zeitgeist the movie all the world's a stage documentary truth

Zeitgeist, the Movie is a 2007 documentary film released online for free and on DVD, presenting Christianity, the attacks of 9/11, and the US Federal Reserve Bank as instruments in plots for social control and world domination.
Zeitgeist The Movie, Final Edition | English Subtitles

Part I, entitled "The Greatest Story Ever Told" questions religions as original god-given stories, arguing the Christian religion specifically is mainly derived from other religions, astronomical facts, astrological myths and traditions; in turn derived from or sharing elements with other ones. In furtherance of the Jesus myth hypothesis, this part argues that the historical Jesus is a literary and astrological hybrid, nurtured politically in the interest of control.
Horus, the Egyptian Sun God, is introduced as having a number of attributes similar to many other religious deities which came after him, including but not limited to Attis, Krishna, Dionysus, Mithra and Jesus Christ; these attributes including virgin birth on December 25th, 12 disciples, burial for 3 days, resurrection, and performing of miracles.
The film offers explanations for some of these common attributes. To explain the origin of the December 25 birth, the film points out that the Winter solstice has the shortest day, and therefore, the shortest amount of sunlight, of the year, and that about three days after it, sunlight time could be seen growing, thus marking the birth of a "God of light" or Sun God. Another Christian-astrological similarity, according to the film, is that the three stars in Orion's belt (called the "Three Kings") align with Sirius on December 25, the brightest star in the sky, and point to the Sun's rise on the horizon. This is equated to the Nativity of Jesus, where, according to the film, three "kings" follow the star in the east to locate the birth of Jesus. Furthermore, around December 25, Sun rises in the vicinity of Virgo, the constellation known as Virgin, which refers to the origin of Jesus' virgin birth. Comparison of sunset in the vicinity of Crux and Jesus' death on the cross is based on similar principle. In addition, parallels as walking on water (reflection at dawn/dusk) and turning water into wine (ripening of grapes) are shown as metaphoric miracles, explained as the influence of the Sun.
Christianity is then said to be a Gnostic myth, historized by the Roman Empire for social control of Europe through doctrines established at the First Council of Nicea. The Dark Ages, the Inquisitions and the Crusades are given as events which maintained Europe's submission to The Vatican through Christianity. The following is said in conclusion: "Christianity, along with all other theistic belief systems ... empowers those who know the truth, but use the myth to manipulate and control societies. ... It reduces human responsibility to the effect that "God" controls everything, and in turn awful crimes can be justified in the name of Divine Pursuit. ... The religious myth is the most powerful device ever created, and serves as the psychological soil upon which other myths can flourish."
Zeitgeist 2: Addendum, by Peter Joseph 2008 English Subtitles

Part II, entitled "All the World's a Stage," portrays the events of September 11th as either orchestrated or allowed to happen by criminal elements within the United States government in order to generate mass fear, initiate and justify the War on Terror, provide a pretext for the curtailment of civil liberties, and produce economic gain. According to the film, the U.S. government had advance knowledge about the September 11, 2001 attacks, the response of the military deliberately let the planes reach their targets, and the World Trade Center buildings underwent a controlled demolition. The film claims that six of the named hijackers are still alive, that Hani Hanjour could not have flown Flight 77 into the Pentagon, that no substantial plane wreckage was found at two of the three crash sites, that the Bush administration covered up the truth in the 9/11 Commission Report, and that the mainstream media have failed to ask important questions about the official account.
Part III, entitled "Don't Mind the Men Behind the Curtain", argues that the three main wars of the United States during the 20th century were waged purely for economic gain for an elite few. Events that the film alleges to be fraudulent or staged are the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, the Attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Gulf of Tonkin Incident; all occurrences which carried the U.S into the First World War, Second World War and Vietnam War respectively.

According to the film, the U.S. was forced by the Federal Reserve Bank to become embroiled in these wars not to win but to sustain conflict, as it forces its government to borrow more money from the bank, with interest attached, thereby increasing the nation's debt and the profits of those who own The Fed. The film gives a history of the Reserve, claiming it engineered the Great Depression to steal wealth from the American population and was responsible for the attempts to assassinate Louis McFadden, a congressman who attempted to impeach the Reserve.

This section also explores the possibility that there is a clandestine movement, promoted by the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, to usurp the American constitution and US dollar, by merging the United States, Canada and Mexico into a North American Union that uses a single currency, the Amero, without the ratification of Congress. This currency union would create a super-state similar to the European Union, which together with the African Union and the proposed Asian Union would gradually be merged into a One World government. The movie concludes that under such a government, every human could be implanted with an RFID microchip that would be used to monitor individuals and suppress dissent. The movie ends, however, on an optimistic note, expressing confidence in the possibility of overthrowing the unknown oppressive forces and the ultimate triumph of revolution through enlightenment.
Zeitgeist: Addendum premiered at the 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival in Los Angeles, California on October 2, 2008, winning their highest award. It was released free online on October 4, 2008. Director Peter Joseph stated: "The failure of our world to resolve the issues of war, poverty, and corruption, rests within a gross ignorance about what guides human behavior to begin with. It addresses the true source of the instability in our society, while offering the only fundamental, long-term solution. ". The film suggests actions for "social transformation", which include boycotts of the large banks that make up the Federal Reserve System, the mainstream media, the military, and energy companies. It is also suggested that people reject the political structure.
Zeitgeist III has been announced at official homepage to be released in October 2010.
info (c) wikipedia.org
zeitgeist the movie criticism:
Zeitgeist has been ignored by the media, with a few exceptions. References to it in the media are dismissive:

An article in the Irish Times, said that

"These are surreal perversions of genuine issues and debates, and they tarnish all criticism of faith, the Bush administration and globalisation - there are more than enough factual injustices in this world to be going around without having to invent fictional ones. One really wishes Zeitgeist was a masterful pastiche of 21st-century paranoia, a hilarious mockumentary to rival Spinal Tap. But it's just deluded, disingenuous and manipulative nonsense. ... If you pretend to know only truth, in truth you know only pretence."

An article in the weekly Seattle paper The Stranger, later reprinted in the Utne Reader magazine, said:

"It's fiction, couched in a few facts ... and it adds up to the worst kind of fear-mongering."

It also commented on the irony in the film's three-part structure by noting that

"It's fascinating, this structure. First the film destroys the idea of God, and then, through the lens of 9/11, it introduces a sort of new Bizarro God. Instead of an omnipotent, omniscient being who loves you and has inspired a variety of organized religions, there is an omnipotent, omniscient organization of ruthless beings who hate you and want to take your rights away, if not throw you in a work camp forever."

The Globe and Mail has also published a critical article about the movie, titled "Rejecting Conspiracy Thinking Keeps it Alive and Well," in which it is said that

"... this stuff ... it's all been thoroughly debunked for years. Evidently, debunking isn't the issue. ... Nor can you cite the findings of the professional, journalistic, and academic consensus to someone who's decided that having credibility means being under the sway of shadowy forces. ... for all the talk of skepticism, conspiracy counterculture is really an anti-intellectual, populist movement - much like Intelligent Design. For all their absurdity, conspiracy theorists try to drag everything back to the level of common sense. ... Did the collapsing buildings on 9/11 look like they were being demolished? Then they must have been demolished. Did the 757 that hit the Pentagon's blast-proof walls fail to make a plane-shaped hole? Then it must have been something else. Are there unexplained quirks in the official story? Then it must be the work of a higher power. ...Conspiracy theorists want to see ... a malevolent design behind events. The notion that calamity might be the unintended consequence of subtler causes doesn't hold the same appeal. Evil, whatever its other uses, drives a great narrative. Complexity, not so much."

The Village Voice mentioned Zeitgeist in passing in a review of the 2008 fiction film Able Danger in which the film critic sees an

"invocation of September 11 for the vaguely satirical purpose of tweaking conspiracy crap like that found in Zeitgeist: The Movie an Internet film that, like Krik's recent "Be Kanye" ads, went mega-viral last year"
info (c) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitgeist,_the_Movie