SYNOPSICS
Four Horsemen (2012) is a English movie. Ross Ashcroft has directed this movie. Dominic Frisby,Gillian Tett,Lawrence Wilkerson,David Morgan are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2012. Four Horsemen (2012) is considered one of the best Documentary,News movie in India and around the world.
The modern day Four Horsemen continue to ride roughshod over the people who can least afford it. Crises are converging when governments, religion and mainstream economists have stalled. 23 international thinkers come together and break their silence about how the world really works and why there is still hope in re-establishing a moral and just society. Four Horsemen is free from mainstream media propaganda, doesn't bash bankers, criticize politicians or get involved in conspiracy theories. The film ignites the debate about how we usher a new economic paradigm into the world which, globally, would dramatically improve the quality of life for billions.
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Four Horsemen (2012) Reviews
Seek This Film Out!
There's so much in 4 HORSEMEN. Yes it is talk-heavy, very densely- presented in places but it makes brilliant connections. It's like the big-idea documentaries by Adam Curtis. It's provocative and deliberately big picture. Some of the above crits feel petty in this regard, the point is to stay global. It's also gripping & urgent. It squares up to the biggest crisis we're facing and has much to say that is fresh. Surprisingly, it was also been made in the UK on a shoestring. Not that you could tell. HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
A must see!
A really good and worthwhile documentary that scratches the surface and point out directions. It's all over the Internet by now so take your time and rewind and dig deeper on your own. The gold standard and abolishing of income taxes might be areas that can be further explained, and the terrorist section needs to take religious fanatism into account. It's most important message is that we all need to understand the current unsustainable economic system and collectively take responsibility and start the changes from beneath. And as a side note: I don't know what film user "rune-andresen" have seen, but it can't have been this one.
A must see documentary
I had the opportunity to go to the Four Horsemen UK premiere in London and I've been positively surprised. The documentary is done in an artistic way and the animations very pleasant to watch. So as soon as the film starts you are captivated by its energy. Nothing to see with some boring and interminable documentary. The different interviewees speak out without sensationalism. Although the film has an opinion, it is also full of irrefutable facts. And you don't need to have a high level of economics knowledge because everything is done to make understanding some complex concepts. So this documentary can touch everybody. As well the people who question about the current or future problems in the world that people who are just interested in good documentary features. I can just advise you to watch it! First because the film rocks and also because this is the kind of film which leaves you plenty of ideas.
Provocative and worthy but with some serious weaknesses
"Four Horsemen" is the debut feature from writer and director Ross Ashcroft and the four parts of this documentary address the banking crisis, the terrorism threat, worldwide poverty and ecological collapse respectively. While worthy, well-intentioned and (mostly) well-evidenced, for the non-political, this critique of rampant capitalism is probably heavy going with lots of talking heads - no less than 23 experts, including many senior economists and academics, express their trenchant views. The film seems to have been popular in film festivals and indeed I saw it at the first London Labour Film Festival where it was applauded at the end, but it has some major deficiencies. First, it is overly ambitious in scope and should perhaps have concentrated simply on the crisis of the banking sector. The links between the four threats were not always made clear and the section on terrorism was particularly weak and over simplistic. Second, the policies promulgated at the end - while rooted in a pro-capitalist position intended to be 'realistic' - involve some outrageously fanciful notions such as returning to a gold standard and abolishing income tax. I would like to know more about Ross Ashcroft and the funding of this work which might explain the source of these odd notions. Third, at no point in either the analysis or the prescription does the film acknowledge that economic and societal change does not start with institutional reform but with the organisation of workers, consumers and citizens. Real change comes through people working together in political parties, trade unions, pressure groups, and social movements. For all these weaknesses, "Four Horsemen" does make you think and will engender much-needed debate about the urgent need to reform radically our ideas on how we create, consume and distribute wealth and how we regulate and control the institutions involved.
99 truths let down by old lies.
When a documentary attempts to tackle the most important issues of a generation, from financial instability, to environmental degradation and terrorism, it really needs to be backed up with a lot of solid research. Unfortunately, Four Horsemen hopelessly fails to live up to its ambitions. It touches on everything from the decline of empires, to the expansion of credit and disastrous banking deregulation. It rightfully highlights the asset bubbles, the failures of foreign aid and the counter productive nature of much of the west's foreign policy. But touch is the generous word, as most issues are addressed with little more than a talking head tied together with some slick animation and stock footage. The film is strongest when stating the obvious, highlighting the offences of the banking industry, the predatory lending and illegal foreclosures. Indeed, when describing exactly what is wrong, Four Horsemen takes few risks and lands some critical blows, a welcome reintroduction for a debate that is most conspicuous by its absence. But the first warning sign for the film is when the entire history of human economics is framed in the terms of Classical versus Neoclassical, followed by the pushing of quite extreme Libertarian pet causes proposed as the only possible solutions. It marks wholly disingenuous connections regarding the glory days of the gold standard and becomes almost comical when it praises FDR on one hand and then claims 'income tax is inherently unconstitutional' on the other. A few quotes from the US Constitution and a lecture on the decline of morality, and the whole film starts to feel like a Ron Paul 2012 direct to YouTube creation. Then when casual remarks drop like: 'perhaps global warming isn't the greatest threat to our planet, but the depletion of resources', (a statement that so comprehensively against mainstream scientific opinion which contends we cannot afford to burn even the oil we have found), and the film starts to make Zeitgeist appear the model of impartial reasoning. When this is rapidly followed by 'all foreign aid is bad', suddenly the minuscule on screen presence of the most lauded guests, such highly respected development economic Ha-Joon Chang (who appears on screen just twice for a total of about sixty seconds), and the motives behind the recurring presence of the gold and silver traders becomes a little clearer. The producers of Four Horsemen may be well meaning, and who isn't rightfully outraged at the 'heads we win, tails you lose' attitude of Goldman Sachs and their ilk, or the ridiculous disconnect between real wages and real estate prices? I also doubt the proposition that 'we need more employee owned businesses' would ever lose a show of hands outside a GOP convention. But overflowing as the film is with justified indignation, the proposed solutions have all the hallmarks of a stock Libertarian: 'tax is theft, government is bad' economic thesis, albeit cleverly packaged to sneak in front of a left leaning cinema audience.