Spielberg and the 6 Million

[Aaron Yeater]

> >He is indeed no Leni Riefenstahl. Whoever said Nature abhors a
> >vacuum was clearly unacquainted with SS's oeuvre.
> 
> Are you suggesting that Riefenstahl presented "subtle and ambivalent
> truths"?  That her film work, which consisted primarily of acting in
> "mountain movies" and making propaganda films glorifying the Nazi regime, is
> less vacuous than that of Spielberg?  

Reifenstahl certainly is less vacuous than Spielberg--the opposite, in fact.  
Reifenstahl was a totalitarian filmmaker--for her, the film (whether 
her 'entertaining' mountain movies or Triumph of the Will) was a 
vessel to be filled with an ideology.  There is little in TotW that 
is not chock full of meaning--it is all symbol and allegory (Hitler's 
descent into Nuremberg 'from the clouds' is a clear example, a bit of 
film Wim Wenders repeated and mocked a bit in "Wings of Desire").  

Whereas it seems Spielberg is most comfortable with images and 
stories that lack symbolic value--even Schindler's List is "one man's 
story" and lacks the broad reach and potent message of a Shoah or 
Nacht und Nebel.  This is not to condemn him, btw.  I think that a 
comparison between Reifenstahl & Spielberg is specious, for 
historical reasons if no others...
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Aaron C. Yeater
Innovations in American Government