Posted on Apr 29, 2022
Hollywood and tyrants: How filmmakers take on the powerful
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https://www.npr.org/2022/04/28/ [login to see] /hollywood-and-tyrants-how-filmmakers-take-on-the-powerful
In film lore, movie moguls are nearly always pictured as tyrants, directors as dictators, producers as despots, so you'd think I'd be used to the notion of authoritarianism by now.
But this era of political autocrats has me rattled, not least because it will inevitably result in a raft of strongman movies in a couple of years.
Apparently, it has Jon Stewart rattled, too, at least judging from the speech he gave at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts when he was presented with the 2022 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
In film lore, movie moguls are nearly always pictured as tyrants, directors as dictators, producers as despots, so you'd think I'd be used to the notion of authoritarianism by now.
But this era of political autocrats has me rattled, not least because it will inevitably result in a raft of strongman movies in a couple of years.
Apparently, it has Jon Stewart rattled, too, at least judging from the speech he gave at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts when he was presented with the 2022 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
Hollywood and tyrants: How filmmakers take on the powerful
Posted from npr.org
Movies
Hollywood
Hollywood
Humor
World History
Posted 2 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."The banana peel in the coal mine
"Comedy doesn't change the world," he told the audience, "but it's a bellwether. We're the banana peel in the coal mine. When a society is under threat, comedians are the ones who get sent away first. It's just a reminder to people that democracy is under threat. Authoritarians are the threat to comedy, to art, to music, to thought, to poetry, to progress, to all those things."
True enough, and it has me pondering how the arts have dealt with authoritarians through the years.
In Shakespeare's day, you had to be a fool to speak truth to power. King Lear's Fool, for instance, mocked the king's decision to give away his kingdom to his daughters. He'd been granted a dispensation to say what he wanted because no one took him seriously. He served at the pleasure of the crown.
Offstage, of course, so did Elizabethan playwrights. The spiritual descendants of those playwrights now work in the film industry, and at least in Hollywood, they don't have to worry much about catering to tyrants (unless you count studio bosses)."...
..."The banana peel in the coal mine
"Comedy doesn't change the world," he told the audience, "but it's a bellwether. We're the banana peel in the coal mine. When a society is under threat, comedians are the ones who get sent away first. It's just a reminder to people that democracy is under threat. Authoritarians are the threat to comedy, to art, to music, to thought, to poetry, to progress, to all those things."
True enough, and it has me pondering how the arts have dealt with authoritarians through the years.
In Shakespeare's day, you had to be a fool to speak truth to power. King Lear's Fool, for instance, mocked the king's decision to give away his kingdom to his daughters. He'd been granted a dispensation to say what he wanted because no one took him seriously. He served at the pleasure of the crown.
Offstage, of course, so did Elizabethan playwrights. The spiritual descendants of those playwrights now work in the film industry, and at least in Hollywood, they don't have to worry much about catering to tyrants (unless you count studio bosses)."...
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Hitler’s Reign of Terror - 1934
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-first-american-anti-nazi-film-rediscovered
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-first-american-anti-nazi-film-rediscovered
The First American Anti-Nazi Film, Rediscovered
“Hitler’s Reign of Terror” lay dormant for nearly eighty years, but now an excerpt has been made available to The New Yorker. It is an oddball …
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