I just finished watching Active Measures. Please watch it NOW!!!

[hedda_foil]

This doc ties it ALL together. Hillary knew everything there was to know about it and would have stopped it cold, which must be one reason they had to stop her from becoming president. She is SO impressive, as is McCain, and many, many more. If you don't have Hulu, sign up for a 7 day free trial just to watch this important film. Then you can binge on Handmaid's Tale all weekend or -- if you prefer-- try Harlots. Just sign up and see it. It's essential viewing for every DUer on this site.

Oh yeah... We are SO SCREWED!

[benld74]

1. ???

[jayschool2013]

3. Trailer

[hedda_foil]

4. Sorry, here's the trailer. It's in theaters and on Hulu as of today.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Where can it be seen, is it on line?

[hedda_foil]

5. It's on Hulu, which you can watch online with a 7day free trial, as well as in theaters.

I suggest Hulu. See the trailer above.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. Thanks. I was thinking of signing up for Hulu anyhow.

[HipChick]

7. Also on iTunes..

[pnwest]

9. I'd have never thought to look for it there, thx for the idea. Gonna watch it this weekend.

[MontanaMama]

28. Sweet!

Thank you.

[Upthevibe]

8. This looks like something I need to watch....

A free 7 day trial with Hulu sounds like a plan. Thanks for the post.

[mysteryowl]

10. Here is an interview with the film-maker

"Active Measures" chronicles the most successful espionage operation in Russian history, the American presidential election of 2016. Filmmaker Jack Bryan exposes a 30-year history of covert political warfare devised by Vladmir Putin to disrupt, and ultimately control world events. In the process, the filmmakers follow a trail of money, real estate, mob connections and on the record confessions to expose an insidious plot that leads directly back to The White House. With democracy hanging in the balance, "Active Measures" is essential viewing. Unraveling the true depth and scope of "the Russia story" as we have come to know it, this film a jarring reminder that some conspiracies hide in plain sight.

[k8conant]

11. Just finished watching -- OMG

[The Figment]

12. Me too, everyone here should see this

A definite must see!!

[Lucinda]

13. KNR

[UCmeNdc]

14. I bought it on ITunes to watch while traveling.

I heard it was very good and informative.

[JustAnotherGen]

15. We learned of it

Watching Lawrence last night and put it in our list.

And ditto on Harlots.

[Hortensis]

16. The NYT review by Ken Jaworowski is less than impressive.

What I noted from Jaw. is that he did not fault it factually. He did seem to think the documentary piled on the outrage and had a problem with that. If it's true, Jaw.," shouldn't we be angry?
Really, really angry?

Hedda, Russia is SO SCREWED when Democrats get control away from what has become somewhat of a Russian lackey party, more so now that McCain is gone. Russia's really just a pissant little nation, and its oligarchs are definitely worried that Putin poked the American bear far too hard. Poking the bears of over 30 closer nations with sharp, dangerous sticks has them all awake and angry also.

[moriah]

17. I haven't seen the review, but I did stay up and watch it last night.

Most moving part to me was the interviews with the now-deceased McCain about his and Biden's time dealing with Putin.

I didn't feel they "piled on the outrage" really -- instead, they clearly showed that this is a pattern Putin has used before.

Only thing I was really sad about is they didn't talk about Magnitsky and why we've placed sanctions on Russia anyway, but the focus was more on their actions in the Ukraine, Georgia, and the annexation of Crimea.

[Hortensis]

18. I've decided I have to see this.

Here's the opening of Roger Ebert's highly political review, which starts out as a eulogy for Senator McCain, mentions various political figures in the doc, takes a swipe at Bernie Sanders for the reason he's not among them, and finishes by bashing Trump's wall fetish. A little different from his usual! The last paragraph is his version of what the NYT reviewer was referring to, without raising suspicion of agenda.

“The enemy is dead,” proclaimed Russian politician Oleg Morozov upon learning the news of Senator John McCain’s death last Saturday. The war hero-turned-presidential candidate had always been fearless in his vocal mistrust of Vladimir Putin, and there’s a priceless scene in Jack Bryan’s new documentary, “Active Measures,” where McCain is seen smirking through a speech delivered by the Russian president, as he sneers with theatrical menace in the senator’s direction.

It’s no surprise that Donald Trump shares Putin’s disdain of McCain, having famously belittled the five-and-a-half years that the Vietnam veteran endured as a prisoner of war by smugly quipping, “I like people that weren’t captured.” No wonder it took Trump so long to approve the lowering of the White House flag in honor of McCain’s passing.

...

Considering “Active Measures” is arriving in theaters and on digital platforms just over two months prior to the November 6th midterms, its timing couldn’t be more impeccable. What frequently works against it, however, is the uninspired nature of its style. The editing by Andrew Napier, director of the Young Turks documentary, “Mad as Hell,” is designed to overwhelm, and does too good a job of it, presenting names and statistics at such a rapid-fire pace that I frequently felt compelled to freeze various frames, which I thankfully had the luxury to do with my online screener. I suspect audiences who view the film on the big screen rather than stream it at home will leave the theater feeling more exhausted than outraged, since Bryan rarely allows us a moment to breathe.

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/active-measures-2018

[moriah]

22. Well, I already have Hulu so it didn't cost me extra.

It's a short running film and I do think editing could have been better, more material added, especially in the introduction where it talks about the rise of the Russian oligarchs and stealing from the Russian people.

There's a great TED talk about an American investor (Bill Browder) who feels personally responsible for Magnitsky's treatment and eventual death because he was his employee, and how he'd bought Putin's anti-corruption line at first.

I didn't recognize the names of who put the documentary together, but it does make sense if TYT were involved that they might not understand the need to connect the dots -- they did just seen to use "oligarchs" as a Universal Bad Word vs explain in detail much about how legitimate business people blew the whistle, and more details how Putin originally started out as officially "anti-corruption" where it suited getting his opposition out of the way would have been a nice connecting moment. Given the short running time, they could have put it in. I didn't see Bill's name or Magnitsky's mentioned, or I was too tired and missed it.

It could have been much better, but it's worth a watch.

[Hortensis]

23. I've seen something else on Browder, a very brave

and remarkable man himself. Trump thought he'd been made a great offer when Putin asked him to extradite Browder and the rest to one of his political prisons.

I prefer the term kleptocrats for the people, even if political scientists feel they've consolidated power enough to be elevated to oligarchs. Perhaps the film condensed all these names into "oligarchs" for cause, though.

Can you imagine listening to various combinations of, "...and then Abramovich, German Khan, Vekselberg, Mikhelson, Alekperov, Fridman, Potanin, Aven, and Malkin met to decide.... Deripaska, Prokhorov, and Usmanov did not attend...

So reassuring ahead of time that they did not.

[brush]

29. You mentioned Potanin. I posted a couple of weeks ago that a Vladamir Potanin, a Russian oligarch...

holds a contract for key election servicing and ballot delivery for Maryland since 2015.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/14/maryland-elections-company-russian-oligarch-putin

What thr fu_king hell?

[Hortensis]

32. What the ***, all right. I'd forgotten. Since this broke

in July, Maryland senators have apparently called for "probe" and new laws. That's all I found just now. Nothing on the federal side, but hard to imagine the Mueller investigation into Russian election interference wouldn't have extended to a good look into this.

“Putin likes Potanin because he’s a former official and a billionaire who was never affiliated with any alternative group other than Putin’s,” says Valery Solovei at the Institute for International Relations in Moscow.

Apparently Potanin's feuding with Deripaska, whose star is fading with Putin.

Incredible.

[smirkymonkey]

19. Thanks for the recommendation!

I have Hulu and plan on watching over this long holiday weekend.

Would love to hear what other people who have watched it think.

[bdamomma]

20. Yes, I heard about this

last night, sounds chilling.

I want to watch also.

[Sugarcoated]

21. Shared on FB

I'll do the 7 day trial and watch it this weekend...thank you for posting it!

[sheshe2]

24. Will watch this weekend.

Thanks for the heads up, hedda.

[hedda_foil]

25. My pleasure, sheshe.

[trueblue2007]

27. will watch it next week

[AlexSFCA]

26. can't wait to watch (will sing up for hulu trial)

[peggysue2]

30. Just finished watching

And now it's 2 am. I'll be a wreck tomorrow but . . .

If you want a clear summary of what happened in 2016, an understanding of what preceded our electoral debacle and/or have any doubts that Donald Trump and his acolytes are anything but traitors, this is the film to watch. It ties all the strings and complications together in an understandable and chilling way. It basically sums up everything I've been reading for the last 2 1/2 years.

The unraveling of the Trumpster and his vile conspiracy has begun.

Never forget. Never forgive.

And yes, Hillary Clinton and John McCain are both impressive commentators in the documentary.

[duforsure]

31. Wow!

That was really good, and even showed trump using the same talking points as others installed by putin used, wouldn't it be nice if we got along with russia. Showed it was a very well organized plan set out by putin to gain power with , and stop Democracies around the world . Treasonous trump will see justice for what he's done.