But looking back at the historic meetings of dictators and Hollywood, this dramatic action is nothing new. The Sony cancellation of a comedy that uses real-life dictator Kim Jong-un being assassinated may be in poor taste but offers strong parallels to Hollywood’s avoidance of covering other well known violent dictators, the Holocaust and mention of the genocide of Jews during World War II.
Yesterday, Sony Pictures Entertainment, a billion dollar company owned by Japanese, cancelled their release of the film “The Interview”, a movie depicting the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, after a months’ long hacking attack was revealed by the U.S. government to be backed by the dictatorship.
The hacking attack against Sony has brought numerous damaging confidential emails and financial information out to the public, and this week, the cyber attack escalated with direct threats to movie theaters that dared to screen this film.
With terror threats specifically warning Sony to “remember the 11th of September” at any location where this movie would be shown, and intelligence information linking North Korea to the cyber hacking, the entertainment group pulled the plug on their movie.
But looking back at the historic meetings of dictators and Hollywood, this dramatic action is nothing new. The Sony cancellation of a comedy that uses real-life dictator Kim Jong-un being assassinated may be in poor taste but offers strong parallels to Hollywood’s avoidance of covering other well known violent dictators, the Holocaust and mention of the genocide of Jews during World War II.
In 1939, when Adolf Hitler and Nazis took control of Europe and massacred millions of Jews and anyone else who got in their way, including intellectuals, artists, and protestors, a beloved American named Walt Disney was happy to welcome Nazi propaganda filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl into his California base, in spite of the fact she was Hitler's and the Nazi regime’s star.
Though propaganda of late has whitewashed Riefenstahl’s activity during the Nazi reign, history clearly shows her clear link to Nazism, via her staging, planning and filming of the Triumph of the Will (1935) and Day of Freedom: Our Army (1935), both films glorifying Hitler and his soldiers, and financed by the Nazi government.
Tales of Walt Disney being anti-Semitic have raged for decades, since he was associated with a well known anti-Semitic group “MPAPI”, and was also a member of the “Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals”, a well known anti-communist, anti-fascist, and anti-Semitic organization.
But Disney was not alone in keeping films with anti-dictatorship themes out of American view. During World War II, Hollywood did not stand up to Nazism nor shed a light upon the Holocaust for quite some time, until the 1940’s. This is significant - and bears comparison to the Sony hacking - since in 1938 the “Kristallnacht” or “Night of Broken Glass” occurred, on November 8-9. During the Kristallnacht, which was well documented and known to the U.S. and Hollywood film studios, violent anti-Jewish pogroms occurred, in Germany and Austria, by Nazis and non-Jews, who destroyed all businesses, homes and synagogues.
Ever the gifted propagandists, the Nazis staged this violence as an unplanned peoples’ revolution, by instructing their soldiers and Hitler youth to wear civilian clothing during their pillaging and attacks.
“Kristallnacht” was known to the U.S. government, who was close following the Nazi regime, and also Hollywood movie studios, since they had millions of dollars at stake with their German business relationships.
The deadly echo of silence reverberated from Hollywood to Germany.
Rutgers University professor Susan Cruthers noted, “Hollywood produced 242 movies during the war referring explicitly to the Nazis and 190 referring directly to Hitler, but as to telling Americans about the Holocaust “did a particularly woeful job”.
At a conference held in November, Cruthers explained that the concentration camps in Hollywood movies did not show Jews as victims of genocide but instead, “The concentration camp isn’t [depicted as] a site of mass slaughter, and concentration camps as Hollywood depicted them aren’t particularly places in which Jews are the predominant inmates. There is no intimation of a holocaust.”
There were some notable anti-Nazi films, such as Charlie Chaplin’s 1940 movie “The Great Dictator” and the 1939 classic “Confessions of a Nazi Spy” but historian Ben Urwand proves the case that Hollywood not only kept the Holocaust and genocide away from the their films for years during the Nazi regime but also worked in cooperation with the Nazis.
Turns out Nazis were meeting with studio heads, and as Urwand noted, “It surprised me—who would have thought that Louis B. Mayer would meet with a Nazi?—but at the same time, it seemed plausible.”
Sony’s decision to pull the plug on their movie may seem wise to anyone worried about terrorist threats.
But through comedy, a la Charlie Chaplin, there is a strong case for outing dictators and violent leaders. The difficult specter of violence and murder are often more easy to handle when buffered by jokes. Comedy can be a very effective tool to bring difficult yet important global realties to citizens.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un controls a military state, with a country filled with citizens who are described as starving masses by the United Nations. In North Korea, all production of everything - from food to toys - is owned by the state. Millions of Koreans are reported starving to death, annually. But, as human rights organizations have reported for years, as starving workers die off, new ones are forced into labor.
And lest you fear for the feelings of this North Korean leader, consider this: Kim Jong Un's uncle Jang Song Thaek, who trained him to become the leader of North Korea, was executed. Accused of gambling and corruption, he was stripped naked, thrown into a cage and eaten by a large pack of hungry dogs.
Of course, just like a Hollywood film, there is no proof of the starvation of millions, or the savage murder of Jang Song Thaek.
A parallel between this latest Sony hacking and the World War II Hollywood avoidance of dealing with the brutal Holocaust seems clear. Like the Sony comedy “The Interview”, the grim reality of North Korea lays hidden, but does exist - and this Sony hacking may just create a viral sensation.
Canceling this movie to appease a dictator is nothing new, since Hollywood hid the truth about the Holocaust during World War II.
Luckily, the internet, it turns out, is a fickle monster. Too bad it wasn’t around during the Nazi regime.
