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Strange Dominion
Video and Documentary Reviews
Dark Secrets: Inside the Bohemian Grove by Alex Jones
opinion: a boring waste of time
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Alex Jones claims on his webpage that once a year a the bizzare pagan ritual takes place. He names various world leaders as having participated, such as both Bush presidents, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Colin Powell, and Henry Kissenger.

While it is true that something secretive and strange happens once a year in the forest at Bohmenian Grove in California, the video itself reveals that something happens to be far more silly than sinister, despite the claims of the director. Over an hour of badly edited material makes up the bulk of the video. The first part is comprised of the team video taping themselves goofing off at their hotel room and around town. They reveal that they have no actual plan about how to infiltrate the meeting. They try to goad locals into speculating about what actually happens at the Grove, but few are willing to play along, and those that are have to be fed ideas such as references to the ancient god Moloch and the word "nekkid." For as many times as Jones uses the word "nekkid" one might wonder why he didn't include it in the title. About forty-eight minutes into the video the team records a snail crawling across their picnic table. The snail which serves no symbolic purpose stars in several minutes of the footage. When the video is almost over, Jones and a friend finally sneak into the meeting.

Using the word "sneak" is maybe too kind. The pair seem to be very bad at acting normal and nearly get caught several times. In the end they actually manage to get video footage of a bizarre play which consists of very bad poetry and obscure references to Tyre. However the references seem to be sprinkled into an otherwise campy display just for mood. Indeed, no one ever disrobes, and there is no sign of worshiping or satanism at all. Bagpipes play and a very old fashioned singing suggest that this play was originally produced in the forties or earlier.

I'd like to give Jones more credit, because he clearly has guts. And I respect the fact that he went to such much trouble to investigate something himself. But in the end, I felt that the poor editing and misleading slant of his dialogue was insulting to the viewer. It would have been bad enough to present this video for free without editing, but to charge money for it seems absolutely ridiculous.