Taking Liberties (2007)

Director:

Chris Atkins

Writer:

Chris Atkins (writer)

Release Date:

8 June 2007 (UK)

Genre:

Documentary

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

David Morrissey	...	Narrator (voice)
Ashley Jensen	...	Narrator (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kate Allen	...	Herself - Director - Amnesty International
Ross Anderson	...	Himself - Cambridge University
Moazzam Begg	...	Himself - Former Guantanmo Detainee
Tony Benn	...	Himself
David Bermingham	...	Himself - Natwest 3
Emma Bermingham	...	Herself - Wife of David
Tony Blair	...	Himself (archive footage)
David Blunkett	...	Himself
Phil Booth	...	Himself - NO2ID Coordinator
Brendan	...	Himself - Father of Ellen & Rose
Malcolm Carroll	...	Himself - Baptist Minister
John Catt	...	Himself
Linda Catt	...	Herself - Daughter of John
Shami Chakrabarti	...	Herself
Chris	...	Himself - Peace Campaigner
Kenneth Clarke	...	Himself
Lydia D'Agostino	...	Herself - Solicitor
Amani Deghayes	...	Herself
John Denham	...	Himself (archive footage)
Des	...	Herself - Retired Headmistress
Maya Evans	...	Herself (also archive footage)
Frances	...	Herself - Mother of Ellen & Rose
Stephen Grey	...	Himself
Stephanie Harrison	...	Herself - Barrister
Helen	...	Herself
Jennifer	...	Herself - Retired Headmistress
Boris Johnson	...	Himself
Mohammed Abdul Kahar	...	Himself (archive footage)
Abul Koyair	...	Himself (archive footage)
Jane Laporte	...	Herself
Timothy Lawson Cruttenden	...	Himself - Solicitor
Sarah Ludford	...	Herself (as Baroness Sarah Ludford)
Michael Mansfield	...	Himself (as Michael Mansfield QC)
Dr. David Nicholl	...	Himself
Chief Superintendent Barry Norman	...	Himself
Rachel North	...	Herself
Henry Porter	...	Himself - Novelist / Observer Columnist
Milan Ray	...	Himself (also archive footage)
Toby Rhodes	...	Himself - Splash Clothing
Richard	...	Himself - Peace Campaigner
Ellen Rickford	...	Herself
Rose Rickford	...	Herself
Philippe Sands	...	Himself (as Philippe Sands QC)
Michael Scheuer	...	Himself
Clare Short	...	Herself
Clive Stafford Smith	...	Himself - Lawyer
Sylvia	...	Herself
Mark Thomas	...	Himself
John Tulloch	...	Himself
Walter Wolfgang	...	Himself (also archive footage)
Zorha Zewawi	...	Herself

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

S2S Productions

Soundtrack:

Sweet Dreams

Interesting account of the loss of civil liberty's under the Blair leadership.

Chris Atkins Documentary carrys some interesting accounts of the erosion of civil liberty's in great Britain, some of it I've seen before, such as the use of control orders on entirely innocent people and also the banning of protests outside the house of commons, though there is certainly a lot to focus on and even get you angry in certain parts. Taking a Michael Moore esquire approach with the use of archive footage, from silent films and also a cynical yet witty narration (provided by actors David Morrisey and Ashley Jensen), some have described the film as our version of Fahrenheit 9/11, which it is'nt as that film set out to show the incompetence of George W Bush, TAKING LIBERTIES exposes the fundamentally flawed and fear mongering policy of the British government led under Blair, to slowly erode civil liberty's and bring in new laws and change existing laws, that eventually let pensioners on peaceful protests become arrested under the terrorism act, putting them in the same league as Taliban extremists, destroying the right to protest outside of military basis', weapons factory's and the house of commons itself, and causing the police to swoop in vast numbers on anyone even thinking of waving a placard and most disturbingly of all putting control orders on Muslims who have been convicted in a court of law, as innocent and forcing them to remain in a designated area and effectively making them prisoners in there own home. The film approaches this in light hearted at times yet essentially serious manner, and my only criticism of it is that I would have liked to have more views on the other side of the coin, from the politicians who implement these laws, to at least argue there point, though in retrospect, probably no politician would want to appear in front of the camera for this film for fear of embarrassing themselves. Will civil liberty's change under Gordon Brown now that Blair has left, it's hard to tell and if your like me, i'm cynical and think, no, nothing will probably change, if you have a threat of terror, the best way to assure the public is to keep this threat up and then the public will be behind any change in law as long as it stops the extremists from blowing us up (see Adam Curtis' documentary series THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES to get a full picture on the use of terror and fear). Though one thing we can do, and in many respects the one prevailing factor in LIBERTIES is to keep a chin up and laugh at the absurdity of it all.