The Ugly American

Last week we saw a film that, although seldom viewed these days, was very prophetic and relevant for both the time in which it was made, and these times as well.

I'm talking about 1963's The Ugly American, starring Marlon Brando. Filmed in Thailand, the film is set in a fictional country in Southeast Asia that bears a startling resemblance to Vietnam. Brando plays Harrison MacWhite, the newly appointed US Ambassador to that country, who immediately finds himself walking a personal and profession tight rope between populist movement within his host country that opposes the local US-backed government and his Bosses back in Washington who consider any opposition to the Amrican agenda to be Communist inspired.

The film aptly predicts some of the mess that happened in Vietnam during the years immediately following, and still applies today to the mess that is US foreign policy. The best part of the film is the very end, in which Ambassador MacWhite delivers the following speech on television. If you change the references of "Cold War" to "War on Terror," they apply today.

WARNING: I'm describing the end of the movie. I'm leaving out some context that explains some the comments that refer to events in the film, but the political comments should still make sense:

NBC News reporter Tyler: A couple of hours ago Senator Brenner called you tenure here a total failure. Would you agree with that?

MacWhite: Yes it certainly was a partial failure Mr. Tyler. When I said that a misunderstanding killed Deong, I meant my own misunderstanding. Deong had a kind of passion that maybe all revolutionaries have. It’s a kind a feeling that’s easy for us to misinterpret. We forget the men who started our country had that same kind of passion that Deong had and that these other new leaders have. And unless we recognize their fight for independence to be part of our own, then we drive them to seek understanding in some other place.

Tyler: Are you saying that America is losing the Cold War because we’re pushing these countries into the hands of the Communists?

MacWhite: I’m not saying that. I’m saying we can’t hope to win the Cold War unless we remember what we’re for, as well as what we’re against. I’ve learned in a very personal way, Mr. Tyler, that I can’t preach the American heritage and expect to be believed if I act out of impatience, or sacrifice my principles for expediency. I’ve learned that the only time we’re hated is when we stop trying to be what we started out to be 200 years ago. I’m not blaming my country. I’m blaming the indifference that some of us show to its promises.

(Scene switches to a TV set in an American living room)

If the Cold War disappeared right now, the American people would still be in this fight against ignorance, hunger and disease, because it’s right. It’s right to be (Brando mumble). And if I had one appeal to make to every American, it would be that--

(A hand from off-screen appears and the TV set is turned off! The dark TV is shown with the ending notes of America the Beautiful.)

Well, the Cold War as it was known when the film was made has disappeared in the years since. The American people are still in this fight against ignorance, hunger and disease. And despite what we're told, the biggest dangers we face are not the makers of roadside bombs!

Evil Films!

I hope Netflix doesn’t report its subscribers' choices to Homeland Security. We recently watched two historic motion pictures that are enough to put us on any one’s political undesirables list, regardless of which side of the isle they sit on. Our two forbidden films are the silent Klan epic Birth of a Nation and the Nazi documentary/propaganda feature Triumph of the Will.

Shot in 1915 by early Hollywood director W.D. Griffith, Birth of a Nation follows a white Southern family from the pre-civil war period though a few decades after. The film is notable for it’s depiction of the Ku Klux Klan, not as villainous white-hooded murderers, but as heroes defending the Southern way of life!

Whoever said that history is written by the victors has not seen Birth of a Nation or even Gone with the Wind for that matter. I’m not sure why most movies about the civil war are told from the Southern point of view. Maybe a lot of displaced Southern whites moved to Hollywood, or maybe Americans love stories about the underdogs, I don’t know. But I can say that this film shows blacks in the demeaning ways that Hollywood has often been accused of but I’ve rarely actually seen.

First of all, slavery, and even the words slave and slavery, are never mentioned. Before the war, happy black people are shown dancing in the street. Key black roles, such as a mulatto abolitionist leader and “Gus,” a freed slave who stalks young white women, are not played by black actors, but by white actors wearing blackface makeup.

Once the Klan starts riding, the film actually feels creepy. It’s hard not to feel guilty when you’re supposed to be cheering for the hooded men capturing and tying up a black guy!

On a positive note, the film had a huge budget for it’s time, with hundreds of extras, and expansive battle shots filmed in what is now Burbank and Universal Studios in Southern California.

At the time the film was made, the KKK was pretty much dead. But in subsequent years, the film toured the nation, fueling a resurgence of the Klan during which most of its infamous history was made. This is a powerful example of how film not only reflects history and society, but can also shape it.

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The Triumph of the Will, 1934, is a documentary shot by Leni Riefenstahl, the subject being non other that the Third Richt and Adolph Hitler himself. We’ve all seen excerpts of this footage, but this is the first time I saw a film about Nazis by Nazis.

For nearly two hours military parades of Nazi soldiers goose-step past cheering crowds, and stadiums full of cheering soldiers and Hiltler youth listening to speeches by the Fuhrer and other infamous Nazi officials, including Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Josef Goebbles and Heinrich Himmler.

The film is beautifully photographed, with wide crane shots panning across full stadiums and the grand stages from which the Nazi elites delivered their speeches, complete with English subtitles.

Some thoughts while watching the film…

There’s a sequence that shows several close-ups of small children’s faces. These children would be in their 80s now. Surely they knew throughout their adult lives that their young faces fill the screen in this film, even if for a brief moment. How do they feel about it? What do they tell their children & grandchildren about it?

There is a sequence where ordinary working Germans are shown working at various jobs while saying thing in unison: “We are Germans! We are proud to be working for the Fatherland!” etc. To an American born in the late 20th century, this sounds a lot like Monty Python’s Life of Brian where the crowd says in unison “Yes, we’re all individuals!”

The people lining the streets as the Nazi soldiers goose step by look happy and proud. How bad were the post-war (World War I) years that this sight would be comforting to them? Are these people such lemmings to watch this and not be frightened or concerned? But on the other hand, Some of them put themselves and their families at great risk by hiding Jewish families in their homes. Not everyone was a “good German.”

Most disturbing were the stadiums full of the Hitler youth – thousands of 12-14 year old German boys. I shuddered while wondering what percentage of these young men ended up blown to bits all over Europe over the next dozen years.

Just like when I was a college student reading The Communist Manifesto, I felt a small twinge of excitement watching something forbidden or evil. But without the cultural experience of living in Germany in the years following the Versailles Treaty (or strong desire to shock & offend others) it’s not very convincing.