Film Review: ‘The Great Awakening’

Michael Clark
6/6/2023
Updated:
1/5/2024
The third and perhaps not the last installment in the “Plandemic” series, “The Great Awakening” from director Mikki Willis goes over a great deal of information found in the previous two films, “Plandemic” and “Indoctornation.” However, it also includes reams of backstory, suggesting that the seeds of the 2020 COVID-19 scare were planted decades ago, and that this was only a single facet in the diabolical and sinister effort on the part of a very few to create a uniparty called the New World Order (NWO).

A former member of the Bernie Sanders “Bernie Bros” brigade, Willis, like so many (but still not enough) of those on the far left, began to realize that he was being led astray and so made a huge ideological about-face.

Teaming up with Informed Consent Action Network founder and CEO Del Bigtree (who wrote and produced the 2016 film “Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe”), Willis spends nearly half of the 116-minute running time connecting what has been transpiring for the last three years to events dating back as far as 1949 with the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

It Started With Mao

Two of the first things that CCP leader Mao Zedong implemented were framing “obedience” as “virtue” and asexualizing the populace. This “nongendering” called for males and females to have identical hairstyles and wear the same unflattering uniforms.
Red Guards, high school and university students, on parade in June 1966 in Beijing. The Red Guards went on a rampage in Chinese towns, terrorizing people, particularly older ones. (Jean Vincent/AFP via Getty Images)
Red Guards, high school and university students, on parade in June 1966 in Beijing. The Red Guards went on a rampage in Chinese towns, terrorizing people, particularly older ones. (Jean Vincent/AFP via Getty Images)
A poster in 1966 in a Beijing street, featuring how to deal with a so-called enemy of the people. Mao Zedong used young people as the Red Guards to enforce his policies. (Jean Vincent/AFP/Getty Images)
A poster in 1966 in a Beijing street, featuring how to deal with a so-called enemy of the people. Mao Zedong used young people as the Red Guards to enforce his policies. (Jean Vincent/AFP/Getty Images)

What, you may ask, does this have to do with COVID-19? Plenty. March of 2020 saw an immediate global shutdown, which included “nonessential” workers having to isolate at home and to get vaccinated. If you were “obedient” you were behaving with “virtue"; if not, you were shamed and ridiculed, or worse.

The left’s recent push toward transgenderism, body mutilation, hormone blockers for children, and supporting gender dysphoria is right out of the Mao playbook.

Showing up early in the film and doled out at regular intervals along the way are snippets of a 1969 video featuring writer and filmmaker G. Edward Griffin. In it, the anticommunist Griffin eerily predicts what is taking place right now: First, divide and conquer people by race, class, and ideology; second, weaponize the federal government to squelch the voices and freedoms of those who even dare to question the motives and methods of those in power. Today, these are the NWO and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Fauci Then and Now

Speaking of the CDC, in addition to the Griffin video, Willis includes another one from the ‘80s featuring none other than Anthony Fauci, whose foot-dragging regarding researching a cure for AIDS was widely criticized, particularly by those most at risk of contracting the disease. With COVID-19, Fauci did the exact opposite. Instead of doing the necessary research, he rubber-stamped what was essentially a prototype and sold this bogus bill of goods to the world.
Protesters interrupt a press conference in Toronto on Aug. 16, 2006, given by Anthony Fauci during the XVI International AIDS Conference. (Jorge Uzon/AFP via Getty Images)
Protesters interrupt a press conference in Toronto on Aug. 16, 2006, given by Anthony Fauci during the XVI International AIDS Conference. (Jorge Uzon/AFP via Getty Images)
The number of deaths of vaccinated people from COVID-19 has now eclipsed those who refused it. For more on that, check out the film “Died Suddenly” on Rumble.
One thing that Willis wisely avoids for the entirety of the movie is framing or positioning it with politics. Although politicians (the current occupant of the White House and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for example) were instrumental in promoting this “cure,” it was Fauci and, in particular, World Economic Forum (WEF) founder Klaus Schwab who doubled and tripled down on the vaccine’s efficacy.

Enter Darth Vader

Showing up in one clip dressed as if he’s been cast as a “Star Wars” villain, Schwab is presented (some will say with stunning accuracy) as the chief strategist of the NWO. This makes complete sense as his father, Eugen, was appointed by the Nazi regime to be the director of the now defunct Zurich engineering company “Escher Wyss AG,” which provided turbine engines and flamethrowers for the Third Reich. The film makes clear that Schwab’s “scorched-earth” mindset and insatiable lust for power are examples of metaphoric flamethrowing.
Klaus Schwab, circa December 2022. ((Valdarno Informo)
Klaus Schwab, circa December 2022. ((Valdarno Informo)
As far as content is concerned, “Awakening” gets a solid 5/5 rating. The amount of data and information stuffed into the not-quite-two-hour movie is staggering—which is also something of a problem. The movie is presented so relentlessly fast, it borders on the overwhelming. I had to pause the movie three times just to give my gray matter some rest. I would have had no problem had Willis slowed it down a bit and taken longer to unspool everything. For style and execution, I give the film 2/5.

When phrases like “mass formation,” “social credit system,” and “great reset” enter the lexicon, and poison is marketed as a European perfume, it can’t end well. The label Willis uses to describe all of what is happening now, “synchronized tyranny,” couldn’t be more accurate—or horrifying.

“The Great Awakening” from director Mikki Willis calls what is happening now "synchronized tyranny." (Plandemic Series)
“The Great Awakening” from director Mikki Willis calls what is happening now "synchronized tyranny." (Plandemic Series)
The film is now available on rumble.com
‘The Great Awakening’ Documentary Director: Mikki Willis Running Time: 1 hour, 56 minutes MPAA Rating: Not Rated Release Date: June 3, 2023 Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Originally from Washington, D.C., Michael Clark has provided film content to over 30 print and online media outlets. He co-founded the Atlanta Film Critics Circle in 2017 and is a weekly contributor to the Shannon Burke Show on FloridaManRadio.com. Since 1995, Mr. Clark has written over 4,000 movie reviews and film-related articles. He favors dark comedy, thrillers, and documentaries.
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