Thursday, December 2, 2010

What The Bleep: Down The Rabbit Hole Quantum Edition (2006)


What The Bleep Do We Know is a mix of documentary and fiction film. It’s a film that is stuck together as the quest of a woman, played by Marlee Matlin, to find meaning in her life. Her fictional quest is intercut with sequences where experts on science and spirituality talk about various subjects. It’s a heady mix of ideas. Several months after the film was released to theaters a second version, longer and slightly rearranged, was released to theaters. (I think that there may have even been another cut of the film but I’m not sure.)

As a movie the film is okay. It’s a great way to get a conversation started or to get you thinking about the subjects covered. It's not something that I really watch as a MOVIE movie.

However on DVD the film was released not only as a single disc DVD with the film but also as a super spectacular 3 DVD six-sided edition, which for me makes the film a must see. Using DVD technology the film expands exponentially as you now can control how you want to see the film.

Would you like to see the film as it played in theaters? You can do so, but you can also play the film so that you can control how much of the film’s fictional story you want to see. If you don’t want to see the talking heads, dial them down so it’s all Matlin's story. On the other hand, if you just want the talking heads you can play just those sections. Even better, if you want additional discussions of topics you can bump them up and have additional material not included in the theatrical cuts. The bits play randomly so you can play the material multiple times and not feel bored.

The second side of the three discs each has several hours of uninterrupted interviews with the talking heads of the film. For me the talking heads are the film. Whether you accept the scientific material's connection to the spiritual is up to you. But no matter how you feel, the material will get you thinking. Personally I find the films inclusion of JZ Knight and Ramtha as the biggest weakness, since it’s the least scientific thing in the entire film (I've heard too many questions about Knight and her Ramtha persona being a big con).

Worth a look if you want to get yourself thinking about things. I think it doesn't matter if you accept the connections or not (it can be argued that the science shouldn't be applied to spiritual matters and vice versa), since you will be forced to react, which is the point.

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