1937
#69
Starring:
Paul Muni
Gloria Holden
Gale Sondergaard
Joseph Schildkraut
Directed By:
William Dieterle
1937 Academy Awards
Winner:
Best Picture
Best Supporting Actor
Best Adapted Screenplay
Other Nominated Films:
The Awful Truth
Captains Courageous
Dead End
The Good Earth
In Old Chicago
Lost Horizon
One Hundred Men And A Girl
Stage Door
A Star Is Born
So...this is another blog post I failed to publish back when I watched the film...ah the joys of being easily distracted. Guess that's why I write them on Evernote so I can then eventually post them here? LOL Anyways...
This is a rather political movie, with its rallies against social ills and antisemitism but that is the truth of what Zola was about.
Of course the establishment wants to stamp out any dissonance, to the point of destroying people's lives.
How even indicative of today, people thinking someone who commits suicide is better off than someone poor and living.
Of course even scandal can sell, as the success of novel Nana can attest. People like scandal.
Aside from not finding a way to publish, the thought of censoring someone because they criticized you is ridiculous.
However I will say the difference is that Zola's criticism is constructive, not meant to be destructive but critical to induce change.
Sad that only 23 min in and Cezanne is done...
But even more surprising is that this movie is from 1937, in the midst of WW2, with someone speaking against those with anti-Semitic leanings. This was obviously mean as a cry against what was happening in Europe but was it heeded?
And this was set in 1894! And it won Best Picture!
Even then, people are more than happy to turn a blind eye to social injustice. It doesn't affect me so it's not my problem. Never lifting a hand to help anyone in need, hiding in the bubble of a world they have.
And to show a corrupt army and government!
It's isn't until someone well known takes up and gives voice to the troubles does someone listen! It's a shame that at the making of this movie we were still oblivious to the horrors of Hitler's crimes.
And then railroad someone? This continues today, so the government can keep secrets. The same thing is currently playing out at the end of the 9th season of Bones - a cover up at the FBI, with someone in the Bureau is dirty, and Booth is trying to uncover it. When being questioned for a possible promotion, he is instead accused of killing an American, without order and a Delta Force team is sent to silence him. When survives, the claim they were simply coming to arrest him...in full tactical gear and blowing doors in...
Of course the establishment wants to stamp out any dissonance, to the point of destroying people's lives.
How even indicative of today, people thinking someone who commits suicide is better off than someone poor and living.
However I will say the difference is that Zola's criticism is constructive, not meant to be destructive but critical to induce change.
Sad that only 23 min in and Cezanne is done...
And this was set in 1894! And it won Best Picture!
Even then, people are more than happy to turn a blind eye to social injustice. It doesn't affect me so it's not my problem. Never lifting a hand to help anyone in need, hiding in the bubble of a world they have.
And to show a corrupt army and government!
It's isn't until someone well known takes up and gives voice to the troubles does someone listen! It's a shame that at the making of this movie we were still oblivious to the horrors of Hitler's crimes.
What is it they say? Those that don't know their history are doomed to repeat it? Well those that ignore their history are doomed to repeat it too.
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