What do those have in common?
They were two videos we watched recently. Both worthy of commentary, I think.
From our local library we checked out The African Queen, a 1951 movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn proudly shot in Technicolor and produced by a single company.
The story is set in WWI Africa, where a gin-swilling riverboat captain is persuaded by a strait-laced missionary to use his boat to attack an German warship. It is really simple, completely sans electronic wizardry in its production and impressively captivating; proving that the fancy stuff of modern movies is completely unnecessary when the rest of the art is complete.
It is that very simple wholesomeness that makes the older movies attractive for us. Most modern fare is heavy on the special effects, propaganda, subliminal messages and rarely bother with meaningful plots. Also significantly, yelling, profanity and lots of explosions are the current substitutes for plot, script and acting. We don’t miss any of that when we enjoy older movies.
Dinesh D’Souza’s Death of a Nation is a modern documentary that does an excellent job of exposing the totalitarian Marxism juggernaut dominating mainstream political discourse today. I could give it 5 stars for that part. Bonus points in that it also uses clear, clean English without the handful of popular non-descriptive adjective and adverb substitutes.
The Netflix notes: In this political documentary, conservative commentator, author and director Dinesh D’Souza draws a surprising comparison between the presidencies of Abraham Lincoln and Donald J. Trump. The film also delves into the origins of fascism and racism.
Dinesh is, however, blind to the next level up in the global power pyramid. In the view he documents so well, the Donald Trump Republicans, as opposed to the RINOs, are wholesome gladiators fighting for a good, healthy country. It is a nice story that would be pleasant to believe. I suppose that explains its popularity.