Unplanned (2019)

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Unplanned is a prophetic name, as I had no real intentions of seeing it. But after Twitter blocked them (since removed), movie labels wouldn't license songs, most TV stations refused their benign advertising, and it was unfairly given an R rating, I knew I had to see what was the Citizen Kane of our day. (Remember the studios/powerful tried to block Orsen Welles from telling the truth as well, even in allegory form). Here, take my money! Gosnell last year and Unlplanned this year are probably the most important movies of the year, not because I agree with everything in them (I'm pro-choice), or they're the best production (they aren't), but they tell powerful, mostly true stories that the rich, powerful and intolerant want to suppress. And if you hate bullies, you want to see the little guy succeed, even if you're not 100% in agreement with their message. That and it's a pretty good story, and I want to see the best arguments the other side can make to challenge myself/my beliefs -- so whichever side you're on, you should see it to be informed. But of course, that view is not for everyone.


Spoilers required to talk about the movie. But I think most pretty much knew the plot by the teasers, or the title.

Unplanned is a true story, based on the memoir of the same name by Abby Johnson, a Director of Planned Parenthood, who was named Employee of the Year. Then she had to help with an ultrasound-guided abortion at thirteen weeks gestation. After Johnson witnessed the fetus struggling for its life as it is dismembered by an abortionist's cannula, she resigns, becoming an anti-abortion activist, and founds a ministry to assist former Planned Parenthood employees turned anti-abortion after their own experiences.

Christian films normally have a quality slightly above Lifetime movies. Kind of OK acting, some not-so-polished spots of dialog, second tier music/audio, and a bit heavy handed on the hero-villain roles -- usually with pretty good messages and nice but predictable stories. (Said from the PoV of an atheist/agnostic). But they're getting quite a bit better, and this was one of the best I've seen.

I've studied quite a bit on Abortion over the decades, starting with my first letter to the editor in the early 80's -- and the truth is The Left Lies. There's a balance, and I'm kind of in the middle for complex reasons: I support 1st and 2nd, but oppose 3rd trimester, I want PP to exist but don't think the public should have to subsidize them, I want my daughter and other women to have the choice -- and would support/love them either way, but would be more proud if they chose the harder path. But the truth is, if the public knew the truth, they would be more conservative than they are -- or I am. (My wife is). So since the truth doesn't align with the leftists agenda, they have to lie. Plus, you get what you incentivize: and Planned Parenthood is incentivized by getting more women to have abortions, not less. So while their PR says they're about requiring less abortions, anyone who has looked into it, read their financials, or seen undercover videos about PP, knows that's not their primary motive. While I support their existence, I also support the other side getting to point out these truths about them -- and they make the tobacco and oil companies look honest.

Thus, the movie is a bit heavy handed in having the callous corporate execs, it throws out a lot of the cliché's of the right's views of their motives (which aren't exactly untrue), it shows all the Christians as the good kind, it also shows the truth that the majority of pro-lifers are not the few obnoxious ones that the media and PP uses to paint the whole movement, and so on. While the left will whine about some of those oversimplifications -- they'll do it while using their own broad brush to hate-label everyone who disagrees with them, in worse ways than the movie does. The truth is the movie is no more heavy handed than a Stone, Cameron, Clooney or Aflek film, or much that comes out of Hollywood. While that's not a high bar, this cleared it by quite a bit -- so me thinks thou doth protest too much. So it could have been a bit more subtle -- but this is a story about a Norma Rae who was sued and bullied for not towing the leftist line. And once you are attacked unjustly, I expect the victims story gets a bit more one-sided.

Hypocrisy

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  1. MPAA Rated-R - While the movie has a couple of mildly graphic scenes like blood dripping down a girl's legs, it's nowhere near the blood or gore of many video games or PG-13 war movies. Think about the irony that a 14 year old girl can get an abortion without her parents consent -- but she can't see a movie because it depicts one through the fuzzy lens of an ultrasound? You can show graphic sex, violence, degradation, murder and mayhem and get a PG-13 rating, but if you show a truth that the left doesn't like, they'll try to narrow your audience with an artificial-R? That's pretty fucked up. If course I don't mind it, as most kids should probably see this with their parents -- but hypocrisy irks me.
  1. The same with Record labels that would support songs/artists like Cop-Killer, or that sing about rape and the denigration of Women... but they wouldn't license Cyndi Lauper, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", or Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party"? Again, that kind of bullshit hypocrisy does trigger my ass. Makes me feel better about any bootleg copies of music I got/made as a teen!
  1. And as usual, the Reviews are biased. They scored it 53%, while audiences are scoring it at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. Either that means the Reviewers are out of touch, or they're polemics -- either says more about the Reviewers than the audience, if you ask me. Of course the audiences are self-selecting this movie based on their open/close mindedness on the topic -- but the Reviews are demonstrating which side of that spectrum they're on, and it isn't the open minded side. Obviously.

Conclusion

I liked it, because it completes the story. You hear the leftist propaganda by every Women's protestor, and the media all the time. You are indoctrinated with it in Jr. High School (or at least I was). The leftist view of the topic is everywhere... so if you want to be firm in your convictions you need to be able to hear the other side's best shot. And this was one of them: more valuable because of the rarity of the voice.

Will it change many minds? Probably not. My views are cemented based on a lifetime of mulling over the costs and consequences of both sides -- and 1 hour 50 minutes isn't going to change that. But I like that they got their say, and they were far more eloquent in what they said, and how they said it, than my side usually us. Though, the far left has so left me behind with these until the moment of birth bills and extremism like that, that I'm not sure I have a side any more.

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