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| Re: Thread goes Godwin by Senor Barborito 07/07/2003, 8:35pm PDT | ||||
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Lizard_King wrote: You'd have to ask my dad. Whatever I am to computer games (a freakish obsessive who has sampled nearly every major entry in the genre), he is to sci-fi. He understands that Scientology is crap but has still read most of pre-Dianetics Hubbard (or whenever it was L. Ron went to shit - I assume around then). And what is so fucking great about the Triumph Of Will anyhow? I have heard film majors extol its virtues left and right, along people that have (even more) minimal film knowledge but simply assume that praising famous silent films is the sure path to being a "serious" film critic. I had to sit through the whole goddamn thing, twice, for a study about Nazi propaganda and while I can certainly grant it a measure of respect for the technical work and some of the aesthetic decisions, I hardly find it the pants-shitting delight that it seems to have become for so many people. First of all I definitely saw Triumph of the Will with sound and in German as part of my fifth year German class (out of 7 years total - and no I can barely speak the language). It was not a silent film, as I remember the tune of the marching music and the sound of Hitler's voice quite distinctly. I am not a serious film critic. I'm not even an amateur - the only movie I've ever purposefully purchased is Fight Club, and the next will be a complete set of all three extended editions of LOTR. I see maybe 4 movies a year tops. Technical work is lost on me, aesthetic 'decisions' as opposed to the more plebian overall impact of the aesthetics only marginally less so. I'd like to think that while this disqualifies me from commenting on the merits of the film on those regards - which I'll leave to the apparently satisfied critics - it leaves me more open to a fresh and non-judgemental perspective on the film as towards its target audience. This is where things get hairy, and more than a bit personal. My paternal grandparents are German immigrants who left former East Germany around the time the Berlin Wall went up in order to escape communism. The family factory and (rather large) fortune and just been nationalized by the Reds (keep in mind I do claim to be a socialist despite this, heh). Both of my grandparents spent their childhood as Hitlerjugend - and not at all by their own choice. Both their families had Jewish friends and knew the Nazi propaganda to be lies. They and their families were equally upset and like many Germans of the time helpless against the Party. My extended paternal family is very close, we all saw each other anywhere from biweekly to monthly. Once or twice a month, nearly every month during my own childhood was spent sleeping over at their place so that my parents could have some much-needed time to themselves (my immediate family was very much on the lower end of middle-class until I turned 12 or so, and my parents didn't get much relaxation time). To say that I was firmly indoctrinated to hate fascism since early childhood is to put it all far too mildly. My grandparents were not happy about the label that had been slapped on them for the rest of their lives despite their own being incredibly nice people without fail throughout. To the extent they played part-time parents for me and my siblings there was some fairly heavy anti-Nazi atmosphere hanging about. I grew up hating fascism the way Southern Baptists grow up hating fags, only in this case my own intellectual development only served - and continues to serve - to confirm this hatred as ethically correct. What was amazing to me about Triumph of the Will, was that while watching it - with the grandiose music during the pre-speech rush of symbols and oceans of soldiers marching in perfect formation - I got a brief rush of pride. Not any kind of German pride, either - I've always had a bit of that thanks to my entire paternal family living close together and being very aware that 'German' was part of my own identity. This was completely different, with nasty connotations and overtones about being a part of the cult of the Fuhrer, of being a drone to the Over-man principle and the Master Race ideology. It scared the living fuck out of me because it stood in direct opposition to everything that I'd been brought up to believe. Now I'd also been brought up as an extremely serious, die-hard, born-again-really-believes-in-it-and-evangelical Christian. But I knew there was a slew of reasons to seriously doubt that. I also knew there was no reason to doubt fascism being everything that can go wrong with the human race - I still don't doubt it even at my most amoral and intellectually/ethically open-minded moments. This was something that stood in direct opposition to who and what I was, and what everything I really respected about everyone I loved was. Like I said, it scared the living fuck out of me then, and it still does now. That's propaganda - that's powerful, dangerous media right there. It is for that reason and that reason alone that while I hate fascism and everything to do with it (extending to an ever-present distrust of the modern far-right, I might add), I admire and am deeply impressed by Triumph of the Will. I can't honestly think of another piece of media that has stirred such a sharp pang of emotional shock in me. Just that one inner guilty brief flash of wanting to march with those soldiers and shout 'Sieg Heil!' in direct opposition to everything I've been taught, thought, or have ever been is as amazing an accomplishment in film-making as it is disturbing. --SB |
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