Noam Chomsky: Rebel Without a Pause

Koko: He may not look like much, but that man there could cause you to explode just by thinking it. Which brings me to my point: a documentary about the greatest mind of the second half of the twentieth century does its subject no service by assembling a bunch of people to tell Chomsky how freakin' smart he is. What about his increasingly complex views on Zionism? His utter lack of humor? His weirdo reflex against meaning? His tireless campaign to destroy every living body that disagrees with him? Noam Chomsky is a fascinating character. Here, he's just a character. If we made a movie about Plato, would we load it with infatuated Greek boys, insert a shot of a lone olive tree, and then rest complacently on our Platonic laurels? No, we would find the dead, bloated body of Socrates, dig it up, and stage a death match at the Acropolis. Plenty of people hate Chomsky; I'm sure we can drag our sorry asses out to Berkeley, stick a microphone in front of George Lakoff, and let the bad blood flow. Weak stuff, guys. Noamolatry is boring.