Alongside Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List, producer Gerald R. Molen can count 2016: Obama’s America among his most significant accomplishments. Although the movie is officially categorized as a documentary, it watches more as a thriller, or even a horror story. In the film, Dinesh D’Souza, a political commentator and author of many books including The End of Racism, explores President Barack Obama’s journey from his birthplace, Hawaii, to the White House. While the film originally opened in only one theater in Houston, Texas, it has made a larger splash than anyone could have anticipated. Fox News recently reported that experts are predicting that its earnings will soon surpass Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.
With all this hype surrounding the film, I entered the theater with great expectations. Using Obama’s autobiography, Dreams from My Father, as his structural basis, D’Souza follows the storyline and tries to understand the President’s life journey. He interviews people who knew the young Obama, including his half-brother in Kenya, and he visits the places that deeply effected Obama. The highlights of these interviews primarily revolve around Obama Senior’s leftist positions, including a very anti-colonial outlook, and his half-brother’s contrasting support of colonialism. However, Obama’s father had almost no contact with his son; this casts some doubt as to the relevance of his positions.
At this point in the film, there is a sudden, dramatic shift: Obama’s voiceover accompanies a harrowing visual, wherein he visits his father’s grave in Kenya. Quoting directly from his personal memoir, he describes how visiting the gravesite transformed him. At that point, he became determined to succeed and carry out the dreams of his father. This is the moment when D’Souza introduces his own revelation: Influenced by his father’s beliefs, Obama’s actions have all been within an anti-colonial framework. This explains his curious policies, including one of his first acts as President, wherein he removed a bust of Winston Churchill from the White House. I became entranced at this point. Scene after scene unfolded, and I watched Obama’s life and political choices explained from this new perspective.
The most distressing scene was undoubtedly when the President mistakenly believed his microphone was off, and whispered to the outgoing Russian president about the American missile defense. He said, “This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.” The Russian leader responds, “I understand. I transmit this information to Vladimir, [the incoming president].” By the end of the film, I glanced around, and nearly the entire audience was leaning forward, with their elbows on their knees, and their heads propped on their hands. The woman next to me whispered to herself, “Oh my gosh. Scary.” I simply responded, “Terrifying.” This is a must-see for any American, whether Democrat, Republican, or perhaps most importantly, undecided. It is no surprise this movie has taken the country by storm.