• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

Mar 03, 2015 By Zach Hollwedel Web Exclusive

Based on the book of the same title by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, Robert Kenner’s documentary, Merchants of Doubt, turns its lens on the scientists used by major corporations to lobby against health and environmental reform. Often paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for single courtroom appearances, these men and women actively aid in misleading the American public on issues as grave as the harmful effects of smoking, the toxicity of pesticides (primarily DDT), and global warming. Though they are but a small faction of the scientific community—in fact, Kenner sheds light on studies that reveal no legitimate scientists agree with these “merchants”—they wield tremendous influence, delaying and in some cases preventing legislation that would better our collective health and the sustainability of the planet.

Kenner’s film touches firstly on the strategies the cigarette industry used for decades to keep the public unaware of the dangers of smoking. First, deny the truth, and when the truth becomes undeniable, cast doubt upon it. The film then ties smoking into the requirements imposed upon furniture makers to integrate anti-flammable chemicals into their sofas and beds, despite the fact that the methods are neither that successful, nor particularly safe. This foray into furniture fires is unexpectedly fascinating, a great insight into how an immensely powerful lobby (tobacco) can influence another, entirely unrelated industry, governing its operations. Kenner parlays the initial discussion on tobacco into one on climate change, which receives the bulk of the film’s attention. Kenner layers the film with fact after fact, compounding them until they form an undeniable premise—climate change is happening, and we’re to blame. Obvious as this is in light of the scientific studies that back it, the thesis is still met with outlandish, ignorant doubt. With the exception of a magician analogy that, while pertinent, is a bit gimmicky and removed from the meat of the documentary, Merchants of Doubt is engaging and illuminating from start to finish, well worth watching.

The unfortunate reality of such circumspect documentaries as Merchants of Doubt is that they always seem to preach to the choir. Kenner (unavoidably) breaks the climate change debate down into a political one—wrong versus right, right versus left. To his credit (and Inglis’), he features former South Carolina Representative Bob Inglis, a stalwart republican and former climate change denier who did a 180 when he listened to the facts on global warming. However, Inglis is in an unfortunately small minority of people likely to flip their thinking on the environmental catastrophe. So many of the people Kenner captures on film refuse to acknowledge global warming as anything other than leftist, liberal hooey, and those are the people who most need to watch this documentary.

www.sonyclassics.com/merchantsofdoubt

Author rating: 7/10