Kenneth
Supporting Actor
- Joined
- Jul 31, 1997
- Messages
- 757
I think it is more important to understand and discuss films like BOAN and others rather than ban them. One of the dangers of racism is that it creeps in silently sometimes if you are not watching for it. Films like these help highlight what the creeping evil looks like. I wouldn't be surprised if we end up in another discussion like this next month when they release "Triumph of the Will".
Another interesting series to watch if you want to see racism from a different angle is the "Why We Fight" series by Frank Capra. Made during WWII for a US military audience these films are some of the best propaganda ever produced. They do an excellent job of dehumanizing and diminishing the enemy so that American troops would be ready to kill them. Of course this is a necessary condition of war and few would argue that the Germans, Italians, and Japanese weren't inhuman in many ways (or too human, depending on your point of view
) and this was the only way to address their evils. However, it is often difficult to set aside these biases after the war is over, especially when the same effort used to instill the bias is not used to uninstill the bias.
Kenneth
Another interesting series to watch if you want to see racism from a different angle is the "Why We Fight" series by Frank Capra. Made during WWII for a US military audience these films are some of the best propaganda ever produced. They do an excellent job of dehumanizing and diminishing the enemy so that American troops would be ready to kill them. Of course this is a necessary condition of war and few would argue that the Germans, Italians, and Japanese weren't inhuman in many ways (or too human, depending on your point of view
Kenneth