(11-11-2014 03:39 PM)JRsec Wrote:  It's difficult to say about Leni Riefenstahl. Most actors in Germany and film producers had to swear oaths of allegiance to the Reich in order to continue working. Judging her today by standards that are alien to the pressures of a totalitarian regime are not quite fair. She did go on to do great work for National Geographic and as a free lance photographer.

All true, and well-said.

One of the things that is most striking to me about most media-portrayals of historic events, is how often people of the past are judged by the moral/political standards of the present. Also, the way we tend to speak as if they knew or should have known how events that are in the past for us, (but were in the "future" for them) were going to turn out. Leni Riefenstahl did not know, in 1934 or 1935, that World War II was going to happen. Edward VIII and the other members of the British royalty/aristocracy did not know, in 1936 or 1937, that London would be bombed. Charles Lindbergh did not know, in 1938 or 1941, that Auschwitz would become the site of genocide. Yet those people -- and many, many others -- are frequently condemned for not somehow, someway, anticipating those events. A wrongful conviction, IMHO.

Quote:I feel the climate is right in the U.S. for similar abuses. We have a struggling disenfranchised but not poor middle class, a growing under class, and people want short easy solutions to their complex problems. We also have extremely wealthy power brokers who want the illusion of success sold to the people.

In total agreement with all of that.

Quote:[Triumph of the Will] would be a strong dose of reality to the American public to see how effective propaganda can be, and how familiar some of the techniques to producing it are.

Would be, if anyone was allowed to see it. I doubt it has been shown to the general public anywhere in the world for more than 70 years. A few carefully-controlled screenings here and there (museums, college-campuses, etc.), but no way that ordinary people would be allowed to just happen by and watch it on a Saturday afternoon.