(Astro) Turf Wars (2010)
In Summer 2009, something stirred in America. After Barack Obama and a Democratic congress swept to power promising a new era of hope and change, out of nowhere a citizens protest movement emerged that threatened to derail their agenda. Was this uprising the epitome of grassroots democracy? Or was it, as some said, an example of ‘astroturfing’? That is, the creation of fake grassroots (ie. Astroturf: get it?) groups, designed to put corporate messages in the mouths of seemingly independent citizens.
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Perhaps it was just Netflix's fault for describing this as an exposé by an undercover liberal reporter who embedded himself in the Tea Party movement. Sounds good, but there was only a single brief scene where the narrator gets up in a Tea Party meeting and urges them on, draws a few cheers, and then sheepishly sits back down. That's it as far as any subterfuge goes and I found that to be extremely disappointing. That aside, it was really little more than footage of unattractive loons waving signs opposed to big government. There were a few details on the Koch brothers that I did not know about, and some silly time-lines and charts full of names of nefarious people and organizations connected by a web of arrows shown many times, I'm guessing because it was too much work to create additional visual aids. All in all it was quite disappointing and I can not recommend it. You will be better served by any Michael Moore movie.