It is difficult and uncommon to find some piece of media, some exposition, which is particularly damning for one person or group. Kanye West’s drunken belligerence has not curtailed his record sales any more than David Letterman’s well-publicized affairs have brought him bad publicity. There are some few outbursts of the entertainment industry, be they songs or movies, which can defines generations, encompass cultural movements, or capture a particular mentality with inimitable effectiveness. Warner Bros.’ Mission to Moscow, released in 1942, is one such film, and one’s whose release last Tuesday is as appropriate and unsurprising now as it was sixty-five years ago. This blatant, calibrated piece of Soviet and communist propaganda was requested directly by Franklin Roosevelt and is, as a critic put it at the time, a $2 million love letter to Josef Stalin.
According to Cass Warner, film historian and granddaughter of Harry Warner, “President Roosevelt himself asked Harry and Jack Warner to assist in educating, entertaining and enlightening the American people.” Directed by Casablanca’s Michael Curtiz, the controversial film marked a turning point in Hollywood’s perception of the Soviet Union, at the time an ambiguous and distrusted ally, towards a curious and praise-worthy alternative to America. The script was loosely based on the memoirs of Joseph E. Davies, ambassador to Moscow in the late 1930s, and at one point features Davies’ character lauding Stalin; “Mr. Stalin, history will remember you as a great leader.” The film insists that Stalin recognized the Nazi threat long before the West and only allied with Hitler to buy himself and the West—his real friends, some time. He was then obligated to invade Finland, as this mission to Moscow reveals, to protect it from the Nazis (don’t tell the Finns, or for that matter mention it to the rest of Europe lest they become envious) while the film insists his subsequent purges were the conjuration of a vast Nazi conspiracy.
The Office of War Information praised the movie and its rendition of Stalin, saying it portrayed that “the leaders of both countries desire peace and both possess a blunt honesty of address and purpose”. Upon its release, Mission to Moscow came under heavy criticism, and the Warner Bros. found themselves appearing before Congress in 1950 as examples of communist infiltration in Hollywood, but after asserting screenwriter Howard Koch as the sympathizer were reprieved. Such behavior by the FDR administration is hardly surprising, but the release of Mission to Moscow is an inadvertent reminder that the situation has not changed that much. Russia is still a belligerent power ready and willing to exercise military force, as now is China, and while both countries have launched multiple operations in the past 3 years, they are being greeted mild affection and flimsy politics. Though FDR was proven wrong and Stalin identified as one of the greatest mass murderers in history, the current administration is offering Russian operatives open tours of U.S. nuclear silos. FDR’s ghost can contentedly watch a re-implementation of his economic policies with the current administration while seeing the mission to Moscow turning into a submission to Moscow.
Showing posts with label propaganda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label propaganda. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Renaissance Men in Venice
Acclaimed film directors Oliver Stone and Michael Moore were again throwing their weight around in the international film circuit, and rocking the boat in Venice. The once mighty commercial Republic sunk all the faster as Moore, Stone, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez concentrated their considerable mass (in the spirit of socialism) at the annual Venice Film Festival. Moore’s film, Capitalism: A Love Story, along with Oliver Stone’s latest documentary South of the Border, debuted in a nifty, four-hour, commercial free proclamation of the evils of capitalism, extortion by America, and the virtues of Hugo Chavez and his proclaimed, “Latin American Renaissance”.
Moore’s film unequivocally concluded that, “Capitalism is an evil, and you cannot regulate evil. You have to eliminate it and replace it with something that is good for all people and that something is democracy." Stone echoed Moore’s blatant criticism, particularly targeting the American policies in Latin America while praising Chavez’s counteraction: “I hope you realize how dynamic he is in the movie. What I like about the film is you see how sincere he is on camera. You don't see a guy who is a phony. He's not a dictator." Moore let his standard publicity stunts and political analysis circulate with typically minimal objectivity, but Stone and Chavez really lit up the red carpet scene with their sincere dynamism.
After Chavez’s dramatic entrance, during which he threw flowers, blew kisses, and took pictures—of himself, Stone addressed reporters saying, "I think the movie, if you've seen it, shows very clearly the level of stupidity in the kind of broad statements that are made about Mr. Chavez.” The film itself received criticism for poor editing, sporting several scenes wherein cameramen were unintentionally visible. Apparently, Stone has sacrificed the meticulous approach in film for the bombastic in his PR campaign. According to Stone, his movie will only show things to people who watch it—fair enough—and furthermore will cover up what Stone saw as harsh generalities with more amicable blanket statements of its own.
When asked why he didn’t present any opposing viewpoints of Chavez, Stone coldly replied, “There's a dark side to everything. Why do you seek out the dark side when the guy is doing good things? He is a democrat and there is opposition to him, and he's not perfect”. Fellow filmmaker George Lucas knows more than anyone that the Dark Side is cunning. Two Sith there always are…a master, and an apprentice. It is very curious because, in this instance, the dark side is the generally liberal media and Latin American ex-patriots—some Sith somewhere is acting very duplicitously. Where is that chancellor Palpatine? Obama’s policy on cloning is shaky at best, but he’s already called for a civilian army: "We cannot continue to only rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."…the Jedi are going to feel this one.
Moore’s film unequivocally concluded that, “Capitalism is an evil, and you cannot regulate evil. You have to eliminate it and replace it with something that is good for all people and that something is democracy." Stone echoed Moore’s blatant criticism, particularly targeting the American policies in Latin America while praising Chavez’s counteraction: “I hope you realize how dynamic he is in the movie. What I like about the film is you see how sincere he is on camera. You don't see a guy who is a phony. He's not a dictator." Moore let his standard publicity stunts and political analysis circulate with typically minimal objectivity, but Stone and Chavez really lit up the red carpet scene with their sincere dynamism.
After Chavez’s dramatic entrance, during which he threw flowers, blew kisses, and took pictures—of himself, Stone addressed reporters saying, "I think the movie, if you've seen it, shows very clearly the level of stupidity in the kind of broad statements that are made about Mr. Chavez.” The film itself received criticism for poor editing, sporting several scenes wherein cameramen were unintentionally visible. Apparently, Stone has sacrificed the meticulous approach in film for the bombastic in his PR campaign. According to Stone, his movie will only show things to people who watch it—fair enough—and furthermore will cover up what Stone saw as harsh generalities with more amicable blanket statements of its own.
When asked why he didn’t present any opposing viewpoints of Chavez, Stone coldly replied, “There's a dark side to everything. Why do you seek out the dark side when the guy is doing good things? He is a democrat and there is opposition to him, and he's not perfect”. Fellow filmmaker George Lucas knows more than anyone that the Dark Side is cunning. Two Sith there always are…a master, and an apprentice. It is very curious because, in this instance, the dark side is the generally liberal media and Latin American ex-patriots—some Sith somewhere is acting very duplicitously. Where is that chancellor Palpatine? Obama’s policy on cloning is shaky at best, but he’s already called for a civilian army: "We cannot continue to only rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."…the Jedi are going to feel this one.
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