Product Description

Obsession is a film about the threat of Radical Islam to Western civilization. Using unique footage from Arab television, it reveals an 'insider's view' of the hatred the Radicals are teaching, their incitement of global jihad, and their goal of world domination. The film also traces the parallels between the Nazi movement of World War II, the Radicals of today, and the Western world's response to both threats. Featuring interviews with Daniel Pipes, Steve Emerson, Alan Dershowitz, a former PLO terrorist, and a former Hitler Youth Commander

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1432 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-09-11
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
• Original language: Arabic, English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 77 minutes

Customer Reviews

A Frightening but Timely Analysis
This is an excellent film about the real terrorists and their attitude toward life and death. Everyone should watch it.

Obsession
This DVD gives a clear overview of the terrorist threat we face today from Muslim radicals that want to eliminate all religions in the world except Islam. The DVD is non-partisan and explains how history may be repeating itself probably because our young people have no knowledge of the past and what happened to the Jews in Germany. It is an excellent documentary and I would highly recommend it for all US citizens to see.

Hysterical, Deceptive, Partly True
I strongly disagree that the film--as some negative reviewers have noted--tars all Muslims as terrorist. It begins with the standard "the Muslim religion is beautiful" apology before stringing together twelve or so years of footage together to try to prove that international jihad is the new Nazism, and that all who disagree have their heads in the proverbial Neville Chamberlain sand.

Now imagine you live in Indonesia and a fellow Indonesian gathers a couple decades worth of KKK footage and puts it together with ominous music plus converts-from-the-dark-side and converted-daughters-of-the-dark-side talking heads. How can you refute it? Now no one, of course, believes that the threat of the KKK is on the level of the Islamofascists--but that's not the point. The point is how capable are you really to judge the actual threat posed in this film? How well can you really judge this slanted movie? Now much of the footage is important and true. It's true that much of the Middle East erupted in euphoria after 9/11. It's true that young children in some Middle Eastern countries are indoctrinated to hate the west and Isreal to the overzealous extent of wanting to give their young lives to the cause. And there are plenty of groups, even governments, that advocate destruction of the west. The clips in the film well represent these valid points. Yet it is dangerous to go from that belief to what another reviewer claims:

"The evidence and footage displayed in this film are genuine and would be very difficult to discount or dispute. How anyone can claim 'ignorance' in the face of that evidence is beyond reason and common sense."

The reviewer seems not to realize that films can be highly manipulative in their arrangement of facts, and that's exactly what propaganda does. I don't totally reject the film, but too many red flags were flying as it rolled for me to be comfortable.

The facts in the film are marshaled to conflate Arab anti-Israelism to Nazism, for one. This falls even short of a blatant and dangerous half truth. Jews are fond of making this claim, and it is certainly true that it often looks like textbook anti-semitism. But I seem to recall some deep history of a group being pushed out of their homeland and marginalized, colonized, and denied a homeland for many decades. Whether you react to this statement with hostility or not, anyone with knowledge of this issue has to admit that the film totally ignores a rich, important context here to make an absolutist point. And incidentally, regarding the claim that negative reviewers to "Obsession" are politically correct, nothing is more politically correct in the US than being pro-Israeli. (The most politically correct moment in the current election so far: Joseph Biden, in last Thursday's VP debate with Sarah Palin, saying that his keystone criterion for joining the ticket was Obama's fervent Israeli advocacy.)

How foolish to claim that jihadists just, plain, hate the west. No reasoning with savages, right? (Again, trot out Chamberlain on cue.)

A question for the film: where in the film are the Taliban, the biggest fascists in the Muslim world? I guess when the movie was made (2004-2005?), the Taliban must have seemed like history and therefore, not important to the forward thinking agenda of this film? If only we had known how to pick and choose, we'd be in 1000x better position. Invade Afghanistan--yes; Invade Iraq--no. I'm guessing that the "Obsession" filmmakers would advocate the wide-net yes approach--except for a big fat no to Palestinians.

And I agree that the timing of this film's free distribution--it came with my Sunday paper a week ago--is designed to cause anxiety and fear in order to sway people toward McCain. It's a tactic straight out of the Bush-Rove playbook.

Etc. Etc.

See Joseph Plummer's excellent review for more.