It’s that time of year once again. Unless you live under a rock and even if you do, you should know that it’s rabbit season. Or is it duck season? No, wait, I really think it’s rabbit season. Oops, my mistake. It’s far worse than either one. And no, it’s not fiddler crab season. It’s political season.
Yes, it’s that time of year when your mailbox, telephone, and television are bombarded with lies, distorted facts, and phony promises. And to make it even more detestable this season ends with the most dreaded contest of all: the Presidential Election.
And along with all the usual methods of the candidates attacking one another the latest appears to be making films and passing them off as documentaries. Dreams from My Real Father is one of those long-form attack ads that is focused on discrediting our current President.
It’s incredibly difficult to take this film seriously when it starts off with the following disclaimer: “The film’s contents are based on actual events, interviews and archives, as well as re-creations of probable events using reasoned logic, speculation and approximated conversations in an attempt to provide a cohesive understanding of Obama’s history.”
So right from the beginning it’s telling you straight up that it’s taking a few facts and mixing them up with a lot of made-up bullshit. To go along with this absurdity, the entire film is narrated by somebody doing a terrible Barack Obama impersonation.
The entire premise of the film is that President Obama is a Communist. His real father is supposedly Frank Marshall Davis, who was a devout Marxist bent on bringing down the United States government. Barack’s grandfather, who was a secret CIA agent, covered up the relationship with Marshall and his daughter and arranged to have a sham marriage made between her and a Kenyan exchange student to explain her pregnancy.
The first part of the film is incredibly boring as it spends most of its effort trying to link Davis to the Communist party and prove using only physical similarities that he is Barack Obama’s real father. The monotonous tone of the narration and the brief flashing of news articles do not add anything at all. And without knowing what parts are true and which are re-creation of probable events just makes the entire project a confusing mess.
Near the end of the film, there are some good points brought up and interesting video footage that make you wonder about some of the President’s more radical associations such as Bill Ayres, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and the many Czars he has appointed that answer only to him. It would have been nice to have seen some of these issues explored in further depth, but by this point the film has become such a drudgery to watch that you’re just hoping it will be over soon.
