Abraham Cooper: The Oliver Stone Danger
[Rabbi Abraham Cooper is associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Museum of Tolerance.]
...Why all the angst over such a production? For one thing, Stone's extreme makeover of the 20th century's greatest butchers in a U.S. production could resonate in all the wrong places overseas. It parallels troubling real-life makeovers of tyrants and the trivialization of the Holocaust:
• In Germany, "revisionist" historians apologetically argue that Nazi death camps were merely replicas of Stalin's gulags.
• In Russia, Vladimir Putin dusted off the cult of Stalin as the last great czar....
From World War II's "Why We Fight" films to civil rights to women's rights, Hollywood has not only entertained but inspired, helping to shape the social and moral fabric of our nation. But Americans have been taught to confront evil, not "contextualize" it. What teachable moments about Hitler, Stalin and Mao can we expect from Oliver Stone, a man who moves too easily around the likes of Iran's genocide-wannabee Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez?
Read entire article at LA Times
...Why all the angst over such a production? For one thing, Stone's extreme makeover of the 20th century's greatest butchers in a U.S. production could resonate in all the wrong places overseas. It parallels troubling real-life makeovers of tyrants and the trivialization of the Holocaust:
• In Germany, "revisionist" historians apologetically argue that Nazi death camps were merely replicas of Stalin's gulags.
• In Russia, Vladimir Putin dusted off the cult of Stalin as the last great czar....
From World War II's "Why We Fight" films to civil rights to women's rights, Hollywood has not only entertained but inspired, helping to shape the social and moral fabric of our nation. But Americans have been taught to confront evil, not "contextualize" it. What teachable moments about Hitler, Stalin and Mao can we expect from Oliver Stone, a man who moves too easily around the likes of Iran's genocide-wannabee Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez?