I could call this film many things:
“A chilling view of the future”
“A harrowing tale of what we may become”
Based on the book The Death of the Liberal Class by Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges, “Obey” brutally conveys our present reality, perhaps in the hope that we may finally wake as a united humanity.
We have been lulled into a state of being in which we are not confronted with monolithic decisions where we choose Liberty or Death; instead we are fed a steady diet of mini-compromises in our lives that we often choose wrongly upon.
I myself and totally guilty of this, but the overall result is a total compromise of every single piece of our dignity and personal sovereignty. So say that things are as they truly are is a radical notion that may get you shot in the face with a gas canister, like the military veteran of the Oakland Occupy protests or thrown into prison indefinitely like Bradley Manning.
This film begs the question, “will you remain quiet, little bitch?’ to which we may very well whimper internally, “yes, as long as I can keep my health insurance and am able to feed my kids”. It reminds me of when Jim Morrison yelled to the crowd, “You’re all a bunch of slaves!”.
In case you didn’t notice, this film made me angry and rightly so. See for yourself and make your own judgements.