[lbo-talk] Parade of the Clueless

Dwayne Monroe dwayne.monroe at gmail.com
Wed Mar 17 10:25:56 PDT 2010


Dennis P is right: there are no politics worth exploring, rage -- framed by revolutionary rhetoric and late 20th century visions of upheaval via heroic individualism -- is essentially all there was. An honest portrayal of the time embraces and illustrate this fact.

For me, the question is, which movie provided the more satisfying viewing experience (and for the transient purposes of this post I'll define "satisfying" as free of wankerism, nostalgia, sentimentality and Todd Gitlin).

As I wrote weeks or months ago, Der Baader Meinhof Com(or Kom)plex wins this ad hoc race simply by presenting the performative element -- violence and all -- with as little color commentary as the screenwriters and director could manage.

The Weather movie is deeply dipped in boomer wankerism, nostalgia and sentimentality -- with a good helping of Babbit-class moralizing (Gitlin) mixed in for seasoning.

To put it another way, Der Baader felt more like a true representation of our formless past and banging-the-head against the wall future.

.d.



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