Directed by: Stacey Stone Written by: Stacey Stone , Diane Mellen Genre: Documentary |
The Golden Rule
Stacey Stone and Diane Mellen have created a documentary that could easily fit in with one of those on the History Channel or National Geographic. The Golden Rule is about conspiracy and cover-ups, toxic locations, and big business being directly responsible for making people sick. You know the story. Big companies doing dastardly things to make the big bucks, and not caring about the people affected by their decisions and lies. The Golden Rule is an hour of hard facts and sad stories that more than deserve to be told and heard over and over again.
Mainly telling the story of Santa Susana, California, The Golden Rule tells the story of the area that forever, it seems, was denied by officials to have any issues whatsoever. As the title of this film implies, and as explained in the film, The Golden Rule essentially means those with the gold make the rules. And it's all so true. There is a lot of good information in this 70-minute film, but it runs as more of a monologue as it's all pretty one-sided. The main place in question was a testing facility for NASA among other big names, and over the decades, has had some meltdowns that were denied. Denied to be of any significance anyhow. The film chronicles the numerous tests, including soil tests where everything was deemed safe and normal. But, it was all a lie bought and paid for by big business. It wasn't until the mid-2000s that the soil was finally and honestly declared unsafe. Keep in mind this had all been going on for decades. Stacey Stone even stages a sting operation of sorts. For the record, The Golden Rule is also a visually rich documentary. There was noticeable effort put into making a narrated-style documentary appealing to actually look at. It's also done well enough to tell and compliment the story. The very first scenes in The Golden Rule could easily describe the entire documentary. Visually, within the first few minutes. Of course, then you would be missing all the little pieces that form the narrative, but my point is the same. Stacey Stone hasn't forgotten this is a film to be watched, and not just listened to as you play with your phone. This was a pretty good film but also really sad. The crap that goes on in the world is very scary, but as long as filmmakers like Stacey Stone continue their work, there will always be a light at the end of the tunnel. I would have liked to have heard some of these jokers try and defend themselves, in this film, but I'm not surprised that didn't happen. Final thoughts? Good movie and a great way to spend an hour. |
