Brexit: The Movie

Brexit: The Movie

2016, Politics  -   39 Comments
7.06
12345678910
Ratings: 7.06/10 from 163 users.

Should Britain stay in or exit the European Union? On June 23, 2016, voters can voice which side of the issue they fall on when they take part in a public referendum. In the lead-up to this crucial vote, the new feature-length documentary titled Brexit: The Movie poses an emphatic and persuasive argument for leaving the EU.

A collaboration between 28 European countries, the EU began in the aftermath of World War II. Back then, it was largely viewed as a noble endeavor designed to enhance economic stability and peaceful interests across the continent. But increasing opposition contends that the EU has become nothing but a corrupt and all-powerful political tool which effectively works against the will of the very people it should serve. In their view, the EU proposes and passes new laws and regulations which negatively impact ordinary citizens while benefiting the bureaucrats and select few corporations who remain beyond reproach.

The film explores the formation and make-up of the EU, the lack of transparency and accountability in their operations, the plight of industries and individuals who have struggled under their rule, and warns of their capacity for creating economic calamity, inefficient living conditions, and barriers to advantageous trade deals with other regions throughout the globe.

What would a move away from the EU mean for Britain? The film travels to Switzerland, a country that has steadfastly refused to join the EU, to find the answer. What the filmmakers discover is a country steeped in growing wealth, decreasing unemployment, and a quality of life many steps improved from their neighboring countries. The Swiss believe that their good fortunes are almost entirely a by-product of abstaining from the EU.

Brexit recognizes the EU referendum as one of the most consequential votes the citizens of Britain are likely to cast in their lifetime. After all, it's been more than 40 years since the fate of the organization was in the hands of the citizens. According to the film and its many interview subjects, the first and most egregious casualty of continued EU reign is democracy itself.

Directed by: Martin Durkin

More great documentaries

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

39 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
j smith
j smith
2 years ago

If we had still been in the EU at this stage in 2021 we would have had no vaccines and we would be lock down for eternity.

Leviticus
Leviticus
3 years ago

London isn't less "corrupt" than the EU. You make deals, some are more grey-ish than others. That's how politics works. Everywhere. All I see is grasping for exuses why the UK doesn't want to be part of a civilized, peacefull Europe. So it can still have the option to "Francis Drake" whenever they feel to. If that's the case then it's really better for you guys to leave us.

MkG
MkG
3 years ago

The EU is a corrupt organization. As a historian who specializes in the study of the Serbian Holcouast I am frankly flabbergasted at how the EU turns a blind eye to Croatia's human rights failures which include the government of Croatia giving pensions to Ustasha members at least up until 2015. Croatia has not made it illegal to deny the Serbian Holocaust. Meanwhile Austria has just banned Bleiburg and is in the works to ban Ustasha glorification. It is not illegal to publish revisionist materials about the Holocaust in Croatia. It's very clear that Croatia isn't just turning a blind eye but is embracing their war criminals. The EU permits this to happen. Croatia hasn't punished their war criminals instead they celebrate them! This was done by Franjo Tudman in 1999. There are streets named after Ustasha members. The Ustasha are responsible for the brutal torture and murder of 1 million people including predominantly Serbs but Jews and Romas as well. The EU is extremely corrupt for allowing a country with colossal human rights failures to be permitted in their sham of an organization. The EU should be disintegrated; it is too self serving and corrupt to serve any useful or just purpose.

Lucian
Lucian
4 years ago

It's pure brain wash! I can't believe this documentary was made to serve the Leavers. Not only the other side of the story is omitted on purpose, but it's full of lies. Yeah, the future of UK will be perfect after 31st of October, nobody to blame for all the bad things. In the last 3 years I saw how the MPs handled the Brexit, it's the same brilliant minds who will bring a prosperous future. Can't wait to see the miracle!

Simon Othen
Simon Othen
5 years ago

please google the producer and writer of this before you watch it, he is biased and has made other crazy inacurate films such as "The Great Global Warming Swindle" and "Against Nature
In 1997, Channel 4 broadcast Durkin's documentary series Against Nature, which criticized the environmental movement for being a threat to personal freedom and for crippling economic development" .... not a person to be trusted for the truth

Simon Othen
Simon Othen
5 years ago

too biased, goodbye

Barfbaby
Barfbaby
5 years ago

First, this movie does not pretend to adopt a balanced view. It is a highly professional and, be it said, largely valid polemic against the EU. Criticism based on the idea that only rich people benefit if the UK leaves ignores the enormous resources poured into the 'Remain' campaign. £9mil was provided by the UK government alone!

The essential and undeniable defect of the EU is that law and regulation in the EU is designed and debated by a closed bureaucracy. I haven't seen a single Remain justification for this or even an acknowledgement of it. MEPs, supposedly our Members of Parliament at the EU Parliament, have no power to propose, amend or reject legislation. What sort of parliament is that? The setup is frankly antidemocratic, as demonstrated clearly and repeatedly by this excellent film.

Remainers constantly accuse Leavers of telling lies - what of their own? Sovereignty doesn't matter, you won't be able to trade without trade agreements, we'll lose our main market, the UK will become isolated, the EU brought peace to Europe after WWII &c &c. People should have the power to remove from office those who impose taxes and regulations or laws upon them. Trade goes on irrespective of trade agreements, and the EU can't even organize trade agreements. The UK is the EU's largest market, not the other way round. The EU encourages the Little European mentality, setting trade and customs barriers against the rest fo the world. And it is NATO, not the EU that has been guarantor of peace in Europe since WWII - just look at the EU's handling of the tragic collapse of the former Yugoslavia.

If you want to set up a small or medium sized business, the EU will drown you in regulation. We in the UK need to deregulate - we can manage our own Health and Safety legislation perfectly well and led the world in introducing it from the 19th Century onwards.

Finally, the UK is not leaving Europe! We are leaving the bureaucratic nightmare and economic basket case that is the EU. We love our European neighbours and wish them well. Breaking the EU stranglehold would do nothing but good for them.

DustUp
DustUp
6 years ago

Why would anyone want another layer of govt dictating how they live? Let alone a distant govt bureaucrat who could care less about them. Collectivism is for the benefit of the rulers, not the people, despite all they propagandize to the opposite.

When you are to sacrifice for the good of the many, and the many are doing the same, who then benefits from all that sacrifice? The ruling class benefits. The banksters and puppetmasters benefit. The multinational corporations they own benefit. You lose; unless of course you are at some nice level with one of those, and you don't mind screwing everyone else.

Each country of the EU had to sell out the best interests of their people to foreign interests. The reason for Brexit is the same reason for Trump. Prior presidents and congress sold out the usa people to foreign interests, jobs moved to Asia because the banksters wanted to weaken the usa, to make it much less, and they succeeded. Those presidents and congress were part of the New World Ogre. EU is part of the New World Ogre. The major media owned by the banksters is part of the New World Ogre. Which is COMMUNISM. Good for Rockefellers, Rothschilds, Warburgs, Morgans, etc. who want you to be their slaves. And most already are. They truly must enjoy being slaves to the banksters since they desire more of the same by voting to stay in the EU.

Is the EU good for Greece? For Spain? For Italy? They all must leave in order to have relief from stupid bureaucratic rule making things worse for them. What of Germany, France, Sweden, and any country that allowed their leaders to usher in the muslim pillage and rapists? If they fail to boot them out along with the muslim hoarde designed to keep the masses in fear and distracted from what the rulers are doing to them, then what can they expect? Good things or more bad?

Emma
Emma
6 years ago

As someone who actually does know all the ins and outs about the European Union, I can tell you that a lot of this information is incorrect. Yes, you might say EU officials make too much money and the way it functions isn't always effective. And yes, while representing 28 countries together it is harder to make your voice heard compared to national level. But there are some good reasons behind its structure and the European officials we can elect do actually have quite some power! I bet most of these people do not know they can even vote to elect their representatives in the EU or refuse to. If this is the case please don't complain about not having a say of what happens at EU level.

TheOtherGuy
TheOtherGuy
7 years ago

Got to say That it has a lot of parody in this movie. You get same results if you ask on the street who was 'Anne Boleyn' probably only few will know. STUPID DOCUMENTARY

billrob
billrob
7 years ago

Excellent film exposing the truth about what's really going on behind the closed doors of the ruling class elitists and their banking/corporate masters. If people actually paid attention and knew what was going on here in the US with the AU plans there'd be some lynching demanded. Nobody seemed to notice that the first thing President Obama did after the Brexit was to meet with the president of Mexico & the Canadian Prime minister I guess for reassurances on their closed door deal to sell out their sovereignty & people completely to the string pulling puppet masters.

Michael
Michael
7 years ago

I have been studying the EU in college for the past 3 years and most of the so called facts they lay out are not only wrong but also intentionally misguiding. They also leave out every gain the EU has had over the UK, and because they know that painting both sides of the picture would inevitably result in a documentary for staying in the EU.

Watch John Oliver's Last Week Tonight Show for an episode on the Brexit Matter with proper facts and statistics which puts parts of this documentary to shame.

Michael Ridley
Michael Ridley
7 years ago

It's just as well the Great British public didn't listen to the politicians and all the doom and gloom merchants.Iam so extatic and overjoyed we showed them all what the ordinary man and woman can achieve if we stick together.Thank you the great British public. Well most of you xxxxxxx.

Green
Green
7 years ago

mimilu, Peace is nothing to be sneered at, but it also isn't the only value worth considering. Had the Nazis been unopposed they would have brought a peaceful Europe. Horrible, murderous, oppressive, genocidal, yes, but peaceful. In comparison to that nightmare, the EU is a delight. Unfortunately, it is also a regulatory nightmare that threatens to make a profit of Kafka. I can understand those who wish to exit. It is my hope that the Brexit will bring needed reforms and accountability within the EU as well.

mimilu
mimilu
7 years ago

Even tough Swiss may believe they are not part of the EU, they have a very elaborate set of negotiations and deals with the community for it to participate in the unified market. Those agreements took Switzerland (and Norway, and Iceland, and Canada) decades to negotiate and compromises were made. The mistake Brexit voters made was the assumption that the EU would just give the UK the same set of deals right away without asking for anything in return to benefit the Union. GB had the best deal among all the Eu countries (no Schengen, strong currency) and, as a founder member and the winner of WWII, had one of the strongest voices within the Union. Now they have just kissed all that goodbye. They have lost all their privileges and will have to start renegotiating each deal with the EU from a much lower ground. Also, just one of the many things that were not taken into consideration, they will have to rewrite and approve all the regulations that were previously made in the European Union over the past 40+ years. This will not only stall the government for a very long time, but in the event of recession and economical difficulties, workers and citizen might see all the rights and benefits taken away. It's true that the EU was somehow strict and somehow unbalanced regarding economic matters but also guaranteed unprecedented level of freedom and protection for his citizen regarding human rights, civil rights and so on. Before the EU we had Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Salazar... we were killing each other in the most atrocious wars. The EU gifted us with the longest peace time in European history. I believe that is a very high price to pay.

Luyang
Luyang
7 years ago

It is really funny that the doc claims Brexit is for the future of the country and next generation, while most of young people chose to stay and most of old people chose to leave.

Rivas
Rivas
7 years ago

I am from India and I may not be the best person to gauge this documentary. But watching this documentary, I feel that this looks too one sided. And I am also not so sure if the facts given in this are entirely true or not.

I have a friend who is owning a startup in Britain. From the documentary, my initial feeling was that supporting Brexit was positive for him. But he says that it is not true. One, there are no hassles in creating a startup in Britain ("It's super easy", he quotes). In fact, he is against the opting out of EU stating that now laborers from other places (after Britain opts out of EU) are more difficult to hire.

Another friend who is in the financial domain says that this is more likely a move by Britain to not follow the dictum of Germany (he might be a victim of prejudice and if you say it isnt so, then it probably isnt so). He feels that the move out of EU is triggered by 3 main factors:

1. Cultural - As with every globalization phenomenon, Britain feels that its culture is being eroded.

2. Shift of immigrants into Britain economy - The staggering number of migrants from other lesser economies in Europe were displacing jobs in Britain.

3. British's want of independence from Europe (and Germany's) orders - Britain has a rich historical past and they do not identify with the rest of Europe. Germany who was on the losing end of WW2 was actually a more stronger economy and Britain resents this.

JayJay
JayJay
7 years ago

We are slowly moving towards slave labour, wages and jobs that unions have worked for, for decades are being slowly eroded and it's the labour force who won't be able to compete, to the point where minimum wages will be lower and lower and so will standards of living. Why do we earn so much more than Chinese workers? Of course corps are pushing to remove these protections.

JayJay
JayJay
7 years ago

Why did they leave out the most important reason for protectionism? Jobs. EU consumers won't be able to buy these imports if they don't have jobs. Of course, we see the removal of protections and then a long line of unemployed, did anyone see through this propaganda? They are protecting jobs, not corporations.

Anna Longobardo
Anna Longobardo
7 years ago

I need to study this more! But frankly I see no reason for Great Britain to stay in the EU. But I need to continue reading ! But i am an American so I need to understand why
any Englishman would answer in the POSITIVe !

David
David
7 years ago

Excellent documentary,i hope it receives a lot of views,but i fear David Cameron's 'a scare a day will keep the brexit away'will sway the vote.

David Dos Passos
David Dos Passos
7 years ago

My bullshit meter has been ringing off the hook, it seems to have lots of assumptions and speculation and very little facts. What little facts it has seem to be manipulated in order to ONLY show their point without providing explanations. it's like "here look at Switzerland they're not in the EU and they're doing great!! get out of the EU and we will do great too!!!" if this isn't a single cause fallacy I don't know what is...

joe
joe
7 years ago

How has the mighty fallen!! Who would have thought that the mighty empire once known as the British Empire would cease to exist in the 21st century. Now we will read about this once powerful nation in textbooks. I say its Karma, let the colonization of Britain continue, let them be just a byword.

Drew
Drew
7 years ago

Just in case you all haven't noticed, a very one-sided nationalist view. The Leave party is by the rich for the rich, using scare tactics on the working class. Be sure to hear out the Stay party before voting!

ben
ben
7 years ago

A lot of us have already voted by post...!

Michael Fanning
Michael Fanning
7 years ago

This was indeed eye opening! My father was born in Glasgow and was very well educated in economics. I wish he were alive to hear the latest on all that is going on at the present moment . I believe the EU is not a good situation for the UK to stay in.

Michael
Michael
7 years ago

Frankly all the "debate" is risible. If the establishment has decided UK will remain in the EU, nothing's going to change. Probably the barrage of brain-conditioning propaganda will be enough to ensure the "right" vote from voters led like sheep. But even if not they will ignore it and "negotiate" a few more cosmetic "reforms" to firm up Cameron's farcical party-political scheme and do another referendum until they get the "right" result. It would not surprise me if they even fiddled the figures. No doubt 50% plus for out but a bare majority of votes cast for in.

Cedric B
Cedric B
7 years ago

This was eye-opening! I wonder how many people will get to see it before voting? It would be good to see a "stayin" version to get a balanced view.

User1
User1
7 years ago

Yes, it would have been nice to hear the other side of the story. Great to see that the UK is all about "fair and balanced". :-))

Frances
Frances
7 years ago

According to various sources, the EU is/was a CIA construct.

cindy dickinson
cindy dickinson
7 years ago

so true, this needs to be widely broadcast before its too late, I dread our future for our children if this 'scandal' is to continue.

eddy
eddy
7 years ago

The future of western civilization depends on the U.K.'s vote to LEAVE the E.U.
My biggest fear would be the E.U. leadership (along with British Parliament in favor of remaining in the E.U.) not honoring a vote favoring an EXIT, either by a corrupt count, or just a flat-out denial of a vote to exit...

Ant
Ant
7 years ago

Geez, talk about balanced opinion for a an informed choice! Hard to believe the EU ever got off the ground!