Indoctrinate U (2007) User Reviews

Outstanding film with a very important message.

[Julie-30 · 8/10 · 17 April 2008]

I lived through situations that resemble the stories told in this film. These stories are not exaggerations. They are not made up out of whole cloth. They are absolutely true. But Leftists don't want tuition-paying parents to know the truth of what goes on in academia and they will do anything to retain their hold on the minds of their students. A university's purpose is to teach young adults how to use their brains, not what to think. But you'd never know that from the Leftists on today's campuses. Can the people who gave this film negative reviews deny that academia is comprised overwhelmingly of Democrats/Liberals? If they do, they are even more disingenuous than I'd thought.

All parents of college-bound children should see this film.

Interesting info, okay film-making

[bean-d · 7/10 · 11 February 2009]

I would definitely urge people--especially college students and professors--to watch this documentary. Watch and listen. Listen without formulating a response to every scene that the filmmaker creates. You may just find yourself a tad enlightened. The film-making is not great, but the information contained therein is quite good.

My experience getting a Ph.D. was precisely like what is portrayed in "Indoctrinate U." Would I have proudly announced my conservative leanings to my professors and peers? Heck no! Only unless I wanted to be a campus outcast and have no professor willing to serve on my dissertation committee. Would I have admitted to listening to Rush Limbaugh on occasion or being pro-life? Perish the thought! Only unless I wanted to spend four years receiving dirty glances and hateful comments.

Maybe everyone's experience wasn't mine, but the modern-day university isn't a place a thought-diversity . . . and in my book, that's the most important type of diversity there is.

The negative reviews seem like people who have not seen the film

[kevennorris · 9/10 · 1 May 2008]

I just finished watching the film and found it to be a very good expose on the craziness that political correctness on college campus' has become. The negative reviews, especially Bennie's, seem from people who have not watched the film but maybe only the trailer. Never were intelligent design or any other fundamentalist Christian examples found anywhere in this film. As a matter of fact I feel that most fundamentalist Christian types would be offended by the language in this film. The ambush tactic for interviews is similar to what Michael Moore does and is also used in this film as a sort of comic relief from the serious examples of double standards and leftist political correctness. If one watched this entire film it would be hard to continue to believe that there is no liberal bias on college campuses. The film is fun to watch and at the least should increase the debate about one-sided political correctness and it's effect on students today. Great job.

Dare a University Professor to watch this through to the end!

[fibbermac · 9/10 · 28 March 2008]

This documentary holds a mirror up to liberal academia in the US and dares them to look at the reflection it casts.

It reminded me of my college days, where I felt that I needed to conceal my conservative views from my professors to preserve my good grades.

It also reminded me of something from "Someplace To Be Flying" by Charles de Lint:

"Then how do you change the world?" "By being strong and true." ..."The best change you can make is to hold up a mirror so that people can look into it and change themselves. That's the only way a person can be changed." ..."And you know," Maida added. "That mirror can be a story you hear, or just somebody else's eyes. Anything that reflects back so that you see yourself in it."

In this little film, Coyne Maloney has skillfully crafted his mirror, but that was the easy part. The real challenge is getting his subjects to gaze into it. In order to even see this film, I had to buy it from the film maker's web page. I'm sure that "Indoctrinate U" won't be winning any awards at the "Aspen Filmfest" or the "Woodstock Film Festival".

Not for lack of merit, but for lack of an audience.

A must see film!!!!!!!

[bdlopez · 9/10 · 20 April 2008]

This is a must see film for anyone wanting to get an intellectually honest view of what is going on on college campuses across the country. I have been a student for a while now, so what this film revealed was no surprise to me...but I believe the reality of things needs to be revealed....you people who are bashing this film >>>> how can you possibly deny that colleges are liberally bias..in fact they are socialist breeding grounds....all throughout the film you see pictures of communist leaders and slogans all over campus....if you don't recognize this, you need to do some reading....I believe the film maker had to "walk into an office" and surprise people, because they wouldn't meet with him any other way....they aren't interested in equality or fairness. All they are interested in is getting their ideology into the heads of young students...god forbid opposing opinions being anywhere on campus....This was a great film if you like documentaries!!!!!!

Dreadfully Unbalanced

[sarahannsparks · 3/10 · 26 March 2011]

While I applaud this documentary's attempt to address the problem of limited academic freedom, I was deeply disappointed to see that this film polarizes the issue. It simply isn't true that the conservative opinion is always silenced in academia and the liberal opinion is praised and encouraged. Depending upon the university, it can very easily be the other way around. In my experience of teaching at a Catholic university, I have seen students and faculty--both liberal and conservative--being silenced. So many factors cause this: the university administration, the university's religious and other affiliations, faculty who are intolerant of opinions other than their own, students who are equally intolerant, etc. This film fails to take into account that conservative students and faculty are not the only ones who can be limited in expressing their views. It also fails to consider the fact that many (maybe not the majority, but certainly a large number of) professors and students welcome constructive dialog within the campus community. It appears to me that this film has used a small handful of extreme cases of silencing within academia to create a largely unfounded argument that American universities are centers of liberal indoctrination. Issues of silencing and academic freedom need to be studied and addressed, but this documentary falls pitifully short of the objectivity it touts.

Matches My College Experience

[projectorion · 10/10 · 27 July 2015]

This movie is dead on, and matches my college and University experiences to the letter. For those of you who have been living under a rock for the last 40 years or so, American colleges and Universities have an overwhelming liberal bias and intolerance for both conservative ideas and conservative people.

For all of the talk about "diversity" on college campuses, there is basically no diversity of thought at all. Racial diversity -- maybe. Diversity of thought -- absolutely not! Schools... especially Universities in the USA have become little more than government-funded indoctrination centers, and that's the unsavory truth that this movie exposes so beautifully.

Questionable to Say the Least

[Cockeymofo76 · 3/10 · 20 May 2009]

I watched the movie, Indoctrinate U, on recommendation of a friend, and I have to say I was excited, I like the subject matter. I feel the discussion of political as well as just the simple teacher-student power relationship is an interesting subject. Unfortunately, that was really the high point of the movie, my anticipation.

He uses techniques that only bad documentarians (see Michael Moore) use. These include but aren't limited to:

1. The attack interview - He sticks a mike and camera in people's faces and they are understandably flustered, you would be to if the banality of your day was interrupted in that manner. So using the footage as he does is questionable, at best.

2. He edits, a lot - The interviews are cut up, a lot. He actually cuts off a women describing why the university has a women's center, and not a men's center, mid-list. This is disingenuous as it seems as though, at least some of the time, the editor is shaping the interviewee's thoughts not the interviewee. I actually thought there was something wrong with my DVD, until I realized there were just that many edits.

3. He voices over - This sometimes can be used effectively, but Maloney doesn't seem to understand the power this gives him. Also, this is a sub-point, he represents the other-side of arguments. So he will be portraying someone, or thing, in a positive light and simply say the that whoever was on the other side of the argument says "this". The problem is that he rarely quotes and never has the people that are legitimately on the other side of the argument on screen. He more than once misconstrues an argument on the other side.

4. Way too much content - The director, oddly, chooses to talk about many, at least 8, different things. They are all on the same theme no doubt, and all interesting, but that is way too much for a movie, maybe enough for a mini-series. The effect of this is at no point in the movie do you feel you have a true understanding of an issue or event.

5. His warrants don't match his claims - He says, as the title says, that colleges are propagating liberal doctrine. Well, I think he quite successfully proved that some are trying to, but he never shows any statistical data that people leaving college are any more or less liberal than those entering. He doesn't prove that liberal professors have any effect on their students. Which to me seems like an easy point to make, so it's curiously missing from the movie.

6. What he talks about is skewed - All the discussion in the movie is based around very minute cases. So although many of the people were legitimately wronged, there is no evidence that this is a pervasive problem, only that these people had a poor experiences.

The problems in this movie are really simple. He should sit down and watch Errol Morris documentaries for days and he will see what a quality documentarian can do.

I'm giving this movie a poor grade because of his techniques not his statements.

Strictly for those interested in the subject matter, I wouldn't advise anyone to watch it though. 3/10

Brilliant

[steven-sansom · 10/10 · 1 March 2012]

A must for University students studying.Sociology Gender and politics.

The phenomenon is not an American monopoly. It also exists on Australian campuses, as does the great disparity in the numbers of male and female students. The issue of the gradual but deliberate abrogation of academic freedom was a favorite topic that the now defunct Report Newsmagazine covered in many of its issues already years ago. It is not being discussed much in the media anymore. It appears that academics as well as journalists have become sufficiently indoctrinated or, perhaps more aptly for many, afraid for their careers, no to bother to discuss academic freedom in Australia any longer.

What exactly is a "conservative" education?

[rowland-654-349989 · 1/10 · 6 February 2010]

There is a large section of the US who are permanently mired in a bi-polar view of politics and ideology, that every opinion you hold is either liberal or conservative, and this documentary is saying that there is no "open" debate occurring on University campuses (i.e. that conservative views are not being represented).

It is something of a cliché that academia is a left-leaning institution, but critical thinking should not attract spurious accusations of anti-conservative bias.

Critical thinking involves questioning authority, which does not lend itself well to conservative dogma. I'm sure that conservatives (ideological conservatives) would bitch that there should be an open debate, where Christian myths, imperial apologists and pro-lifers can juxtapose their views against what they consider "liberal" thought (everybody who does subscribe to the facile myths that most of middle America does). The examples used in this amateur documentary are extremely spurious, so called "conservatives" control the most powerful institutions within the US. The fact that every University in the US does not teach flag-waving pro-war bile is not evidence of a liberal conspiracy.

Its easy to accuse everyone of being "liberal" if you are born wealthy, white and middle-class. Young people question the moral authority of their elders because they are young, stop seeing it as a politically correct bias/liberal bias.

What would a conservative education actually look like? Young people who accept every myth of American exceptionalism and hoot like rednecks whenever another nation is invaded in the name of "freedom". The world is 6000 years old. Iraq has something to do with 9/11. Etc.

Go start your own schools in the desert, an apt setting for your barren mentality.

a must for any student going to college

[twodiamonds · 10/10 · 12 August 2020]

This was true when the film was being made 15 years ago and it is even more obvious today in the pc world of today. this film showcases the future of education as we know it today. with conservative speakers attacked and unable to speak on college campuses due to the high cost of protecting them from leftist thugs, it speaks to the on-sided views imposed on today's students. the marxists that are destroying cities today come from the teachers that have invaded today's universities. conservative teachers voices have been silenced by failing to get promotions or firing by the administrations. our history has been destroyed by those that want to further their agenda. statues have been toppled. women's rights have been pushed as long as they are liberal viewpoints and race has been used as a shield against anyone that voices opposition to the leftist talking points. anyone on the right who speaks out are labeled nazis, kkk, racists or white supremacists. it's a sad state of the nation of free speech.

Indoctrinate You Is an Indoctrination

[fox-fairandbalanced-news · 1/10 · 13 April 2008]

Evan Coyne Maloney does a good job at distorting the reality of the situation. His brand of shockumentary, akin to Michael Moore(though on opposite sides of the belief spectrum) does more to prove to me that he doesn't want the truth, he wants to catch people off guard so as to portray them poorly.

If he truly wanted to get this very important topic to be recognized and talked about, there are ways of initiating that without barging into offices with a camera and a large microphone. It was meant to intimidate and throw off his interviewees, and that helps no one.

Much of the theoretical speech I agree with. Affirmative Action is just another way for the government and big business to keep us separate, and consuming. Hate fosters fear, which becomes consumption. And Evan Coyne Maloney does a grate job at fostering hate with his film, Indoctrinate U, which is obviously more of a conservative slant film than a truly free discourse of information.

Thank you for the Indoctrination.

"I know all about it" is all you need to know

[robertmike57 · 1/10 · 7 March 2009]

That was the opening statement by Evan Coyle Maloney, start with your conclusions, cull the information to find your agenda. This obscure documentary went to obscurity because it lives up to it's title to indoctrinate. I hope that a conservative that will make a documentary that is informative and not shrill preaching, but this documentary leaves me with only that hope.

This documentary has decided that colleges are censoring conservatives and proceeds to cherry pick a few excesses, attempts to make generalizations and ignores the concept there are other possibilities than bad evil liberals being the cause of censorship. Maloney attempts a few Michael Moore style ambush interviews, but quickly falls back to a boring lecture. This is partly a function of not having a budget, but is more of a function of being dishonest and lazy. I expect little from conservatives, but this was much less than little.

We've heard it all before

[jake_fantom · 1/10 · 13 October 2021]

More nonsensical twaddle from the radical far right, likely funded by one of the Koch brothers' many shell organizations. If you've got a room-temperature IQ and a collection of MAGA hats, you'll probably love it. If, like most reasonable people, you want to see an educational system that is not beholden to evangelicals, white supremacists, and greedy billionaires determined to rewrite American history, this will not be your cup of tea. Move along, nothing to see here, folks.