Documentary taxes credibility
By Phil Villarreal
pvillarreal@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.05.2006
Watch "America: Freedom to Fascism" and you no longer have to file your taxes!
Well, actually, nobody has to pay their taxes, according to the documentary, which says there's no law on the books that gives the government the authority to collect income tax. The catch is the IRS doesn't care and will seize all your property and possibly throw you in jail if you refuse to pay.
Talk about a buzzkill.
That doesn't faze Aaron Russo, a Hollywood producer who hit it big in the 1980s ("Trading Places," "Rude Awakening") and hadn't had a credit since 1991. It seems Russo has spent the time doing a lot of research and getting very, very angry.
"Freedom to Fascism" starts off as a humorous exposé on a legal loophole — that most Americans aren't technically required to file income-tax returns. Russo's research is intriguing. He contends, for example, that the Federal Reserve is a privately owned bank granted the authority to print money with no backing whatsoever.
It doesn't take long for Russo to start beating a dead tax code. He repeats his points again and again, and he squanders his credibility by going off on tangents about plans for a one-world government and the potentially dire consequences of national identification cards. You brace yourself and wonder if Russo will say reptilefolk who live underground were responsible for Hurricane Katrina.
Lizard people would have been an entertaining alternative to the ending he goes with — a copious series of textblock slides inciting viewers to rise up and rage against the machine. The only "rising up" his slides will inspire is for viewers to walk out of the theater.
