The Revisionaries

Looking at one aspect of the continual evolution-vs.-creationism argument, The Revisionaries offers a snapshot of theocratic strategies for insinuating a right-wing Christian agenda into U.S. schools. Due to the sheer number of costly textbooks that Texas buys, publishers wind up kowtowing to the Texas State Board of Education, which wields enormous editorial power. The cameras follow board chairman Don McLeroy, a born again Christian dentist who considers himself well versed in science—Earth is less than 6,000 years old, and the Ark had room for dinosaurs, he says. Over protests by aghast Austin educators and scientists, McLeroy advocates for seemingly minor qualifiers against Darwinism in the state's textbook language—a precedent that also permits tweaks in the social studies texts, with much of the input coming from Cynthia Dubar, who teaches law at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. So, Thomas Jefferson is distanced from the humanist French Revolution, Ronald Reagan and the NRA are elevated, and there is a call for references to "country and western music" replacing "hip-hop" (never mind that Liberty University panders to prospective disciples with a rap recruiting video). Filmmaker Scott Thurman takes a fairly subtle approach, even giving the evangelicals more camera time than their opponents to talk about how they are spreading the Word against what they consider pernicious liberalism. A solid entry in the chronicles of the culture wars, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)