MovieChat Forums > Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) Discussion > Was the Child Catcher really an anti-Sem...

Was the Child Catcher really an anti-Semitic caricature?

posted 5 years ago by TMC-4 (19393)
14 replies | jump to latest

http://forum.earwolf.com/topic/60164-musical-mondays-week-62-chitty-chitty-bang-bang/?do=findComment&comment=296042

So did anyone else find the Child Catcher antisemitic? I mean it checks out because... Fucking Roald Dahl . If you don't know he was a racist antisemitic scum bag .

A truly terrible quote from him “There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it’s a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews. I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.”

So there's that. So it's not that hard to feel gross about a very blatant Jewish caricature that steals children. Something Jewish people have been accused of for centuries. They have been accused of killing Christian children to make matzos. It's a disgusting old antisemitic belief that Jewish people take part in blood libel. When children would get sick or go missing Jews were often blamed.

[–] PaladinNJ (20308) 5 years ago

I always took him as being antisocial. In this day and age of PC nightmares someone will always pick out something in an old movie and interpret it to be prejudiced according to today's standards rather than just a product of the time it was made.

[–] wearsalan (5554) 5 years ago

I just thought of him as a horrible bastard who was probably picked on a s a kid.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

That is your terrible quote? You've got to be kidding me. The reality is what he said was accurate at the time and in many instances accurate today in how Jews tend to be much better to their brethren than they are to outsiders. Not that other groups aren't just as bad or sometimes even worse, as I've worked in a place where certain operating units were said to be controlled by the Mormon Mafia because there were Mormons in high positions that would blatantly promote fellow Mormons over non-Mormons even though their brethren were often less qualified.

What he said was accurate. And if you bothered to study history in the early 20th century you would see that Jews were very insular. Anytime a group separates itself from the rest of society they make themselves an easy target.

[–] TMC-4 (19393) 5 years ago

Since you seem to be of the opinion that Rolad Dahl really wasn't anti-Semitic (even if you take out that theory regarding the Child Catcher)...:
https://forward.com/schmooze/349771/the-5-most-anti-semitic-things-roald-dahl-ever-said/

https://www.thisisinsider.com/was-roald-dahl-anti-semitic-2016-9

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2018/11/i-d-still-read-roald-dahl-s-books-my-children-we-can-t-forget-he-was-anti-semite

This week it was revealed that, in 2014, the Royal Mint rejected plans for a Roald Dahl commemorative coin, because the guy was just too racist. As well as literally declaring himself an anti-Semite in an interview with the Independent, Dahl told the New Statesman, “There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it’s a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews. I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.”

Holocaust denial is one thing, but actual justification for the industrialised murder of Jews? Wow.

https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/roald-dahl-and-political-correctness-1.5312267

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160912-the-dark-side-of-roald-dahl

https://www.timesofisrael.com/was-beloved-childrens-author-roald-dahl-a-raging-bigot/

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

So you would rather ignore the reason Hitler went after the Jews and just assume it was random? Dahl's quote didn't say Hitler should have killed the Jews, it simply gave a reason as to why he thought Hitler targeted them. That's not justification it is simply one persons belief on why something happened. You are yapping like a typical snowflake, no reasoning to why you are upset just trying to find issues where none exist. If you want to find any instance where Dahl executed Jews then feel free I'll then accept he was an anti-semite... but the fact is simply not liking a particular religious group isn't a crime. The fact is anti-semite is as overused as homophobe and racist by snowflakes. Go look at what the word actually means I doubt you'll find it actually means what you seem to think it means.

[–] TMC-4 (19393) 5 years ago

I suppose by that logic, the people at the Royal Mint are also by default, snowflakes? I don't get how simply pointing out that Roald Dahl made comments that at the very least, bordered on sounding anti-Semitic, makes one in return, a "snowflake"? And what do you mean they don't exist, when they're (Dahl's words) right there in print for the world to see (whether you actually agree with him or not). You're using an ad hominem fallacy (i.e. immediately making a personal attack on the character of an opposing party before having an actually genuine discussion) by calling me a "snowflake".

I don't get what you're saying when you talk about how Roald Dahl never actually "executed" Jews, so he couldn't have literally been anti-Semitic. Either you are anti-Semitic or you're not (it's more of a mentality/mind-set before a violent action). That would be like saying that a white man who may have racist views against black people, can't that if they haven't actually lynched a black person like a KKK member. I guess that means that Mel Gibson isn't really anti-Semitic either, since he never violently acted upon a Jewish person.

And as for Hitler, you seem to be making the argument that "Of course, Dahl didn't literally say that Hitler had very right to kill Jews or any other ethnic group that he saw fit, but he still had his own valid rationale for doing so!" That would be like saying that of course, Osama bin Laden was an evil person, but he should still try to UNDERSTAND why he hated Americans (i.e. their culture and way of life compared to his) so much.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

The definition of anti-semitic was originally showing hostility against Jews or discrimination against Jews.... There is nothing in the statement you quote Dahl saying that shows hostility toward a Jew nor is there evidence of discrimination in that statement. Does it sound like he doesn't like Jews? Possibly, but no liking someone is not the same thing as showing hostility or discrimination against them. The only way you can really pin him with the anti-semitic badge is if you use the new "snowflake" definition for anti-semitic which include simply have a prejudice against them or in simple terms disliking them.

And when I say "snowflake" definition is the revised wussy definitions that liberal morons seem to love to try and push into words which at one time had a very specific meaning. Like homophobe which your typical LBGT loves to throw around with great abandon toward anyone that doesn't approve of their lifestyle or like their lifestyle... the fact is the word started as simply someone that had an irrational fear of a homosexual. Well I seriously doubt most people that don't approve of a gay lifestyle are afraid of gays, yet the snowflake generation which apparently suffers from a bad public school education loves to use words that apparently the don't know the definition of simply because they think it sounds good. You my friend have shown the world through your ridiculous comments that you are a snowflake.

[–] TMC-4 (19393) 5 years ago

How do you explain the various other arguably anti-Semitic things that Roald Dahl said? So it isn't just me using an isolated incident!

2) “I am certainly anti-Israel, and I have become anti-Semitic.”

3) In book review written by Dahl in the periodical “Literary Review,” he referred to “those powerful American Jewish bankers” and accused the United States Government of being “utterly dominated by the great Jewish financial institutions over there.”

4) The Israeli military activity in Lebanon, he said, “was very much hushed up in the newspapers because they are primarily Jewish-owned … there aren’t any non-Jewish publishers anywhere.”

5) When further discussing the Lebanon War, he wrote: “makes one wonder in the end what sort of people these Israelis are. It is like the good old Hitler and Himmler times all over again.”

Read more: https://forward.com/schmooze/349771/the-5-most-anti-semitic-things-roald-dahl-ever-said/

https://rehmat1.com/2016/09/16/roald-dahl-loved-by-children-hated-by-the-jews/

https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/89r5fd/why_would_roald_dahl_be_considered_problematic/

https://www.datalounge.com/thread/16924605-is-steven-spielberg-defending-roald-dahl-s-anti-semitism-

[–] TMC-4 (19393) 5 years ago

https://www.quora.com/Was-Roald-Dahl-accurate-when-he-seemed-to-imply-that-Jews-tend-to-be-much-better-to-their-brethren-than-they-are-to-outsiders/answer/Marc-Lipshitz?__nsrc__=4&__pmsg__=+ZTJnRXlUR0NOVG5KQi1sdTJoTlE6YS5hcHAudmlldy5wbXNnLkxvZ2dlZEluRnJvbUxpbms6W1s0MTcyNTY2NDRdLCB7fV0*&__snid3__=4185344524

Roald Dahl was a blatant anti-Semite. Would you go to a Klansman to get information about African Americans? Why would you accept the word of an anti-Semite about Jews? Seriously, he was an anti-Semite, it became quite prominent a topic in 2016 when the Royal Mint declines making a commemorative corner to celebrate 100 years after his birth because of it.

[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7396) 5 years ago

Funny. Until seeing this topic just now I didn't even know that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was a Roald Dahl book. I think my 2nd grade teacher read me the book back in 1995. But I don't remember it well.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (12255) 5 years ago

Neither did I, and I'm a fan of some of his works, though I wasn't aware of everything he wrote.

[–] modica (4169) 5 years ago

It isn't a Roald Dahl book. Ian Fleming wrote the book and Dahl wrote the screenplay to the movie.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (12255) 5 years ago

I never really thought about it, watching the movie as a kid. I took him as he appeared, a nasty, disgusting, scary guy, and I never could figure out why the kids would fall for his trap in the first place. Even with the disguise, he was creepy. Even now, I would not associate his looks or behavior with Jewish people.

[–] BillySlater (4096) 5 years ago

Same, never crossed my mind, he was supposed to be Jewish. Was it specified anywhere that he was Jewish? He was one creepy dude though, and scared the bejeezus out of me as a child.