never forget
I am so tired of movies and people telling us to never forget the Holocaust. Of course we'll never forget it how could we? But do we really need two or three blockbusters a year reminding us how crap it was? Watching the history channel makes you think that the Third Reich was the biggest milestone in history, which is simply not the case.
I think this is blinkered. The Holocaust was dreadful, but more people die in Africa each year from preventable diseases and war. Millions were killed in Cambodia and Vietnam, and thousands are dying in Baghdad. True the horror of the holocaust was that it was a man made killing machine, and that is a terrible idea, but the point I would like to make is that terrible things happen all the time in war and we should be focusing on current genocide rather than on something that happened sixty years ago. We need less of this kind of thing and more like Hotel Rwanda.
I have no time for the State of Israel and its actions, and if that makes me an antisemite so be it. I really couldn't care less and I will not change my mind about the way they behave towards the Palestinians and their neighbours.
I am just so bored with people dragging up Hitler and the Third Reich as evil beyond words, when there is still a lot of pain and suffering in the world we don't hear about.
But maybe I'm wrong. I was astounded talking to some Americans about Schindler's list, when they said they never knew it was so bad (and that movie is one of hope in the middle of the carnage). And then people getting upset at the Passion of the Christ? Do we need a movie to know that calvery was not a walk in the park? I was raised Catholic and we went through the stations of the cross every Easter, and you cannot go into a Catholic Church without coming across them. but people only get upset when they see it on the big screen. Surely they have read the gospels?
So is it the case that we only know what we see in the movies? If this is the case then holocaust movies serve an important role. But I really would like to see more about the world today rather than being constantly reminded of the tragedy of sixty years ago.
Kate Winslet in Extras was playing a nun sheltering jews during the holocaust. Somebody comes up to tell her she was very brave and she says she is doing it to win an oscar, pointing out that most films about the holocaust win oscars.
OK END OF RANT