Film reviews
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Decadence: Decline Of The Western World (Film)
Rating: M
Running Time: 106
Country: Australia
Director: Pria Viswalingam
Cast: Noam Chomsky, Susan Greenfield, Pria Viswalingam
Distributor: Fork Films
Release Date: December 01, 2011 (Roseville Cinema, Sydney), December 8, 2011 (Nova Carlton, Melbourne)
Film Worth: $18.00
FILMINK rates movies out of $20 - the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worthAn intelligent yet accessible doco which thoughtfully and compellingly delves into the impact of capitalism on modern life.
The feature length documentary, Decadence: Decline of the Western World, evolved from a six-part television series, Decadence: The Meaninglessness of Modern Life, commissioned by SBS. Written, directed and hosted by Australian journalist, Pria Viswalingam, it travels across the US, Britain, Europe, Iraq, India and Thailand to explore five core themes: money, democracy, education, family and religion.
Where this year's Oscar-winning documentary The Inside Job left you lost amongst complicated economic theory, Decadence avoids it - instead addressing the impact of capitalism on our personal lives. Melding shocking statistics with social discourse from many of the world's greatest minds (Noam Chomsky and Australia's Clive Hamilton), it puts forth disturbing fact and compels us to ask unsettling questions. America is one of the most affluent countries in the world, yet it consumes three quarters of the world's anti-depressants. Why has the greatest prosperity led to the greatest level of unhappiness? This documentary isn't only applicable to intellectuals and left-wing evangelists; it's insightful viewing for anyone who lives in the West.
Suggesting that all civilisations rise and fall, it wonders where the West is on the timeline. Amongst peak oil, climate change and the GFC, it doesn't look good. But Decadence isn't a doomsday prophecy. Amongst individualisation gone mad, it still suggests that there's hope for humanity. Ultimately it asks, is the West in a final dark age or a new renaissance? You decide.
