All very true. In war there are many casualties, truth often being
one. The US propaganda films were used much like you said, and are
often, especially today, distasteful, however they did not advocate
extermination of entire races like "The Eternal Jew". Moral equivalency
is a very dangerous concept and can ultimately be used to excuse any
behavior. Be wary.
At any rate this topic has little to do with OM cameras, and belongs on
another list
R. Jackson wrote:
I've seen American wartime "documentaries" that portrayed Japanese in
caricature form as little more than vermin with round glasses and buck
teeth. There's one we saw in a class that featured Robert Conrad and
Jack Webb where "Reds" were portrayed as mindless, robotic servants of
evil. Persuasive films used for political purposes are frequently
pretty misleading and often used to portray a group of people as less
than human. That dehumanizing makes a lot of what's asked of the
public during times of war more palatable.
On Nov 30, 2003, at 12:34 PM, Jerry Liles wrote:
Reifenstal's films are the best known from the Third Reich, and, as
you say, have a debatable message, though I would argue the Triumph
of the Will was ultimately malignant. The so-called documentaries
that were unequivocally malign were those like, "The Eternal Jew".
Failing to condemn them is unconscionable. They were, without doubt,
evil.
Jerry Liles
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