Better This World: SXSW 2011 Accepted Film

Two boyhood friends from Midland, Texas -- David McKay and Bradley Crowder -- fall under the sway of a charismatic revolutionary ten years their senior. At the volatile 2008 Republican Convention the "Texas Two" cross a line that radically changes their lives. The result: eight homemade bombs, multiple domestic terrorism charges and a high stakes entrapment defense hinging on the actions of a controversial FBI informant. A dramatic story of idealism, loyalty, crime and betrayal, BETTER THIS WORLD goes to the heart of the War on Terror and its impact on civil liberties and political dissent in post-9/11 America.

Category:

Film & Animation

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[balloonknot71]

I encourage you to see the movie. Your analysis is clearly based on a trailer that is a bit over a minute long, rather than the larger context the film presents. Its in festivals around the country and on national tv Sept. 6. Try to catch it one way or the other. Can't imagine that seeing it won't change your perspective...

[pilgrimomega]

Put a guy trained in psychological manipulation in charge of a couple of idealistic kids and then blame the kids?

[BrotherOrchid]

Oh, I get it. When caught plotting a terrorist act pretend YOU are the victim. Groovy.

[Bavijanen]

Domestic disturbance. I always thought, that the terrorists was outside the US. We need an expansion of guantanamo in the states..;)

[Dana87]

If there's one reason to see the film it's simply to hear what the pathetic FBI intelligence team has to say about the case. "I wish their had been an informant in 9/11" ahahha funny, idiots. They train the informant, brain wash the shift out of him and then say - we know these kids were going to commit "violent crimes" against "innocent people". oh god, you have to hear it for yourselves.

[sewellanne]

Take Wall Street, right now.. :o)

[firesong888]

Also, there needs to be some kind of referendum on sentencing laws in America. The rest of the western world has been decreasing the severity of its punishment on its citizens as a mechanism of progressive correction and societal integration in recent decades. Whereas America seems unwilling to relinquish its parochial methodology and brutish mentality.

Not to mention this seemingly new and all but unchallenged legality to prosecute people for crimes they have not yet committed. Precrime?

[firesong888]

Just watched this. My feeling is, the real problem is the growing police state and the corruption of ideas with which the "justice" system is permitted to manipulate issues in their own favor. Mostly, this looked like a pissing contest, and the feds wanna be the ones with the biggest dicks. Pardon that vulgarity, but that's what the attitude of the FBI seemed to be. Not routing terrorism, but rather typecasting individuals as terrorists as an excuse to penalize civil disobedience.

[firesong888]

@pilgrimomega looks like it.