User reviews

Was this an informative documentary? I say yes. Was it a pleasure to watch? I say no. Do I agree in a political way with the facts they try to depict? Well, I can check all of that myself.

I see ratings of 1´s and 2´s because people don´t like to see Trump being criticized, but what does an opinion has to do with facts? Look it up, check it, if you find errors write them in your review. But to slash something because it doesn't fit your views, that´s kind of silly to me.

I think it´s worth to watch but don´t expect to be happy at the end. Because this is about the failure of a corrupt system and the people managing it.

Remember Dr. Nancy Messonnier? Exactly. But there she was, the face of the CDC, warning of pandemic and closures necessary to contain it, back in February. FEBRUARY!

Messonnier was swiftly swept under the Trump carpet where all science based experts reside. It is a big carpet, with a growing bump. Huge bump. That is the sad crux of this documentary, a thorough, blow by blow spine-chilling COVID-19 dateline, and the shocking ineptitude and dangerous apathy from the Trump government (if you can call it that) in response. Not much new here for anyone keeping up with the news, fake or not, but when presented in a calm, simmering sequence, plays out like a bloody horror movie. Which, let's face it, it is.

"Totally Under Control" is an impressive cinematic achievement, stretched out like a real time news program, brimming with startlingly blunt interviews, thorough investigations, slick editing, and stunning clips. The parade of despondent experts daunting. The series of unfortunate events mind-boggling.

Just to rub salt deeper into the festering wound, an alternate reality, the successful South Korean response to the virus is not just eluded to, but is presented in all it's meticulous glory. A cold hard slap to the face of American foolishness. Ouch.

A series of bungles, lies, incompetencies, and cover ups, lead to a catastrophe most are still trying to properly comprehend. This is an utterly infuriating watch. A strong drink might help.

The dictatorial and abusive power wielded by the president is at the rotten core of this calamity, and filmmaker Alex Gibney eagerly lets The Don indict himself throughout. Repeatedly. Important agencies bow to his whims, try to massage (in vain) disasters, and for the most part, dare not contradict or question Trump for fear of reprisal. Those who do, are quickly dispatched. Fact or fiction? The lines are blurry.

Will a devastating pandemic that threatens to hurl America into full blown depression finally sway the Kool Aid drinkers, or is this the end of the greatest country in the world? We are about to find out. This important film is ample warning, and a primo election primer.

• hipCRANK

The truth is out now -- if any doubt remains for the masses of non-voters (100 million in 2016) and the undecided. This meticulous film can be wince-inducing as it carefully assembles the disgusting FACTS that finally make it clearly understandable just how the US government, corrupted under Trump, completely failed us with their shockingly pathetic, deadly mishandling of the pandemic response. Those who have been on the front lines are seen & heard leveling with the people, telling it like it is. Not to be overlooked by any sane individual. Get the word out.

Terrifying, just terrifying. Shows how politics is, unfortunately, being put ahead of science, data and opinion of professionals. But it also shows how should we all act in that cases, shown on the case of South Korea. It's very distrubing to see what scientist say goverment should do and see what goverment actually does to look like they have control over everything and to remain in power. This problem is not only present in United States. But what we see this administration do is just shocking.

This documentary, because of the stories of medical personel and people from scientific world, is sensational. One of the best points of this movie is of course the way producers made this movie. They took every possible security measures when they were talking to people. That is one of the reasons this movie captivated me. In 2020 this movie is definitely must see.

You can't look away from the screen for 2 hours. It's shocking, it's terrifying and it's just our reality in 2020. Stay safe, wear mask. We will overcome this.

I am in no way biased or care about American politics as I am not American,

I do think this movie does nothing more than show how a government cares more about money and re-election than the health and safety of its citizens. It also appears the majority of those who support Trump tend to follow his every word like sheep. So when you get a president who states that he does not believe in science and medicine... well you are going to get a lot of his followers that blindly follow his words and in turn creating a more "un-educated country"

In the end this seems like a propaganda film strategically placed mere weeks before an election, but at the same time the film is based on facts.

7.1

Much of what is covered in the film is known, or could be known with some research. The value of Totally Under Control is the way the film lays out, step by step, the timeline of this tragedy. Here's hoping that we do, in fact, learn from this horror show and take steps to be better prepared for future emergencies, whether pandemics or other natural disasters. The more the public questions leaders and demands transparency, the better.

When understanding 2020, this will be a good place to start. Totally Under Control covers the beginning response of the Trump administration really well, but in a fast-moving world, it's already outdated now. This did provide a good behind-the-scenes view of the chaos that was happening, and the things I learned shocked me.

This is a controversial topic. A lot of people have criticized the Trump administration's handling of the pandemic while others have praised it. This film goes for the critical approach while also presenting evidence to back this up. I'll try my best to keep personal politics out of it and review it as a documentary but as a documentary, it succeeded. There is a lot of bombshell information here that the public should see. The US's response to this pandemic was absolutely terrible and this highlights what exactly happened. On surface level, some might assume that this film only attacks President Trump and conservatives but you would be wrong. This film attacks both sides for its handling like Congress's stalling to get a stimulus passed and Obama's handling of the national stockpile. The information is presented in an interesting and engaging way 75% of the time. For the other 25%, it had a hard time keeping me engaged because it was telling me information that I already knew or the documentary had presented earlier but what this documentary does well is land bombshell after bombshell after bombshell. I don't want to spoil any of these bombshells. My only other issue was some weird editing and stylistic choices that felt off at times but it's more of a nitpick. I urge you guys to check this out and to hear out the information although if you consider yourself right leaning, you might not like it as much.

Not living in the US, I wondered how 220,000 people died needlessly so fast. This movie shows the exact timeline, the responses by the negligent Trump government to a tee and in detail. This shows how a manager of the most important country in the world had COVID 'Totally Out Of Control'! Like in this movie & in books the loss of life due to COVID-19 will be forever remembered like the Spanish Flu of 1918. This is one of best documentaries I have watched and will recommend to my friends and family. Well done NEON!!! 👍😊

It's quite fine. It's yet another anti-Trump documentary. This time they criticise how Trump tackled Covid-19. It was indeed a huge embarrassing disaster. Trump blamed everything on Obama and then made mistake after mistake the same way Obama did when he tackled corona viruses. It's embarrassing. Lots of doctors and government workers in the doc are attacking Trump's White House for messing it up while claimed they themselves wanted to help. The doc works fairly well. Trump is the bad guy, they are the helpers. Some of them are very weird though like one claiming systemic racism plays a role here. Such interviews are largely just bragging or political points without much depth to them.

The doc is fine. The issue is the topic. It claims Trump created a disaster and then only uses South Korea as a comparison. Which is an issue. It's one single country close to China with a higher IQ population and strong government. They get info from China much faster and they are next to them too so they obviously needed to be way better prepared for a China virus. Plus they have a more singular culture and can agree on what to do as a collective. And it's easy for them to close their borders. Basically, yeah South Korea did some impressive stuff. But it's 1 single country compared to 1 single country. The director clearly picked an example that would make Trump look extra stupid here. In reality there are more countries that largely did what USA did with way less testing and little closure. Sweden did the same and they also experienced huge Covid numbers initially. But over time the issue fixed itself and other Nordic countries started to wonder why they closed their economies down when Sweden didn't and the outcomes were very similar at the end. Seemingly the virus spreads however it wants and once people got antibodies and later vaccines the issue solved itself. Did Trump make a mistake? Yes and no. The White House in Obama and Trump didn't know how to tackle these viruses and made mistakes at every step of the way. But at the end of the day they both just got lucky. A deadlier virus would have been a disaster under either administration. But Covid-19 just wasn't deadly enough where Trump's mistakes made a huge difference. Obviously compared to Japan and South Korea USA looked bad. But so did all of Europe. Look at Italy and Spain, 10 times worse than USA easily. Just disaster zones in how they tackled the pandemic. So at the end of the day the doc feels a bit pointless. It's a ton of complaining while they never even tell us the death numbers or how USA compared to the rest of the world.

Keep in mind that BLM also became hugely popular there. And right away giant protesting and riot groups were taking over American cities in flocks with burnings and shootings. Yet when that happened we didn't really see many new Covid cases. So again, how does it work? In the doc they claim that you have to wear a mask and that you can't gather in groups. But right after the doc was made gathering in group was the new normal and nothing happened. Covid remain at the same level. The vaccine also arrived after the doc was made. Kinda an important event they had to exclude.

I guess it was made 1 or 2 years too early. It's a lot of good points, but without the death numbers, country comparisons, and final conclusion on the virus the doc is incomplete and misleading in 2022. Still a fine watch, just badly dated and very dry. I would say look for something newer.

At the risk of sounding hyperbolic... this is a masterpiece of a documentary.

It's beyond urgent, and indeed, in time that may prove to be its undoing. I'd estimate that the filming for this was probably finished around June/July, so even at release there's important things it couldn't cover (Trump's own positive test to the virus is a footnote that appears right before the end credits). And with the story of COVID-19 still ongoing, there will inevitably be more changes and dramatic revelations to come.

But for now, this is vital, compelling, compulsively watchable, expertly edited, and undeniably stomach-churning stuff. I don't doubt that there is some bias likely present within this documentary, but as something that presents an argument- even if it is by and large one side- it's exceptional. The argument is presented brilliantly. Some may disagree with its ultimate point- it's inevitable, in this year of absolutely insane societal division- but I'd urge everybody to at least give it a watch, and make up their own mind once it's over.

I want to straight up beg Netflix to buy the rights to this, because 99% of the time, when you tell somebody about a film or a tv show, the question is: "Is it on Netflix?" That's how so many people I know watch everything they watch, and a film like this needs to reach as many people as possible as soon as possible. I was anticipating it, based on the strength of Alex Gibney's other documentaries, but I assume most other people won't be willing to part with AUS $6.99 to rent it on iTunes- currently the only way someone in my part of the world can watch it legally.

This documentary essentially begins with the discovery of a brand-new virus in China known as Covid-19 which, within just a few months, begins wreaking havoc upon the United States of America. To therefore make sense of this catastrophe, a number of facts are presented in this video which pinpoints certain decisions that were made by those tasked with the responsibility to prevent an incident of this nature. To that end, it highlights some of the political appointees at the center of the bungled response to Covid-19, with particular emphasis given to both Dr. Robert Redfield (as head of the CDC) and Alex Azar (HHS Secretary) who failed at critical moments to do what was necessary to protect the American public. One specific case had to do with the faulty Corona virus test kit for which Dr. Redfield was shown to be totally incapable of making the rather straight-forward choice of either omitting the N3 test data on the CDC kit or accepting the WHO test kits on a temporary basis. Either choice would have saved countless lives. Unfortunately, he dithered around, and it put this country behind the power curve--thereby allowing the virus to tragically impact hundreds of thousands of lives. Likewise, the decisions of President Trump also come to light as facts are presented which show that, rather than acting in the best interests of the American public, he chose to focus on his own personal interests instead. And these facts are presented in this documentary for everyone to see. That said, the case is pretty strong against all of these people. Having said that, however, I feel it is only right to present some other issues about this documentary that cause me a bit of concern as well. For starters, the release of this video came just a month before the 2020 election cycle which, in and of itself, could be seen by some as political in nature. Not only that, but one would think that, prior to putting out a documentary on any given subject, the people involved would want to have all of the facts at their disposal first. That said, considering that the virus was still creating chaos in America, I don't see how a documentary coming out at this particular time could possibly be that comprehensive. For example, as of this writing, the pandemic is still raging around the world--to the point that a leading scientist working for the World Health Organization (Dr. Marian Van Kerkove) recently announced that this virus "...is still a global health threat." So again, why was this documentary produced so early in the course of this pandemic--and a month before the election? It just doesn't feel right. On that same note, this hurried approach also excludes a number of other important factors which make up the overall pandemic narrative as well. I could give several examples but a couple that come to mind includes the fact that this documentary doesn't cover the vaccines--or the political opposition to them. Of course, the fact that the vaccine resistance typically comes from the same anti-science crowd who lamented wearing masks serves, in my opinion, as an indictment of the Trump presidency more than anything else. And make no mistake, history will not be kind to either Trump or his myopic followers--for a number of reasons. Be that as it may, although the facts brought out in this video are difficult to dispute, there is simply too much data still to be discerned which, I believe, renders this documentary incredibly incomplete and, for that reason, I have rated it accordingly.

This movie will not age well. Poorly done. Terrible. Exactly what I expected. Let's blame Trump the virus that cAme from China. Let blame trump for listening to the "experts" who have been wrong since day one.

The film really gets in there and shows just how badly Trump's response to Covid has been (220,000 dead Americans when I wrote this) If America had a different POTUS during all of this, so many wouldn't have died. Not that Trump ever really tried, but now he and the sycophantic Republicans have completely given up on containing Covid. We won't forget.

If you really want to know why so many Americans died from COVID-19, this will spell it out. In a just world, this would be the prosecution's opening statement in a Nuremberg style trial against Trump and his cohorts. The timelines are so fresh, you will remember a lot of what is depicted in this film from personal experience. What the filmmakers provide is the behind the scenes machinations of the Trump administration and lines them up with what we were allowed to see at the time. While this infuriating information will not make it any easier to cope with the damage soon-to-be-ex-president Trump inflicted on this country, I am quite certain that the long arm of justice will grab him, and make sure he spends the rest of his life in jail. Hey, we got Osama bin Laden, and he only killed 3000 Americans!

I would give it 11 stars if I could. I encourage all to watch this film and take away what you will. Concise, comprehensible and intellectually laid out timeline of the USA's pandemic response with hindsight to help see the situation clearly. Provides insight into the incompetence of those in charge of the pandemic response.

I've seen a lot of disaster movies, especially since the pandemic uprooted our lives, and I've always been bemused that the first instinct of authorities is to avoid a panic. Always, this means lying to the public regarding the impending doom. The public's ignorance, then, leads to their being unprepared for the disaster, of which the only thing standing in the way is luck and competent governance. Leave it to Hollywood, I suppose, to think up something that ridiculously paternalistic and self-defeating. Or, I don't know, maybe it's too much to consider that what is good governance is an informed public and authorities that don't egregiously lie--just pathological hoodwinking and concerted campaigns of misinformation every spiteful word out of their mouths. To that end, "Totally Under Control" compares the pandemic response of South Korea, with their tens of thousands of confirmed cases and hundreds of confirmed deaths related to COVID-19, as of this writing, to that of the United States, with millions of such cases and hundreds of thousands of deaths. Even though the American population is over six times that of Korea, the numbers are striking, but not surprising--certainly not after reviewing this two-hours summation of an utter abdication of governing over the past year, if not the past four. This documentary being released a few weeks before the country's presidential election was, of course, intentional. Good.

I appreciate well-executed dramatic irony in fiction, which might help explain why I dislike characters stealing it from me when they keep what is a minor role in these movies, of the public, in the dark to avoid panic. "Totally Under Control" reverses, doubles and redoubles this irony. Now, we know how this movie ends, so we begin by viewing interviews of experts and key figures, news footage and narration setting the stage of when we didn't know. At first, the doctors knew what the public didn't, but eventually we learned, too. But, the strangest thing is that the lead, along with some of his main supporting cast, continues the irony by appearing to know nothing. He calls it a Democratic "hoax" and blames the disaster of the response on blue states, but pretends to have the virus "totally under control," all the while overseeing bureaucratic ineptitude and a breakdown of supply chains for personal protective equipment, making masks an issue of politics, as well as of availability, while hocking snake oil, muzzling scientists and organizational experts in favor of promoting political hacks. And the surprise twist, by way of Bob Woodward interview, is that he knew how bad the virus was the whole time, but he still gets infected, anyways. It's not that he didn't know; it's that he didn't care. It would make for dramatic fiction, but as our depressing reality, it's truly horrifying.

Standard expositional narration and talking heads nonetheless, this is a well-constructed documentary, too. Hardly every bit of mismanagement known is covered in the concise overview of the past months' news stories, let alone what one might wonder will date the movie with any future revelations. For one, I assume there will come a time when the pool of prominent interview subjects will be larger due to subsiding fears over job security, let alone the limitations otherwise imposed by a pandemic and without some distance from the subject. I especially appreciate the reflexive nature of the views of the socially-distanced and plastic-wrapped camera set-ups for the interviews--and at least one that is delivered to the interviewee. The world isn't normal, so why would the filmmaking be, either. It's this, of a documentary about the pandemic made during it, that will continue to set it apart.

One matter I take some issue with, however, is the attempt at something of a positive note: that we may learn from this trauma. Indeed, part of South Korea's more-effective response may be attributed to their recent experience with contagion, such as the MERS outbreak in 2015, and maybe the world over will perform better if such viruses and pandemics do become ever more prevalent, although that's not an optimistic view, either. But, the documentary also brings up the most recent and relevant global catastrophe to our current situation, the 1918 Influenza pandemic. Unfortunately, even though I like to think I appreciate history, I knew very little before 2020 about the so-called "Spanish flu," or the forgotten pandemic, as others aptly put it. Of late, however, my research has included silent films from that era, and if not forgotten, it was either largely neglected or lost--as most silent films are now. All of which is to say that I'm not going to get my hopes up for two weeks that we've learned our lesson, so to speak, let alone remembering any lesson over another century after a pandemic. Hopefully, the final irony won't be that we know more now than we know in the future, but this is a good start--primary sourcing that may serve as a record for years and generations to come.

Such garbage work. This was only made to persuade you to think and vote like they want you to. Stop believing the lies from media with a clear agenda. Think for yourself, look how much better your bottom line was compared to now. Realize the media does this to EVERY republican in office. It's not a Trump thing it's the fact they hate not getting their way thing.

On January 28th of this year I read an article in the Washington Post about a novel corona virus circulating in China that was killing people. This information was leaked to the Post by U.S. intelligence sources. I ordered masks and gloves that same day.

Despite continuing to learn about this virus as it rapidly spread from my state, Washington, across the whole U.S., the government instituted no comprehensive plan to employ our medical and scientific community in an all-out effort to confront this deadly epidemic. It was up to each state and each citizen to "go it alone." Our psycho leader is out to lunch.

This film informed me about a lot I didn't know about what went on, behind the scenes, between the outbreak in Wuhan, China and the first reported case in the U.S. -- and beyond. Learning that Trump knew all about it in January is only the half of it. This film fills in all the blanks and lets the medical and scientific experts explain the frustration they felt. The mask-maker shares his exasperation and sorrow. The volunteer reveals the craven nature of Kushner Inc.

This documentary was so well presented. Gibney did a masterful job of exposing this dark, shameful part of our national history. Still, there are millions of people, Trump followers/Fox News watchers, who refuse to see how corrupt and evil he and his administration have been. They are responsible for thousands of sick, disabled, and dead people who trusted in such an immoral person who doesn't care about any of them.

Even though I had seen other documentaries on this pandemic, this was the best crafted version, and contains new material, such as the Asian American mathematician expert on the exponential nature of pandemics who knew when they found the first coronavirus case in Seattle, that there were a lot more. It reminded me of the time we had people working on our house and one of them came to me and said they found a dead flying termite in some debris, and told me, if they find one, it means there are a lot more. We had to have the entire house tented. South Korea tented their country. We did not. South Korea listened to the scientists. We did not. This documentary lays that all out and a lot more. How the Trump administration hired a lot of kids to help procure PPE but they them no guidance and no authority. Only when a scientist accidently communicated the reality of the crisis and tanked the stock market, was Trump forced to acknowledge what the rest of the world already knew. The Center for Disease Control made serious errors with the testing rollout, and the government needlessly exposed thousands of Americans to the pandemic by not even using the pandemic playbook developed by the Obama administration. Hillary Clinton in June 2016 had warned about an inexperienced president not knowing what to do if a real crisis hit. This accounting of out response has not only tarnished our scientific reputation but our leadership reputation. And to make matters worse, if governors wanted resources from the federal government they had to personally call Trump, and then publicly thank him.

A close up look at Donald Trump's administration is rarely pretty, and Alex Gibney's documentary makes the clear case that the United States government's response to the COVID-19 crisis has been suboptimal in no small part due to the whims of its leader. COVID has of course caused problems worldwide, but this account of the needless damage done by disregarding scientific and professional advice must be paintful to watch for anyone who has lost a loved one. Gibney doesn't shout his conclusion, but neither does he fudge it. One day, we will wonder how we allowed this to happen.

I cannot say enough good things about this documentary. The timelines and testimonials presented throughout this film are spot-on! The comparison's between South Korea and the USA clearly explained why the Asian response to Covid succeeded, while the US response became a grotesque failure. Many American's never knew that the head of the Chinese CDC had lengthy and detailed discussions regarding the virus with (Dr Redfield) the head of the US CDC on January 3rd, 2020. Unfortunately, this documentary did not mention the 15 US CDC scientists that were working with the WHO scientists as early as Jan 1st, 2020. I was never quite sure what Kushner's role was in the US response; however, this documentary clarified what I already suspected. His role in this disaster should be thoroughly investigated by the FBI once Trump leaves Office. Hopefully those who played key roles in this tragedy will be held criminally responsible once Biden is sworn-in as the new POTUS. There is no doubt that the handful of 1/10 ratings on this site were written by ardent Trump supporters. As a "self-declared genius" once said: "Lock them up!"

If you want the truth about Covid19, how it started, what Trump did wrong. Watch this. Thousands should not have died. It's pathetic that it happened, it didn't need to be this way 2020. There was a perfect plan made up in the Obama term. It should have been followed, today it should be followed. Trump does not agree.