First of all, lars von trier has not made a career out of being anti-american. He's only made three films which could possibily be construed this way (Dancer in the Dark, Dogville and Manderlay.) Second, it is possible to criticize a nation without being racist. For instance, would you consider an anti third reich film to be prejudiced towards Germans? And also, his films Manderlay and Dogville are not meant to be objective. Rather, they are postmodern handlings of themes and styles present within traditional American theater, literature and film. This is done to emphasize the themes within American history of oppression and violence in a way that also relates to America's current political position.
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amsyco13
18 years ago
I am American and fiercly patriotic.
Von Trier is one of my favorite film makers.
The guy is amazing.
I have seen Dancer in the Dark and Dogville, and found niether of them even remotely anti-American.
If Von Trier's films were that simple, I wouldn't admire him as I do and love his movies so much.
I will see Manderlay very soon, as I expect it to be in my mailbox when I get home today.
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energy8432
18 years ago
I totally agree! I am American and very patriotic. I don't think that the films are anti-American but more of a social study of life. Everybody has prejudice and I don't think it's fair at all to label him racist because he disagrees with American foreign policy just as millions of Americans do as well! I can clearly see the similarities in the film between Grace/slaves and US/Iraq. What I don't get is how people seeing the film can not see that it's pretty much an accurate portrait of how things have been! The US has a long history of screwing around in the middle east. Eventually someone is going to have to figure out that maybe we can't just push our "values" on to everybody else.
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