"A powerful, educational video" -- Pat Robertson
What has Brother Pat raving with such glee? It's "Hard Truth," the latest propaganda video from American Portrait Films. Yes, the fine folks who brought you "Unholy Hollywood" and "The Silent Scream" have teamed up with the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform to present the ultimate anti-abortion visual aid.
No more pussyfooting with tearful testimonies and murky images from an ultrasound screen. These guys kick out the jams in a quick, gut-wrenching rollercoaster ride of rubber-glove cinematography.
It actually begins with a bit of dignity as a handsome man warns us that the teaching tool we are about to experience is for our own good. Next we hear a plaintive Contemporary Christian ballad about God's judgement coming to America and see some NOVA "Miracle of Life" footage of fetuses peacefully sucking their thumbs in the womb.
But you'll barely have your seatbelts on in time for the "money shot." The forceps emerge with gouts of blood from a woman's birth canal, then the good doctor's instrument pauses to dangle a severed head before the camera. (This fellow must have required a hefty bribe to allow his grisly task to be filmed, because the 9.5 minute "Hard Truth" video costs a whopping 15 dollars. That works out to $1.58 every gore-packed minute, neighbors. But you can't say they don't deliver the goods.)
The rest of this ghoulish post-partum peepshow surveys the aftermath of such procedures. Moved by their deep respect for the sanctity of human life, the filmmakers reverently wave gory little limbs at the camera and cause tiny little eyeballs to fall from their sockets on cue. It appears that they rely heavily on 3rd trimester carnage and stillbirths, but to argue that the deck is stacked would drag me into their stupid realm of debate.
The video comes with a priceless little User's Guide, which warns that if it is not properly introduced to the viewer "the results ... can be problematic." The producers wisely advise us to "encourage reluctant viewers to simply avert their gaze." Especially helpful is "God's Purpose for Hard Truth" section, which uses typically bloody Old Testament passage to set up a Biblical precedent for such lurid shock tactics. It's interesting to note that no women speak in this video, and the host never even says the word "woman" in his introduction. Nevertheless, whatever your position on this issue, you'll have to agree with the President of the Pro-Life Action League when he said "Hard Truth" is "so horrible that it's wonderful."
--Brother Russell
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