Flicks: Zizek!; Double Indemnity; the Tommy Douglas Story; Dreamgirls
"The most elementary definition of ideology is probably the well-known phrase from Marx's 'Capital': 'They do not know it; but they are doing it'" Zizek! (12:27)
Last night I watched the documentary Zizek! (2005); today, to escape the bitter cold (-25 Celsius), I stayed inside and watched Double Indemnity (1944), a film that Zizek is looking for in his documentary (and one that I have been meaning to watch for some time). Now I'm watching Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story (2006, CBC mini-series). Last night before Zizek, I saw Dreamgirls (2006). I was very disappointed in Dreamgirls, which is nominated for almost everything this award season (though I was glad to see that it wasn't nominated for best picture). Dreamgirls is poorly written. It is a musical that is badly translated into film. I'm tired of this musical to film business anyway. Also, the Motown story would be much better as just that, the Motown story, and not the almost Motown story. I will say this: Jennifer Hudson can sing like a banshee, and she's not a bad actor. Also, Eddie Murphy does a good job of playing a James Brown-like soul man who is forced to sing like Lionel Richie by the Berry Gordy Jr analogue (Jamie Foxx).
The common thread in all these films (and the good thing about Dream Girls): the corruptions of capitalism. Zizek is a lacanian-socialist, Tommy Douglas was a Baptist Socialist (the best kind - much better then the National Socialist), Double Indemnity's lesson is on the corruption of money, and has a corrupt insurance sales man who kills an oilman (sounds socialist to me...though the best detective ends up being the claims guy, Keats, at the insurance company). Bill Condon tackles the market's effect on the forms of black music (though he seems to bask in the production of Motown parody). At one point the Gordy Jr. character (Foxx) tells the Diana Ross character (Beyonce) that he made her lead singer over the Florence Ballard character because Ross's voice was so thin that he could put anything he wanted into it, whereas Ballard's voice was too rooted in black tradition to for him to control.
The Tommy Douglas story is excellent. There is a great representation of the 1931 Bienfait Miner Strike, where the RCMP killed three peaceful, protesting and singing Miners, calling them Communist (mostly because of racist attitudes towards Ukrainians who populated the town). Here is a little exchange between Douglas and the man he beat as Premier, Jimmy Gardiner:
Jimmy Gardiner: Bit of a difference between your table and my mine isn't there? People notice these things you know.
Douglas: If people notice that I don't need a private room to eat my dinner that is, ah, fine by me.
Jimmy: That's not what they notice. They notice that you may be premier but this is still my table in my restaurant in my town in my Provence, you've only got it on loan.
Douglas: We all get it on loan Jimmy that is the concept of democracy.
Gardiner: No sir the concept of democracy is that business goes on as usual regardless of who gets elected. You could call yourself a socialist reverend, but this is a capitalist country and the people won't stand for it.
Douglas: Well the capitalists lost this time. Enjoy your table. (5:1 4:00)
Now I'm not sure about Douglas's position on democracy, but I certainly like how he practiced justice. One of my biggest fears as of late is that democracy is the opiate of the masses, the idea that you can have effect, that you can control the market. I think the real problem in 21st global politics is that democracy has little hold on the market and political forms won't until we have some sort of global political power that can restrict and discipline the market. Our environment hangs in the balance, as do our particular identities, our localities, our religions, our accents, our languages (other then English).
A word on the Zizek! documentary: I was amazed at how quirky he is. I've been reading his works for three years now and I had no idea what he was like in person. I'm also very impressed by the film, especially the ending. But this is what I'm most impressed by: the film was made by Astra Taylor, who was born in 1979 in Saskatchewan, who studied at the New School for Social Research, has published a book, and is working on her third film or so. She's also taught two courses. It makes me feel like I'm letting the world pass me by.
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Many people do not know that the term "Nazi" means "National Socialist German Workers' Party" and that members of the horrid group did not call themselves Nazis, but called themselves socialists. They also did not use the F-word as a self-description.
The "Nazi salute" is more accurately called the "American salute" as it was created and popularized by national socialists in the USA where its use was mandated by law in government schools for three decades before, and through, the creation of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. It was the early gesture of the Pledge of Allegiance.
http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-pledge.html
The original pledge was anti libertarian and began with a military salute that then stretched out toward the flag. In actual use, the second part of the gesture was performed with a straight arm and palm down by children casually performing the forced ritual chanting. Due to the way that both gestures were used sequentially in the pledge, the military salute led to the Nazi salute. The Nazi salute is an extended military salute via the USA's pledge.
The Pledge's early salute caused quite a Fuhrer/furor. The dogma behind the Pledge was the same dogma that led to the socialist Wholecaust (of which the Holocaust was a part): 62 million slaughtered under the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; 49 million under the Peoples’ Republic of China; 21 million under the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. It was the worst slaughter of humanity ever.
The USA originated Nazism, Nazi salutes, flag fetishism, robotic group-chanting to flags, and the modern swastika symbol as S symbolism for "socialism," all shown in the research of the noted historian Dr. Rex Curry. The bizarre acts in the USA began as early as 1875 and continued through the creation of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (German Nazis or NSGWP). American soldiers used the swastika symbol in WWI (against Germany) and perhaps as late as 1941. The NSGWP had clear roots in National Socialism promoted by socialists in the USA. Amazing graphic images that prove the point are at
http://rexcurry.net/theosophy-madame-blavatsky-theosophical-society.html
The USA is still the worst example in the world of bizarre laws that require collective robotic chanting to a national flag in government schools (socialist schools) every day for 12 years. It has changed generations of Americans from libertarians to authoritarians. The government bamboozled individuals into believing that collective robotic chanting in government schools is a beautiful expression of freedom. Frightening photographs are at http://rexcurry.net/pledge2.html
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