The film Merchants of Doubt uses the trickery of magic to address environmental issues such as tobacco, internal combustion engines, and global warming, urging a shift in perception for those who fail to see the real issues. In a similar way to magic tricks, the film criticizes corporations and journalists who distort the truth by diverting the audience’s attention, and hopes to make them realize the truth they are hiding.

Merchants of Doubt plot

The movie begins with the preparation of a magician. A magician’s job is to trick people. You might think that magicians and con artists are similar in that they both deceive people, but the stark difference between them is that magic tricks don’t cause serious consequences, and magic tricks are honest and moral deception.
On the surface, the movie is a story about doubt and deception. But if you look a little deeper, you’ll see that it’s also a documentary about environmental issues like tobacco, internal combustion engines, and global warming. But if you look a little deeper, you realize that it’s about people who don’t see the true nature of the situation. The film criticizes businessmen and journalists for deceiving people for profit, linking environmental issues like tobacco, internal combustion engines, and global warming. But by the end of the four sequences, the overarching message of the movie is not that businessmen and journalists are bad, but that people who are blinded by them need to wake up. The movie has a message of advice for them.

Magic and deception

The movie is organized into five sequences, each of which closely resembles the rules of magic. Before the sequence begins, the movie uses simple magic tricks to explain the story that is about to unfold and to get the audience interested. In the most entertaining sequence, the most important thing in magic is to distract the audience. One of the most effective ways to distract is to tell a small lie for a big lie, such as the classic trick of passing a woman through a hula hoop in mid-air. The woman in the air is the big lie, and passing her through the hula hoop is the little lie. The spectator questions how the woman is floating, but once the hula hoop is passed through, the suspicion is removed. The key to this trick is to divert attention from the big lie to the little lie. When it comes to diverting the audience’s attention, it’s not just about where you divert it, it’s about where you focus it. If you divert attention to something that captivates people, they will focus on it and not see the truth.

This is the same way that the tobacco industry used to distract people from the addictive and harmful effects of cigarettes by emphasizing their addictiveness and harmfulness, and the message that “not allowing people to smoke is taking away their freedom” and “government over-regulation”. By using the sensitive issues of freedom and regulation, the tobacco industry was able to convince people that cigarettes are a symbol of freedom instead of harmful. The tobacco industry was successful in using this strategy to avoid the issue for the next 50 years, and other companies have effectively used the “freedom of choice” distraction to justify the harmfulness of their products.
The film’s use of magic as a metaphor to explain the complexity of the subject matter creates interest and anticipation in the audience. This setup made the film much more approachable than a traditional expository documentary.

Characteristics of documentaries

Narrative structure

The narrative of the film is not sequential. Instead of posing a question and then providing an answer immediately, the film unfolds in such a way that the answer is provided in the next sequence. Even though it’s not a sequential format, the content flows naturally because each piece of material comes together to form a story.

Transitions

The movie is full of dramatic elements, most notably transitions. The movie begins with a magic trick in the opening sequence, which uses playing cards to create match cuts. For example, as he shuffles the cards, he creates an arch with both hands, and when the camera zooms in, the arch gradually turns into an arching building, and another story begins. There are also many other dramatic cuts using cards, such as a cut from the square shape of the cards to the TV screen.

The interview method

There are 13 people in the movie, and the story is told through a series of interviews with them. There is no single narrator, but rather a series of interviews that follow each other like a relay race. Where their voices aren’t heard, subtitles or archival footage are used to support them, and a main narrator isn’t considered necessary. The movie tries to convey too much information, and the constant stream of interviews, footage, and re-enactments would be overwhelming if a main narrator were involved. As I mentioned earlier, the movie is told as a series of interviews. This doesn’t mean that it’s just a series of interviews, but rather that the footage is narrated by the interviewee’s voice as it transitions to the source material. Also, the questioner doesn’t appear on camera, and the questions themselves are edited. The people being interviewed are aware of the camera, and in some scenes, the camera is intentionally exposed.

The camera

The non-interview footage consists of both established and created footage, so there is no camera movement and the camera is always stationary. However, the camera does move during the establishing shots that explain the current situation of the interviewees.

Documentary style

The film is considered to be a mix of expository and participatory styles. The expository style is evident in the way the movie presents historical events in a polemical way to inform the audience. The visuals are used as a secondary means of communication, and the movie tries to maintain its own neutrality. For example, the film attempts to be neutral by presenting the opposing narratives of the IPCC and NIPCC as intersecting and equal. In addition, the editing is done in the form of presenting evidence, and it can be said to be an explanatory style by using various images and footage from existing movies, newspapers, etc.
However, the reason why this movie is considered a participatory style is because of the intimacy between the interviewees and the director. The people being interviewed are aware of the camera and the director, and the interviews feel like they are telling a story rather than answering questions. Therefore, I think this movie is a combination of both expository and participatory styles.

First Sequence: Moral and Immoral Deception

In 1970, the tobacco industry in the United States claimed that “cigarettes are not harmful to the body, and nicotine is not addictive.” But they had already known in the 1950s that smoking causes heart disease and that nicotine is addictive, and tobacco industry representatives had sworn to keep this secret for life. They thought it would stay that way forever, but as scientists continued to argue, citizens gradually became aware of the dangers of smoking. Embarrassed, tobacco companies hired public relations firms, and their arguments changed from “tobacco is not harmful” to “tobacco may be harmful”. But a second crisis soon followed: cigarettes were causing frequent fires. The government demanded that cigarettes be made to automatically extinguish themselves, but the tobacco industry didn’t want to change their hugely profitable product and blamed the fires on furniture instead of cigarettes. After a lengthy trial, the government issued a law that furniture must contain fire retardants, and the tobacco industry was saved yet again.

Sequence Two: No One Has Ever Beaten Yabawi in the History of Yabawi

Most people think that the biggest reason why you can’t win at Yabawi is because of its quick hands, but it’s actually because of its cheaters. The most important thing is to never let the cheater look like he’s in cahoots with the yabba player. This will avoid raising suspicion.
Once Dr. Hanson realized that carbon dioxide heats up the atmosphere and contributes to global warming, he argued for the seriousness of global warming and the importance of atmospheric temperature. Greenpeace joined him in calling for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. The oil and coal companies felt that they could not stand idly by, and like the tobacco industry, they argued that “global warming may not be happening” and that “more carbon dioxide may be good. Furthermore, scientists Singer and Seitz supported the oil companies’ claims by arguing that global warming was a lie. With these two scientists claiming it was a lie, people began to think global warming was no big deal, but decades later, it was discovered that Singer and Seitz were paid to do so.

Sequence Three: Once the deception is exposed, it can never be hidden again

Opponents of the legislation to require the use of internal combustion engaged in a series of lawsuits. Mothers’ groups, journalists, and citizens attended the court to argue against the ban, and the tide seemed to be turning in their favor. However, the tide turned when a surgeon spoke about the importance of the ban. He told the story of a 7-month-old child who was sleeping on a blanket without flame retardant, which caught fire and burned his entire body, resulting in his death. His story eventually led to the use of flame retardants, but when a reporter questioned the doctor’s testimony, his past records and video footage revealed that he had never treated such a child, and that this story had been used repeatedly in several trials. Eventually, it was revealed that he had been paid by the manufacturer of the internal combustion engine to make false statements, leading to a re-examination of the internal combustion engine.

Sequence Four: Distract the Audience

The most important thing in magic is to distract the audience.
When scientists kept saying “cigarettes are bad for you” and “you shouldn’t smoke,” the industry decided they needed to do something about it. They decided that if they couldn’t solve the problem, they needed to distract people. Instead of the “we don’t know if cigarettes are harmful” strategy, the tobacco industry used the arguments that “it’s government over-regulation” and “cigarettes are a symbol of freedom,” and that preventing people from smoking is against freedom. This argument had an unexpectedly strong effect, and instead of “cigarettes = something that might be harmful to your health,” people began to think “cigarettes = freedom.

Sequence five: 50 years

Eventually, the tobacco industry was punished. They were forced to admit that there are harmful and addictive substances in cigarettes, and they were obliged to inform and educate people. It’s unfortunate that it took them 50 years to realize that they had been deceiving people for decades, and that they were punished for it.
Global warming is melting the Arctic ice, making it possible to exploit the oil buried in the glaciers. Oil companies, in partnership with Russia, have made tens of billions of dollars from the phenomenon they wanted to keep hidden. Many environmentalists and scientists are dismayed by this, and it’s not just the oil companies who are dismayed. The main reason is that no matter how much they shout, people don’t realize the truth. I suspect that one day, like with tobacco, people will understand the science and there will be legislation to regulate it. But the important thing is that we don’t have 50 years anymore. Climate change is already underway, and there is no turning back. Hurricanes will become more intense, people will die, heat waves and droughts will ruin crops, and homes and communities will be destroyed. We must realize that more money is needed to deal with the aftermath of these catastrophes than to prevent them. People need to wake up faster.