The House I Live In (2012)

Sick Product of a Sick System

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

This needs to be seen by every law officer, every judge, every college student and beyond. This is a VERY powerful documentary that doesn't just paint a black and white picture telling us that drugs are acceptable or that drugs are bad, it talks about the HUNDREDS of elements which make up the complex drug and prison system we know of today. Some of the top minds in the industry on both sides give the best and most insightful talks, this has really been an eye opening film for me.I wish I could mass produce this DVD for free and mail it to every citizen of the US. We need to change this system, it's broken and heading down a very scary path. Most people think that drugs and prisons don't affect them so why bother with the issue, you couldn't be any more wrong. Thousands of times a day the authorities are searching people and seizing property without due process, many times never finding anything. A man was killed after a raid and nothing was found. This IS RELEVANT TO ALL CITIZENS OF America. The Constitution is our savings grace, don't let it burn to ash along with your freedom. Please watch this, even if you don't agree with everything, I feel like you can still learn something and apply it to your community and the ballet box to make a positive change in the right direction.

If you want to watch a film that is completely biased against the "war on drugs," then this is the film for you. The director banged his drum for two hours about how awful it is that we have mandatory minimums for drugs and so many people in jail who shouldn't be but spent exactly zero time on exploring what would happen if we eased up our drugs laws and sprung hundreds of thousands of drug dealers loose back into society. The reason is that it would not be pretty and I am quite happy having these people locked up.The movie also used several absurdly false statements by interviewees that never should have been included in the film. The first one was when one interviewee wrongly stated that one could have two prior drug convictions, have a traffic offense and then would get a mandatory life sentence under three strikes and you are out. That simply is false and it was beyond disturbing that this false statement made the final cut into the film. Another patently false statement was made by the guy who claimed that you could have $5,000 in your car, get pulled over by the police for no reason, not get charged with a crime but nonetheless lose your $5,000 to the police under civil forfeiture laws. This is beyond ridiculous and simply false. Why did this preposterous statement make it into the film??? I also had next to no sympathy for most of the inmates who were interviewed. Why should we feel sorry for the drug dealer in Vermont who is in jail and upset that he can't see his daughter he had with his girlfriend (not wife)??? If his future daughter were that important to him, he probably should have thought twice about being a drug dealer and taken a job at his local fast food restaurant. Even the Columbia professor was a disgrace. If he wants people to take him seriously, why does he wear his hair like a typical rasta? Is it surprising that he has a mystery kid who winds up being a drug dealer?

No matter what side of the drug war your on even if you want legalization or the total ban of all drugs, one thing for sure it's an interesting and tough topic that splits many. "The House I Live In" the eye opening new documentary from Eugene Jarecki looks at the many sides of U.S. drug policy and how it interacts and feeds off one another from the street dealer to the narcotics officer to the inmate and federal judge. It's true that the use of illegal drugs has destroyed many countless lives, yet still the media, and political people have overblown the drug problem into a money making business. Making the jobs of law enforcement employees very hard as much of their focus is now on fighting drugs instead of trying to solve more important crimes like murder. And the lock up rate has grown crazy as the U.S. now has 25% of the world's prison population. It's an easy game lock up someone quick and easy for a drug possession crime and spend more tax payer money build more prisons and more lock ups as prison and crime is now a money making machine that makes a job for someone. As evidenced from the correctional officer that was interviewed during this doc.Even more revealing is how Eugene Jarecki examines the history of drugs and how it's always been more the case that the poor and those that are black will be arrested for drug crimes. It's clear that many that live in a race and culture of downtrodden ridden history and black have simply became a statistical number for law enforcement to arrest. All while politicians on both side profit and get fat from fighting the drug war. Clearly they don't understand they need to stop locking people up for small drug offenses to save prison space for more serious criminals. Overall good doc that questions the way we are handling business in fighting the drug war it's educational and thought provoking no matter what your stance on the drug policy is.

The House I Live In is a very informative work of advocacy that's only thinly masquerading as a documentary. It's a more reformed, nuanced version of a Michael Moore piece that has a clear point of advocacy aimed squarely at whatever practical center still exists. It doesn't hit you over the head with a message or misleading facts but squarely lets you arrive at the conclusion that the drug war has failed. It's not an anti-corporate rant with a clear villain to rally against. I left thinking that there was enough material and story there to easily fill a mini-series or a Ken Burns style documentary without getting preachy or creating fatigue.It has enlightening and entertaining moments, but there are many flaws in the storytelling. Many characters are introduced, many of which with too much or not enough background, and seem to float around their promised purpose without really landing at a point or purpose. (Given the ending theme of the work, perhaps this is intentional.)David Simon's incredibly powerful monologues bring a saving grace to moments in the film that tend to struggle, especially moments where the director awkwardly inserts himself into the film.Unlike a lot of similar works, you could probably take your Republican parents to see it without the evening being automatically ruined. Unlike almost every other advocacy piece I've seen, it achieves its goal of starting a conversation, rather than ending one.