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Nazi Dreams: Films About Fascism
Learn how to identify Nazis and punch them in the snoot!
Nazis are Hollywood's favorite villains; the all-purpose evil that adds moral weight to a banal plot, or the sure-fire bad guys who your hero can thump without regrets. But fascism is also appealing, with its fine uniforms and certainty, in true Hollywood action style, that might makes right. NAZI DREAMS examines the changing, queasy relationship between films and fascism with essays on films like THE ETERNAL JEW, SHADOW AND FOG, INGLORIOUS BASTERDS, and DIRTY HARRY. The book also includes discussions of the politics of fascism in the present moment, including an essay on why free speech for fascists does not make us more free and the pros and cons of killing baby Hitler. A 36,000 word plus collection based on a series of essays that first appeared in Splice Today (www.splicetoday.com). Cover art by Jacqueline Sweet.
Nazis are Hollywood's favorite villains; the all-purpose evil that adds moral weight to a banal plot, or the sure-fire bad guys who your hero can thump without regrets. But fascism is also appealing, with its fine uniforms and certainty, in true Hollywood action style, that might makes right. NAZI DREAMS examines the changing, queasy relationship between films and fascism with essays on films like THE ETERNAL JEW, SHADOW AND FOG, INGLORIOUS BASTERDS, and DIRTY HARRY. The book also includes discussions of the politics of fascism in the present moment, including an essay on why free speech for fascists does not make us more free and the pros and cons of killing baby Hitler. A 36,000 word plus collection based on a series of essays that first appeared in Splice Today (www.splicetoday.com). Cover art by Jacqueline Sweet.
180 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 4, 2017
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December 28, 2017
This compulsively readable and analytically incisive foray through an arbitrary-but-inspired selection of films yields many strong insights into the workings of fascist thought, art, and ideology, even if they do tend to occur more in sometimes-recursive flashes than in any kind of systematic development of the book's central concepts. While there is occasional repetition, especially in those essays that have been appeared in print elsewhere before, Berlatsky's thinking through of pop culture's obsession with fascism feels urgent and vital. He never fails to connect the ugly specters of historical fascist forms and regimes back to the rising tide of Trump-era neo-fascism and the 'alt-right', and does so with exceptional flair, energy, and intellectual rigor.
Displaying 1 of 1 review