DVD Review: ‘What The Bleep: Down The Rabbit Hole’ Tenth Anniversary

‘What the Bleep: Down the Rabbit Hole’ is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a new four disc release, but unfortunately this incredibly fan friendly content-laden edition is not enough to make-up for what is still a near incomprehensible pseudoscientific mess of a film.

Somewhere between a documentary and a well-cast infomercial, ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’ is basically a proto version of ‘The Secret’ unhappily married with a flawed interpretation of physics and string theory. Science and mysticism don’t make a good couple, but through the use of clever editing and “expert” interviews the film argues that they are connected through a shared understanding of human consciousness. Basically, the film’s main point is that the only thing stopping a person from getting everything they want is the way that they see the world. If they simply change their worldview to a way more in line with how the quantum universe works then they can have or do anything they want. Never mind that this involves a completely incorrect understanding of string theory and the philosophy of science (some of the film’s key assumptions involve things that are just completely unknowable one way or the other).

This new edition includes a bunch more “expert” interviews and other features. Fans of the original should be happy with all of the additional content, though at some point one really does have to wonder if the inclusion of so much ‘evidence’ is not just overcompensation for something. This is not a new transfer of the original film, and some of the visuals just don’t hold up well. For a film that aims to illustrate a cutting edge way of thinking about life and reality, it looks pretty old and outdated. ‘What the Bleep: Down the Rabbit Hole’ is still a movie for a very specific audience and this new anniversary edition is catered explicitly for them.