Quote:
Originally Posted by martes86
Oh, now I understand what you meant... ok... I don't like the word propaganda anyways... makes one feel as if beeing adoctrinated in some way...
And, it's not like it'd be good if it was pro-war propaganda, is it?  |
That's not it at all.
All Quiet on the Western Front is excellent anti-war propaganda. There are many, many great anti-war films and books, Walt Whitman's
Specimen Days being a fabulous one. "Propaganda" is not a disparaging word, but only a descriptive word signifying the intent of the work. Good propaganda is that which uses the truth to convince. Bad propaganda is that which cannot defend the position with the truth (because the position is defective or the author is) and resorts to using distortion. The distortion in
Das Boot doesn't even support the anti-war stance of the movie, just discredits it! It's not distortion with the intent to deceive, it's distortion born of laziness and sloppiness.
That is made even less excusable by the fact that the book the movie draws from is much better. Hey! American movie makers do even worse, ala
Titanic.
Das Boot has LOTS of company.