The Silent Scream (1984 Video) User Reviews

Not a full-on success, but an interesting and important watch for current and future generations

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 25 January 2019]

"The Silent Scream" is an American English-language documentary from 1984, so this one has its 35th anniversary this year and it was directed by Jack Dabner, perhaps his final career effort, the only writing effort by Donald S. Smith and features Doctor Bernard Nathanson as narrator. May he rest in peacse and thanks to these three for leaving us this film we have here. People pro abortions will immediately say this is crap of course, you can read their statements in the review section and most of those making such comments have not even watched this film I am sure. It runs for minimally after half an hour and elaborates on what happens exactly medically if somebody decides to abort a child in one's belly. In my opinion, it is a live human being and the mother should not be allowed to do so, especially as today there are really more than enough means to avoid getting pregnant in the first place unlike 1984, but yes there were too. Anyway, I was not too impressed I must say by the silent scream theory at the center of this film, even if I would not rule completely against it realism-wise, but everything else here was very well done and it is a movie oozing competence and medical experience that is impossible to deny and everybody who does so sure makes clear he does not care about the subject at all, only about his agenda. It is a controversial subject today and it sure was back then, even if the process itself has not changed too much. It is also a subject that deserves to be discussed without a doubt. But by discussing I mean making valid statements and I honestly find it very difficult for one side to do so and that's why I just keep reading hate messages from this particular one side. I guess after reading my review, you can guess very well yourself which side I am referring to. Now lets not go any further into detail about that. Let me just say while I would not say it is a must-see, it is an important historc document that should be seen by (young) people today as well, the generation who puts sleaze over everything else in my opinion and not important which position you represent on the pro-abortion/pro-life scale, this film will without a doubt teach you a whole lot new and maybe also actually change your mind on the subject because of how spot-on and accurate it is made. Thumbs up.

Your standard pro-life scare tactic film.

[glenlassan · 1/10 · 17 February 2018]

This short film, is everything wrong with extreme pro-life propaganda. It puts forth standard scare tactics and misapplies scientific fact (and often enough mis-interprets if not outright lies about scientific fact) all in the name of "protecting the unborn"

I could spend a lot of time talking about the medical inaccuracies, or the deliberate falsehoods or the misleading editing in this film, but it would probably be simpler to advise people who wish to watch this film to look it up themselves, it's not hard to find technical criticisms of this film in a quick google search.

This is a film that likely is only popular with very poorly educated Pro-life extremists, as it is not factually accurate, nuanced, or even honest about the message it portrays.

Which is a problem, because the current body of research on the opinions of US citizens in regards to abortion, indicates that most of us have nuanced opinions on the matter of abortion, and are entirely willing to see the complexities and "shades of grey" on this very serious, very heart-rending issue.

If you are looking for a film that advances the discussion on abortion in a helpful manner, look elsewhere

Flawed and inaccurate

[satorarepo-96528 · 1/10 · 22 July 2018]

It is outrageous that a doctor has lent himself to such piece of propaganda, thus missing one of his duties as a health worker, which is to provide accurate information without biases in a sensitive matter, to the population or at least the part of the population who chooses to see or is forced to watch this movie.

An eye opener

[emanuelakh · 10/10 · 3 April 2021]

This is an eye opener to the most barbaric practice of killing children in modern times. What a sad society we are to cheer the death of our children. Sad that we see abortion as healthcare and not as for what it is, murder! Here are some quotes by Mother Teresa:

"America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts -- a child -- as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the independent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters". And, in granting this unconscionable power, it has exposed many women to unjust and selfish demands from their husbands or other sexual partners. Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign." (Mother Theresa -- "Notable and Quotable," Wall Street Journal, 2/25/94, p. A14)

"But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child - a direct killing of the innocent child - murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love, and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even his life to love us. So the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love - that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts. By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion. "

This should be required viewing at every abortion clinic

[rrmcmillan85 · 10/10 · 3 August 2022]

I was pro-infanticide through high school school until I saw this video at my church in 1984. From that date to this I have been a staunch pro-lifer. If more people would take the time to watch this to watch this, there would be much less debate about the idea of whether it is a human life being ended.

Flawed and Inaccurate is Wrong

[clarkjohnandlinda · 10/10 · 15 December 2019]

Flawed and Inaccurate, a previous reviewer, said he thought this film was flawed and inaccurate. The doctor who did the abortion and had the ultrasound recorded was a founder of NARAL, the National Abortion Rights Action League. When he saw the video of the abortion he had performed, he became pro-life. Nothing about this is flawed and inaccurate.

Great

[samepicofventura · 10/10 · 12 April 2019]

Shows the horrors of abortion, taking a baby's life...

My point of view

[lolstraight · 10/10 · 30 May 2018]

This i documentry is actual factual. exposing the horrors of abortions and its drawbacks. it shows the feotus's lifelike expression while undergowing such process.