Catching up with: The Revisionaries, a 2012 Documentary

Who would think a documentary based mostly on the topic and the filming of seemingly tedious and endless school board meetings could be this riveting and thought-provoking? Who would have thought a politically polarizing movie didn't have to be done by an activist and seemingly please both sides? On Netflix these days,The Revisionaries which also has a nifty website, fits the bill.



With colorful Texas twang, good access to opposing protagonists, and a background of how churchy politically active in the weeds conservatives are trying to defeat what they view as secular and "un-American" values in public school textbooks, the brainwashed minds of future American generations at stake (although I would give more credit to kids whatever they are taught in school, I believe they can often see through the ludicrous parts of textbooks), director Scott Thurman turned a thesis project into a tour de force documentary.

In the weeds? Currently, there is this persistent question of whether conservatives are grassroots driven or astroturf driven (paid from above to fight battles below). The main character here is Don McLeroy, the former chairman of the Texas Board of Education, a dentist, who appears not to be suicidal, but like my former dentist, while my mouth was wide open, he spews his drivel to his gargling patients while he simultaneously activates his drill. One of the best scenes of the movie is when he pants around an abandoned sports field with excited Sunday school children showing them his science by walking around in circles experiment that yes indeed all animals, including big dinosaurs, could easily have fit on the same boat.