Art.. Storytelling.. Fascism

[Peter Lemkin]

Riefenstahl was certainly a master filmmaker and myth-maker extraordinaire; but she was no fool, and IMHO knew exactly who and what she was serving with her famous film. She apparently was not coerced to make the film, but did so quite willingly. and with great effort - and one must admit, effect. She put her artistic genius to work for evil. and that must have been as clear at the time, as it is today. Great filmmaker stylistically, yes. On the right side of morality and history, no. Whether or not she was a 'Nazi', she furthered their cause dramatically. She couldn't have made such a film had she not been rather enamored of the events of Nazism happening around her. I'd judge her a fascist with its top-down rule philosophy [among other things such as militarism, regimentation, deference to an absolute ruler, etc.]. Her film clearly celebrated to the nth degree the top-down as good, and the bottom-up [democracy] as something to be avoided, if not crushed under hobnail boots.