watching after latest 10 minutes.The movie had the potential to make something good, it had 2 good personas, but it was ruined by a really bad concept/directing.Just considering the main movie (without the off-speaking of guest-stars) doesn't even reach 70 minutes, just shows how low on ideas they were.

How ever much I may agree with Dawkins and Krauss, it was hard to watch their story because of the film maker. The two are edited to represent atheist rock stars without the actual footage to back it up. Loud music and some inserts don't convince anyone these days.Just show, don't tell by overdoing your edits. Besides, the locations visited weren't put to use to tell an overarching story. It was basically just following them. The only scene I actually appreciated as a documentary-like scene was the one where Krauss is constantly harassed for a picture or a question. That is fun, and brings the character to life. Putting them in one room and hoping something unique will happen isn't enough to make an interesting movie.Luckily, Krauss and Dawkins are full of witty remarks and interesting insights, and that's what pulled me through it.

I don't know that these people understand the term "atheism" or have unwittingly hijacked it to mean "against extremist religion" for there is not a lot, beyond personal and untrained anecdotal observation, to chew on in any academic sense. If you've ever heard Joseph Campbell speak on the subject, you'd realize how bush league and irresponsible this is. Atheism is now it's own market and has put these guys on the road to promote the film. Untold semiological crimes are being committed in the name of commerce and personal financial agendas, the first being the blurring of the term "atheism". These kinds of irresponsible broad releases can really backfire if the players don't have their terms and definitions in order and decline to include anyone who may have studied the subject seriously. Lots of books are being sold and our cultural philosophy is, once again, being determined by editors who are responsible for selling books and movies. Only this time, we are not modifying the definition of family, planting a product brand into our cultural consciousness or associating a core value with a car. We are talking about using a core belief (or unbelief) system potentially as a vehicle for something totally unrelated that will have many opportunities for adulteration and being re-fit to market along the way (like any brand.) None of these guys are saying much beyond a fairly surface polemic against an obviously delusional minority (I think they may be pumping the stats for their own ends as well.) Very hard to believe that half of the population does not understand or give any credence to the theory of evolution despite it's universal acceptance by all the major religions and it's instruction in faith based schools for more than half a century.I would take their own advice and not believe everything you hear.

I saw a test screening of this movie at Arizona State University, and it's possible there may be slight changes before the official release. However there is little or nothing I would want to see changed. It's a very well put together movie, fast paced and engrossing. When it was over, I was very surprised that 90 minutes had elapsed - it seemed like less than an hour.From a brief description, it might sound very boring - Dawkins and Krauss criss-crossing the world, giving speeches at atheist conferences, debating religious apologists and so on. But the film is very well edited and has a very fast-paced feel, as well as capturing human moments like Richard Dawkins nodding off to sleep on a train, or sitting in a hotel room holding a phone to his ear, frustratedly trying to get a word in edgewise as an unseen person on the other end lectures him on morality.Most of all, this film captures the passion and intensity of two men at the top of their respective scientific fields, who are awed by the beauty and complexity of nature and have an almost messianic zeal to share that beauty and awe - so much more satisfying and inspiring in my opinion than the petty just-so stories of religion - with the general public.You also get the sense that atheism is a movement whose time has finally come. Even in religion-saturated America, more and more people are coming out of the closet and connecting with each other, turning up at atheism conferences in large numbers though so far ignored by the media.But this is not as much of a religion-bashing film as you might expect. It's basically an intimate portrait of two friends with a shared passion for knowledge, who are driven to share that knowledge with the world. As such, any viewer can enjoy this movie.