The American Ruling Class (2005)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

John Kirby

Writer:

Lewis Lapham (written by)

Release Date:

1 March 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Music

Tagline:

America Rules the World! But Who Rules America?

Plot:

In this first of its kind "dramatic-documentary-musical", Lewis Lapham takes two young Ivy-League graduates on a tour of the corridors of power. The novice careerists must decide: should they seek to rule the world, or to save it? |

Plot Keywords:

Elite | Politics | Economics | American Ruling Class | Career Guidance

Cast

Robert Altman	...	Himself
James Baker III	...	Himself - Frm. Secretary of State
Bill Bradley	...	Fmr. U.S. Senator
Harold Brown	...	Himself - Fmr. Sec. of Defense
Caton Burwell	...	Jack Bellamy
Paul Cantagallo	...	Mike Vanzetti
Hodding Carter III	...	Himself - Fmr. State Dept. Spokesman
William T. Coleman	...	Himself - Fmr. Sec. of Commerce
Walter Cronkite	...	Himself - Fmr. CBS News Anchorman
Barbara Ehrenreich	...	Herself - Journalist
Vartan Gregorian	...	Himself - President Carnegie Corporation
Doug Henwood	...	Himself - economic essayist
Lewis Lapham	...	Himself - Fmr. editor Harper's Magazine
Mike Medavoy	...	Himself
Joseph S. Nye	...	Fmr. Acting Sec. of Def.
John Perkins	...	Himself - 'The Economic Hitman'
Michael Rainin	...	Blues Harmonica Player
Pete Seeger	...	Himself - Folksinger
Jessica Silver-Greenberg	...	Taylor Meade
Arthur Sulzberger	...	Himself - Chairman, New York Times Company
Lawrence H. Summers	...	Fmr. Pres. - Harvard U. - Cheif Econ. - World Bank
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.	...	Himself - Novelist
Hollis Witherspoon	...	Emily Gann
Howard Zinn	...	Himself - U.S. Historian

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:Unrated

We are all just peons to America's richest 1%

I thoroughly enjoyed this mock-documentary. I have chosen to review it after reading some of the reviews that completely missed the point.

The movie truly shows how the incredibly rich and powerful people rule the United States. All of the acting is staged, and shown to be this way throughout the movie.

I wish it was a satire about how the U.S.A. is run, but it is one of the truest accounts out there.

I watched Oprah the other day, and the topic involved Class structure and rule in society...and I told my wife about this film, since it does a far better job explaining what the different class structures are.

It truly comes down to the super-rich, and the rest of us. I have a very good job, and make a fantastic living financially, and can pretty much do whatever I please without money being any type of issue. However, I am much closer to the bottom of the ladder than the top, no matter how much designer crap I buy...or vacations I take...or homes I own. On the surface it may look like I have a lot more, but in reality I am in the same boat as everyone else.

This movie shows how dramatically different the 99% of us live to the 1%...so different most people are completely clueless, and will miss the point of this movie entirely.

As far as the quote Lapham gives...he's not the perfect actor, but people can use those quotes to understand what America's ruling Class truly thinks and believes.

This movie is well worth seeing.