Dr. Suess's Hate Film

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Racist? I thought the only people who thought the Germans were a race were....the Nazis...? Sure it's propaganda, typical of the era and ridiculous. But how is this a hate film?

It's not a hate film. What's wrong with teaching your troops to be alert?

The phrases "hate film" and "vicious racist propaganda" (from the thread title) are extremely loaded. The film does characterise the German people as potential war-mongering Nazis. In the context of the time (just after a war that has killed over 50 million people), that's not surprising. There was resentment against Germans (in general) for WW2, regardless of their actual involvement in it. There was racism.

Racism, if not much more prevalent in the early to mid 20th Century, certainly was more overt than it is now. In that regard film-makers and authors are a sort of compendium of their times - that doesn't mean the author/film-maker etc is racist, but certainly books and films dating from that time contained racism, because that was "acceptable" at the time.

[PlatyPius 5]

Could you explain how it is racist to say "keep careful watch on that country (and nationals thereof) we just defeated in war"?

Now Sriniv that's not quite "all" it says.

Here's a small sampling of some of the more repugnant lines (of course you can't get the additional impact of the film's sneering tone without listening to the audio):

… the German states combined, serving notice to all that their religion was higher… that their God was blood.

I just had to correct this one. If you actually watch the movie while you're listening to it, you'll see that he was discussing a chapter called "Iron and Blood". What he said was: "… the German states combined, serving notice to all that their religion was IRON… that their God was blood."

This was in reference to their conquests in the 1800s.

[desert_fox 32]

Good flic....didnt see anything racist.

Too bad he cant make one today warning of the Death Cult that exists in the Middle East that will kill anyone who doesnt belive in their death cult....women, children are all fair game.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Good flic....didnt see anything racist.

You must have been watching a different film

[ieldanth 0]

It was a white person hating on white people who had officially killed over 6 million people based on their own hatred. I don't know, but if a nation just killed off enough of their own population over the course of 5 years to fill a medium-large city, it would tend to make you a little distrustful of them, wouldn't it?

Racism as we define it today is an irrational hatred of other ethnicities. Distrust of the German people was, at the time, very understandable.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Racism as we define it today is an irrational hatred of other ethnicities. Distrust of the German people was, at the time, very understandable.

"Modern" racism is not restricted to ethnicities but to other nationalities as well.

Distrust was certainly understandable with regards to the immediate aftermath of WW2, but the suggestion in the movie is that the majority of the German population are predisposed to be sympathetic to the nazi party and nazi ideologies. Over the last 60+ years the events leading up to the Nazis rise to power have been subjected to enough scrutiny to show that that wasn't the case.

The current pope was a member of the Hitler Youth, but by all accounts that wasn't a decision arrived at by choice...

Edited October 12, 2006 by erekose

[ILIKEALLCAPS 0]

Yep, you're absolutely right. The nerve of the man. Serving in the Army, following orders making propaganda films. Jeepers! And to think he took such depravity and put it to use writing children's books that have underlying themes about tolerance and protecting the environment.

If'n he were alive I'd say we should burn him alive on a pile of his books.

Beware, anyone who has a loved one in the service! They'll come home after honorably discharging their duties and possibly entertain and/or educate! We should put them all down like the rabid dogs they are! Context be damned!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

[Saddle Bronc 124]

...I don't know, but if a nation just killed off enough of their own population over the course of 5 years to fill a medium-large city, it would tend to make you a little distrustful of them, wouldn't it?...

In 1946, true.

In 1996, unfortunately different story:

• March-December 1971, Pakistan's "Operation Searchlight" killed 3.5 million East Pakistanis (all ethnic Bengalis, citizens of Pakistan), of which 2.3 million were Muslims (look at the Bangla flag--that's what the circle represents)
  
• 1975-1980, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge killed over 1 million Cambodians
  
• in 1994, Hutu extremists murdered between 500,000 and 750,000 Tusi (and non-extremist Hutu) in Rwanda
  
• 1980-1988, about 200,000 Kurds and Marsh-Arabs murdered on Saddam Hussein's orders
  

Edited October 12, 2006 by CherryXS