Golden moments in movie

As regular readers of my columns know, I financed the production of the movie “Alongside Night.”

The film had some sneak previews in 2013 and a limited theatrical distribution in 2014. In two to four weeks the DVD and Blu-Ray combo packs of the movie will go on sale.

As a special opportunity, Liberty Coin Service has sponsored a temporary free preview showing of the entire movie on YouTube. However, it will not be found by simply doing a search of the YouTube website. Instead, viewers need to go to http://jneilschulman.agorist.com/2015/04/special-youtube-preview-of-alongside-night-full-movie/ to watch it.

Before the movie begins, you will see a six-minute infomercial for my company, which contains some special offers.

For those not yet familiar with the “Alongside Night” from my previous writings, it is adapted from the classic and prophetic award-winning 1979 novel of the same name, endorsed by Milton Friedman, Dr. Ron Paul, and others. Here is a synopsis of the film:

The United States government is running itself to ruin through quantitative easing, inability to sharply cut expenditures, depriving citizens of civil rights and liberties, and again outlawing the ownership of gold (remember, this is a work of “fiction”).

The film’s hero is a 16-year old high school senior named Elliott Vreeland (played by newcomer Christian Kramme). His father, Dr. Martin Vreeland (played by Kevin Sorbo, star of television’s “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” and most recently in the movie “God’s Not Dead”), is a Nobel Prize-winning economist.

When Elliott’s family goes missing, Elliott flees from government agents. In his adventures, he encounters the Revolutionary Agorist Cadre, a group inspired by the Declaration of Independence that is promoting a second American Revolution. He also meets a strange young woman named Lorimer (Reid Cox), whose father may be involved with the disappearance of Elliott’s family.

The movie is filled with familiar actors such as Said Faraj (who played opposite Matt Damon in “Green Zone”), Jake Busey (“Contact,” “Starship Troopers”), Tim Russ and Garrett Wang (regulars on “Star Trek: Voyager”), Gary Graham (“Alien Nation”), and Valence Thomas (“Men In Black 3,” “The Replacements”). Even former Congressman Ron Paul has a cameo. The haunting movie theme is sung by Soleil O’Neal Schulman. The sound track is performed by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine.

“Alongside Night,” rated PG-13, is a story of intrigue, action, romance, adventure and science fiction thrills. The film is scary in depicting the growing troubles in America today and what could happen in the near future.

What is the value of watching “Alongside Night?” It presents the concept that America’s politicians are not going to be able to restore the relative free enterprise that brought forth economic growth and personal liberties on a scale never before experienced in history. Instead, it is the ingenuity of individual people who can step up to save society as the government collapses.

Unfortunately, as I have written many times, the U.S. government’s policies are destroying the value of the U.S. dollar, wreaking havoc in the economy. After the disastrous experience with the high inflation of Continental dollars issued by the Second Continental Congress during the Revolutionary War, the U.S. dollar actually appreciated from the late 1700s until 1913. Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the value of the U.S. dollar has fallen 98.3 percent against an ounce of gold.

The book and the movie “Alongside Night” extrapolate from what is already occurring in the United States (In fact, author, screenwriter, producer, and director J. Neil Schulman has joked that he might sue the U.S. government for copyright infringement). It then presents a plausible scenario of what may happen in America in the near future. Enjoy watching “Alongside Night” for the fun of it, but also (as some coin dealers have told me after watching the film) to get you thinking about where this country is headed.

Patrick A. Heller was the American Numismatic Association 2012 Harry Forman Numismatic Dealer of the Year Award winner. He is the owner emeritus and communications officer of Liberty Coin Service in Lansing, Mich., and writes “Liberty’s Outlook,” a monthly newsletter on rare coins and precious metals subjects. Past newsletter issues can be viewed at http://www.libertycoinservice.com. Other commentaries are available at Coin Week (http://www.coinweek.com). He also writes a bi-monthly column on collectibles for “The Greater Lansing Business Monthly” (http://www.lansingbusinessmonthly.com/articles/department-columns). His Numismatic Literary Guild award-winning radio show “Things You ‘Know’ That Just Aren’t So, And Important News You Need To Know” can be heard at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday and Friday mornings on 1320-AM WILS in Lansing (which streams live and becomes part of the audio and text archives posted at http://www.1320wils.com).