re: Russian Paul

Thanks for the response. Those powerful early Scorsese movies you speak of, I find to be downright inhuman. Whether it is Mean Streets, Tax Driver, or Raging Bull, his so-called realistic vision is for myself, proof of something Saul Bellow once said, that you can “make a racket out of pessimism”. I agree that Stanley Kubrick made some of the greatest movies of all time (Paths of Glory and Dr, Strangelove immediately come to mind) but Eyes Wide Shut, with Tom what’s his name and a bunch of tits? Forget about it.

Spielberg is either wilfully ignorant of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine or he supports it. There’s just no middle way. If he had any sense of humanity he would make THE film that needs to made and that is the wiping of Palestine off the map.
“There were two kinds of Jews came out of the camps: those who said never again for the Jews, and those who said never again for humanity.” Sadly, Spielberg and evidently most Jews today, belong to the former category.

Oh come on Beerdoctor, you are taking things too far. Scorcese made some very original and powerful films in his early days, but I will agree he is now just a whore for Hollywood, but Kubrick was a true auteur. EWS may not have been his masterpiece, but the man had more integrity and talent than all of Hollywood put together. He would work on a film for YEARS before even beginning to shoot it. Just because he worked from within the Hollywood framework doesn’t mean anything, he had his own artistic visions, and he would never let the studios get in the way.
Sorry to go off on another tangent, but Kubrick definitely doesn’t deserve to be lumped in with an artless, sentimentalist, philistine like Spielberg.

Truculture, the King family are the ones who negotiated the deal with Spielberg. If they really wanted Spike to do it, he would be doing it.  The greed and avarice of this family knows no bounds, they have no shame.

ruculture4u, May 24 at 10:09 am #
I am rising to applaud a post that raises the obvious point. Thank you for it, and I admit that you have embarrassed me for not posting exactly what you stated.

re: ardee

My dear ardee, I do not think relevancy has anything to do with anything said here. But I am curious, just for the historical record, how much of the junk produced by Hollywood, deemed to be classic because of the revenue it produces, will be considered as such, a few decades down the road.
I too am a sentimental sucker for movies, as film director John Cassavettes said about them: “they set you up”. It is just that Steven Spielberg’s movies do nothing I enjoy. Neither do Martin Scorsese. I know these people are considered directorial geniuses, but I am just not buying it.
But that too is part of American revenue based culture, those with the gold rule. And if something produces enough revenue, it is nearly always deemed “an instant classic”. The movie industry always applauds its own efforts, but without publicity and awards shows, would any of it be considered relevant? Or there goes that word again.
Movies and especially the big league directors, consider their “films” to be works of art. So they pontificate to us mere mortals about why certain productions are important. They will discuss at length, Stanley Kubrick’s last production, Eyes Wide Shut, and say how wonderful that ridiculously lousy movie was. And it seems no one even bothers to question their industry driven wisdom.

Okay, I wonder if they are going to be this happy about Spike Lee or Clarence Dutton doing the mega biopic about the great Jewish liberator, huh excuse me, what is it that you are saying over there, ... what you say, he can’t possibly understand what it meant to be Jewish in Germany during the Hitler terror show, what it felt to be a person of Jewish decent being persecuted because of the faith that we follow… how could he possibly?

But seriously folks, what’s the story here, Mr. Lee or Mr. Dutton wasn’t high profile enough for Hoolywood to allow them to produce a film about a great African-American.  Or was it that Mr. Dutton wasn’t big enough because Mr. Lee had his chance with Malcom X.  How come we are never ‘big’ enough to tell our own stories!  STOP TRYING TO SHAPE OUR DESTINY, IT IS OURS TO SHARE, NOT YOURS!  LET US TELL OUR OWN STORIES!
 
If you truly want to learn our history, learn it from those who know it best.  If you very want to spend millions of dollars producing a movie about a great African-American, why not let an African-American tell his story?  It really is our history to tell anyway, a part of a larger American story I will admit, but our history nonetheless.  Allow us the opportunity to tell you our stories, allow us the opportunity to tell our children our stories.  We all understand the effect mass media has on the populace as a whole, not just the black folks’, why not allow us to finally put out our history.  What are you scared of, the truth? 

We need to do this in order to move on, all the great movies in the world just won’t cut it!  We need to have the discussions, hear the truth about we have treated our own citizens, and begin to repay those harmed in ways that improves those communities that have been devasted by oppression.  We need to face this issue as a Nation, feel good movies just don’t cut it any longer.

Peace

Beer medical guy:
“You see I have this reoccurring problem, I always forget to remember that success is judged in the United States, by how much money you receive.”

A truism, but not relevant to this particular conversation on this particular forum about this particular subject. I doubt the defenders of Spielberg ( if indeed there are any such here, I am not one, just one who thinks the talk of propaganda intent in his work is over the top)do so because they view him as rich and successful. In the end, much ado about nothing….

Hmm, a beer doctor would certainly enjoy the old saw,“physician heal thyself”.....

I am glad my comments prompted responses from truthdiggers, including cyrena who I have not read lately. To be clear, I do not think of Mr. Spielberg as a propagandist for the Zionist lobby. That just happens to be the viewpoint he agrees with. What I meant about Saving Private Ryan, was not about the subject itself, but rather the cozy relationship that has developed between Hollywood and the United States military through the years, a tradition that already existed in the time of John Ford, and continues to this day. But if you read actual interviews with Steven Spielberg, you will discover that he does indeed believe in military intervention, and of course he loves the United States, because the United States is where he found the cornucopia of gold, that is, as Samuel Johnson might put it, “beyond the dreams of avarice”.
Steven Spielberg makes plenty of movies that are not concerned with politics. As one poster noted, he knows how to push the right buttons; and many of his sentimental productions prove their worth by how many watch them.
You see I have this reoccurring problem, I always forget to remember that success is judged in the United States, by how much money you receive.

Cyrena, the King family is delighted because they made another several million dollars off of MLK’s legacy.

..he’s proven time and again what he is capable of in his talents in film production.

Yes, technically a very capable hollywood director. Knows how to push the right melodramatic buttons that make people cry and laugh and feel all good about themselves. But it’s all phony. As democracy888 says, will he talk about MLK as a revolutionary anti war/anti capitalist leader who mobilized millions and was percieved as a threat by the US gov? Or will he show the Hallmark/Lifetime version of MLK that we teach our kids?

And just because shift may have been extreme in his words doesn’t mean a great deal of Zionists aren;t involved in Hollywood productions, they most certainly are. They already exercise great control over what we see and read in the news, criticism of israel is basically nonexistant in the US, there’s a reason for that. Shift’s comments came off as antisemitic because he misplaced his anger towards all jews, instead of placing it soley on zionists who can come in every race and creed.

By “G"utless “W"itless Hitler, May 22 at 12:35 pm #

The BeerDoc writes:

“But I think the record reveals that time and again, Mr. Spielberg always adheres to the Zionist lobby approach…”—thebeerdoctor

And “G"utless “W” itless Hitler responds with:

“Just out of curiosity, how was the Zionist lobby approach manifested in E.T.?  Jaws?”

Great question GW…I wondered the same myself. In fact, since I’ve been very restricted in my reading of Truthdig these days, (only get a chance to check it once in a while, compared to the old days) I keyed in on this article based on the title…MLK to get the Speilberg treatment, and I was immediately delighted. Note it is the FIRST documentary/producer that the family of Dr. King has approved, and I suspect I’m delighted for the same reasons they are. The assumption is that Mr. Speilberg will do a superb job with such a project, because he’s proven time and again what he is capable of in his talents in film production.

So, was I let down to read the first page of comments that had nothing to do with the article, and the appreciation for such a documentary? Of course. I’m always let down and dismayed by ignorance and bigotry.

Am I surprised that so many posters have turned the content of the article into an anti-Semitic rant that has nothing to do with the life or work of the late Dr. King?

Nope. Not in the least. In fact, I expected it from the very ones who continue to put it out there.

Some folks just refuse to part with their hatred and bitterness, and I don’t expect that to change. It hasn’t yet.

Mr. Spielberg always adheres to the Zionist lobby approach, which finds it quite convenient to slip in Jewish mythology (Raiders of the Lost Ark) as part of the entertainment package, and when called upon to support U.S. interventionism (Saving Private Ryan) or funding continuation for the state of Israel (Schindler’s List).
..........

Jeeez BeerMD, do you really believe that Raiders would have been as good a movie if the Ark was not in it?  More importantly, do you honestly believe that the inclusion of said “jewish artifact” was propaganda?

Private Ryan was a movie about WW2 and you interpret it as supporting interventionism…about that Pearl Harbor thingie.

Its fine to criticize the choice of director for this movie, but its nice to keep at least one foot on the ground while doing so. Personally I hope they dont make the damn thing, Hollywood sucks and they will only cheapen and misrepresent the lifes work of a great man.

You know, now that I give it some thought, did you seem to notice that shark had a really long nose????? Hmmmm

Shift, would you also say that we should avoid anyone but Germans, or even better - Nazis - to tell the story about the Third Reich? Or just ban the Jews, because everyone knows they’re a people dedicated to “personal financial gain” who “never tell the story of other people correctly”?

There is a word for people like you: antisemitic.

“But I think the record reveals that time and again, Mr. Spielberg always adheres to the Zionist lobby approach…”—thebeerdoctor

Just out of curiosity, how was the Zionist lobby approach manifested in E.T.?  Jaws?

Going off on a screed about “all Jews” and “another Jewish whitewash for profit” is stupidly ridiculous. No, the real question here is whether you consider Steven Spielberg a good movie director/producer or not. But I think the record reveals that time and again, Mr. Spielberg always adheres to the Zionist lobby approach, which finds it quite convenient to slip in Jewish mythology (Raiders of the Lost Ark) as part of the entertainment package, and when called upon to support U.S. interventionism (Saving Private Ryan) or funding continuation for the state of Israel (Schindler’s List).
Examining his previous work in the area of American black experience (The Color Purple), I would say artistically he is a poor choice for such a project. If Hollywood demands a Jewish director, perhaps Sydney Lumet would be a better choice. A perusal of his film resume for me, reveals a director who has made far more substantial movies, and has the gravitas as it were, to tackle subjects of great substance.

Russian Paul, May 20 at 2:06 pm #

Kudos for your prompt and apt response to what appears to be an anitsemitic rant.

One may say , with truth, that there are Jews with successful careers in journalism and the movie industry, but to scream about “jewish control” of those industries speaks volumes about the poster and nothing of any substance about the jewish people.

Not again! Speilberg always takes these huge historic stories, and reduces them to maudlin, tearjerking, Hollywood money makers. The Color Purple, Schunidler’s List, Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, Munich, and he’s already working on Lincoln. Now MLK?!

Shift is right, these films are a whitewash, but I think you should be much more careful with your words. “Jews never tell the story of other people correctly…”
This overstatement is a whitewash in itself. There are powerful Jews and there are Jews with no power. Some oppose power structures, others defend them. I am about to read Ilan Pappe’s book “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.” He is one of Israel’s “New Historians” a group of Jewish scholars who are now undermining the official Zionist Israeli histories. Not to go off on a tangent here, but when you make broad statements about “all jews” not only is it innacurate, but you are distracting from healthy criticism and instead using anti-semitic rhetoric that only enflames. I don’t think that’s what you meant to do, and I agree with most of what you said, but when you accuse “all jews” of something, you are definitely on the wrong track.

Jews never tell the story of other people correctly, they instead exploit their stories for personal financial gain.  Witness the recent “We Will Remain,” series of Native American History in America, SUPPOSEDLY, told from the Native perspective.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The TRUTH, was mostly left out of that series, as was the truth in the film Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, another Jewish whitewash for profit. 

Stay away from Jewish producers and influence and tell your own stories absent Jewish exploitation or the truth will never be told.