Conspiracy Theory

Why John Moffet’s documentary: “Conspiracy Theory: Did we land on the Moon” is misleading and an example of bad documentary making 

“Conspiracy Theory” is a documentary directed by John Moffet that was aired on American cable in 2001, the film attempts to prove that man did not in fact land on the moon and the whole event was a NASA coverup. This film fails on all levels to give a balanced argument and therefore misleads the viewer into believing a biased and factually inaccurate conspiracy theory. 

The documentary is presented in an expository style and makes liberal use of an offscreen narrator, backed up by a host of conspiracy theorists and NASA scientists. Throughout the whole film there is only one contributor that challenges the ideas presented by the film which gives the film a biased and subjective tone. Despite the title “Conspiracy Theory” the film makes very little reference to the fact that the ideas and opinions presented in the film are all theory and instead passes it off as fact. Even worse than this, the so-called ‘facts’ in this film are laughably inaccurate to an extent that it is insulting to any competent viewer. It could be argued that Moffet has the right to express his personal opinion in the film, this type of documentary is at risk of indoctrinating those viewers who are less competent and leading them to believe facts that are simply not true. 

Overall, this film does not only portray the opinions expressed in it poorly, those opinions lie very far from the truth and is deceptive to viewers. Therefore, I believe in no way that this film should be classed as a non-fiction film and that John Moffet has completely failed at making a factual film.