The best parts of the film are when it becomes more of a history lesson—for example, in a section counteracting false talking points about the United States always having been “a Christian nation” by pointing out that the government was, in fact, most certainly not based on The Ten Commandments, that George Washington didn’t pray in the snow at Valley Forge, that instituting prayer in schools happened during the 1950s panic over Communism, that the Bible has zero to say about abortion, that “In God We Trust” wasn’t added to currency until 1864, and that the rise of evangelical Christianity as a modern political force happened in the 1980s, largely as a backlash against government-mandated desegregation of schools in the ’60s and ’70s.
In the end, however, the unpleasant truth is that there’s not a lot to see here that you can’t absorb by going down a Wikipedia rabbit hole or watching “The Daily Show” or “Last Week Tonight” or Rachel Maddow. The quotes are chosen for maximum oomph and social media shareability. Among the more incendiary is by Greg Locke, pastor of Global Vision Bible Church, who tells his congregation, “If you vote Democrat, I don’t even want you around this church! You can get out, you demon! You can get out, you baby-butcherin’ election thief!”
The cascade of images intertwines with talking head interviews to produce an effect that’s probably a bit like watching 180 thirty-second Political Action Committee ads strung end-to-end. The soundtrack favors creepy/insinuating “Terrorists have planted bombs, will our heroes be able to find and defuse them in time?” sort of music, although there are a few warm, quieter passages of acoustic guitar and pizzicato strings (but only when the good guys are onscreen). It’s hard to imagine anything in it that might neutralize or overcome the countervailing diet offered by the likes of Fox News Channel, OANN, Alex Jones, or any one of the many local drive-time DJs in large cities who tell listeners that America is being invaded from the south by an army of rapists, terrorists and drug dealers.