Not Totally Convinced
Jeffery Mingo | Homewood, IL USA | 02/04/2009
(2 out of 5 stars)
"There have been other documentaries about facial expressions and body language. However, this one tries to make things "sexy" by focusing on politicians and celebrities. This work is a little bit PBS, a little bit C-Span, and a little bit E! Cable Network.
Some stuff I found informative or true. They compared a sunny, extroverted Britney Spears at the start of her career to a sunglassed, limo-catching misanthrope of recent years. This work reminded me of "The Negotiator" when Samuel L. Jackson's character tells another man, "Your eyes went up because you are trying to tap into a lie in your brain." The work made an interesting point about where President Clinton and where he was pointing when he declared, "I did not get busy with THAT woman!"
Still, other stuff didn't jibe with me. They showed how Arafat and an Israeli president didn't want to go into a room first. They said this was cultural and I agree. It had nothing to do with innate, genetically inscribed body language. Later they said Nixon had his hands behind his back when speaking to the press because he wanted to look open but coax himself without others seeing it. Okay, maybe. However, I could read his hidden hands as signifying that he had something to hide. It could be that he was trying to pretend to present the truth when he knew the lie was not visible to those in front of him. The work showed a car salesman standing up and talking to two potential buyers in a car and they say, "He messed up! He should have spoken to them at their level." However, this was an older man communicating to two young ladies. Perhaps the experts weren't reading gender and age-based customs into his actions.
This just felt like a time-killer, rather than true and hard reporting."
Great body language mini-course
Chen Sun | Houston, TX United States | 02/27/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I've read several books on body language, and didn't learn much. Now I know why. The books were missing the critical dynamic components and visualization. This DVD presents the basic framework from which one can then learn much more. I'm often critical of books, and believe this DVD did an outstanding introduction."
Very good way to learn body language
Bill Coleman | 05/04/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I have been studing body language for years, this DVD is great, you can see and understand what you are looking for."