Jump to content

Death of a Nation (2018 film): Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
→‎Synopsis: in this case claim is appropriate; sources use claim when referring to the film's depiction of fascism as left-wing, and in this case it is appropiate to imply a disregard for the evidence as painting fascism as left-wing requires disregarding all evidence
→‎Historical accuracy: Fixed a political affiliation ommition by liberal editors trying to trick a nation. But it won’t happen.
Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit
Line 92: Line 92:


==Historical accuracy==
==Historical accuracy==
Historian [[Adam Tooze]] said of the film's premise that the contemporary US Democratic Party's policies matched the Nazi Party's policies is false. ''[[The Independent]]'' reported, "[Tooze] said it was commonplace for conservatives to try and smear progressives by saying the Nazis also had a welfare programme... almost all political parties in Europe in the 1920s supported some sort of welfare scheme. The difference, he said, was that the Nazis were bent on launching 'all out war'."<ref name="buncombe">{{cite news | last=Buncombe | first=Andrew | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-jr-naziz-democrats-policies-dinesh-dsouza-death-of-a-nation-a8476526.html | title=Donald Trump Jr compares Democrats' policies to those of the Nazis | work=[[The Independent]] | date=August 4, 2018 | accessdate=August 8, 2018 }}</ref>
Historian [[Adam Tooze]] (a self described liberal historian as stated in his book [crashed (2018), Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World, London: Allen Lane, 2018. ISBN 9781846140365) (it is important to note his political affiliation as there are propagandists trying to change history and trick the minds of the ignorant), said of the film's premise that the contemporary US Democratic Party's policies matched the Nazi Party's policies is false. ''[[The Independent]]'' reported, "[Tooze] said it was commonplace for conservatives to try and smear progressives by saying the Nazis also had a welfare programme... almost all political parties in Europe in the 1920s supported some sort of welfare scheme. The difference, he said, was that the Nazis were bent on launching 'all out war'."<ref name="buncombe">{{cite news | last=Buncombe | first=Andrew | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-jr-naziz-democrats-policies-dinesh-dsouza-death-of-a-nation-a8476526.html | title=Donald Trump Jr compares Democrats' policies to those of the Nazis | work=[[The Independent]] | date=August 4, 2018 | accessdate=August 8, 2018 }}</ref>


Associate professor of history John Broich said of the film's premise of connecting liberalism with fascism that the film committed a [[category error]], "a fallacy in which one compares or conflates things that actually belong in different categories". Broich said, "Fascism and leftism belong in fundamentally different categories, because the essence of fascism was, and is, anti-leftism." He said, "While historians certainly debate the details, they all agree with this basic precept about the core of fascism." Broich quoted fascism scholar [[Robert Paxton]], "[Fascism is] dictatorship against the Left amidst popular enthusiasm."<ref name="broich">{{cite news | last=Broich | first=John | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/08/01/there-is-nothing-liberal-about-fascism/ | title=There is nothing liberal about fascism | work=[[The Washington Post]] | date=August 1, 2018 | accessdate=August 8, 2018 }}</ref> Paxton, who appears in the documentary, said that he was interviewed under false pretenses and found "D'Souza's conclusions to be a distortion of history".<ref>{{cite news | last=Smith IV | first=Jack | url=https://mic.com/articles/191135/dinesh-dsouza-death-of-a-nation-historians-claim-he-used-false-pretenses-to-interview#.aBH4VJH3p | title=Historians say Dinesh D'Souza lured them under false pretenses to interview for new pro-Trump film | work=[[Mic (media company)|Mic]] | date=September 8, 2018 | accessdate=October 22, 2018 }}</ref>
Associate professor of history John Broich said of the film's premise of connecting liberalism with fascism that the film committed a [[category error]], "a fallacy in which one compares or conflates things that actually belong in different categories". Broich said, "Fascism and leftism belong in fundamentally different categories, because the essence of fascism was, and is, anti-leftism." He said, "While historians certainly debate the details, they all agree with this basic precept about the core of fascism." Broich quoted fascism scholar [[Robert Paxton]], "[Fascism is] dictatorship against the Left amidst popular enthusiasm."<ref name="broich">{{cite news | last=Broich | first=John | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/08/01/there-is-nothing-liberal-about-fascism/ | title=There is nothing liberal about fascism | work=[[The Washington Post]] | date=August 1, 2018 | accessdate=August 8, 2018 }}</ref> Paxton, who appears in the documentary, said that he was interviewed under false pretenses and found "D'Souza's conclusions to be a distortion of history".<ref>{{cite news | last=Smith IV | first=Jack | url=https://mic.com/articles/191135/dinesh-dsouza-death-of-a-nation-historians-claim-he-used-false-pretenses-to-interview#.aBH4VJH3p | title=Historians say Dinesh D'Souza lured them under false pretenses to interview for new pro-Trump film | work=[[Mic (media company)|Mic]] | date=September 8, 2018 | accessdate=October 22, 2018 }}</ref>

Revision as of 06:30, 13 November 2018

Death of a Nation:
Can We Save America a Second Time?
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Written by
  • Dinesh D'Souza
  • Bruce Schooley
Produced byGerald R. Molen
Narrated byDinesh D'Souza
CinematographyBenjamin Huddleston
Edited byDinesh D'Souza
Music byDennis McCarthy
Production
company
D'Souza Media
Distributed byQuality Flix[1]
Release date
  • August 3, 2018 (2018-08-03)
Running time
109 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$6 million[2]
Box office$5.9 million[2]

Death of a Nation: Can We Save America a Second Time? is a 2018 American political documentary film by American conservative political commentator Dinesh D'Souza. In the documentary, D'Souza compares the political climate surrounding the 45th President of the United States Donald Trump to that of the 16th President, Abraham Lincoln. The film indicates that the Democratic Party from both eras was critical of both Presidents and argues that the Democrats have similarities to fascist regimes, including the Nazi Party. The film was written and directed by Dinesh D'Souza and Bruce Schooley, and produced by Gerald R. Molen. It was produced on a budget of $6 million.

Death of a Nation was released in the United States on August 3, 2018 and grossed $5.9 million. Historians and film critics criticized the film for its falsehoods and misrepresentations.[3]

Synopsis

The documentary compares the 45th President of the United States Donald Trump to the 16th President of the United States Abraham Lincoln, and explores the role of the Democratic Party in opposing both presidents.

In the documentary, D'Souza accuses the modern Democratic Party of racism, and attempts to demonstrate how Democrats have used accusations of racism, white supremacy, and fascism as a tool to discredit the political right. He said that the modern political left is currently using these types of accusations in attempts to remove Trump from office "by any means necessary." D'Souza also attempts to demonstrate a connection between the Democratic Party's past racism and advocacy for white supremacy and the current party, while saying that the Republican Party has not advocated for such things.

In addition, D'Souza claims that fascism is a left-wing, rather than right-wing ideology, and that fascist regimes such as the Nazi Party have historically both praised the Democratic Party and utilized American racial law to inspire their own racial laws.

These statements are used to draw parallels between the modern political climate surrounding the election and presidency of Donald Trump with the historical events surrounding Abraham Lincoln's election, presidency, and assassination.

Cast

The following figures appear in the documentary:[4]

Production

Dinesh D'Souza said his documentary was based on the books Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law by James Whitman, and Racism: A Short History by George M. Fredrickson.[5] The film was produced on a budget of $6 million.[6]

Release

Death of a Nation had its world premiere in Los Angeles, California on July 30, 2018.[5] Figures in attendance included D'Souza, his wife and executive producer Debbie D'Souza, co-producer Aaron Brubaker, conservative political commentator Tomi Lahren, and political candidate Antonio Sabàto Jr..[7] The political documentary premiered in Washington, D.C. on August 1, 2018, being co-hosted by D'Souza and President Donald Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. Also in attendance were United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, former sheriff David Clarke, reporter Lee Stranahan, alt-right internet troll and conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, and former Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka.[8]

Quality Flix, a subsidiary label of the Christian faith-based film production and distribution company Pure Flix,[9] commercially released the documentary in 1,032 theaters in the United States on August 3, 2018.[10] It was the first political documentary in a decade to be released at over a thousand theaters (the last documentary being Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed), with most documentaries usually being released in select theaters.[11] Death of a Nation was released alongside Christopher Robin, The Spy Who Dumped Me, and The Darkest Minds, and was projected to gross around $3 million in its opening weekend.[12] It grossed $2.3 million, which was the lowest opening of D'Souza's wide releases.[13] Variety's Rebecca Rubin described the performance as a "mediocre debut" with a "tepid" average of $2,248 per theater. She said while a documentary grossing over a million dollars would be impressive, it was "not exactly promising" for a film released in over a thousand locations.[10] It dropped 58.1% to $988K in its second weekend.[2] When compared to D'Souza's previous films, The Guardian theorized that the film's diminishing box office returns can be attributed to the hypothesis that—similarly to trends seen with Michael Moore's left-leaning political films—"the success of a partisan political documentary is dependent upon the opposing party being in power during the time of its release."[14] As of September 8, 2018, the film has grossed $5.9 million.[2]

PostTrak reported that filmgoers gave the film a score of 4 out of 5 stars,[13] while The Hollywood Reporter wrote that those polled by CinemaScore (which was paid by Death of a Nation's filmmakers to conduct polls of audiences) gave it a grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[15] Yahoo! News reported, "Exit polls show 57% men, 86% over 25, with 41% being over 55 and 69% Caucasian and 10% Hispanic."[16] Variety's Rubin said the documentary "has generated some positive sentiment among conservatives" such as The Daily Caller journalist Stephanie Hamill.[10]

There were dozens of Republican watch parties of Death of a Nation across the United States. The New York Times reported the moviegoers' takeaway after one such screening, "It was a confirmation of a worldview they feel is often unjustly ridiculed or intentionally ignored. They said it spoke to their deep-seated fears about the fate of the country if Democrats prevail in the November midterms, and did so using the raw, flame-throwing rhetoric that, to them, signals a Trump-like authority and authenticity."[3]

Reception

Film critics

Critics panned the documentary.[11] Haaretz's Adrian Hennigan said they were "unmoved by D'Souza's claims for authenticity". Hennigan said, "Some critics questioned whether they should be giving any space to the filmmaker's right-wing guff in praise of Trump and off-the-screen rants against liberals."[17] USA Today reported of the film drawing parallels between Democratic Party and Nazi Party ideologies, "These political and historical claims have earned the most pointed criticism."[6] On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 0% based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 1.9/10.[18] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 1 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike".[19]

Peter Sobczynski of RogerEbert.com described Death of a Nation as "...D'Souza's usual stew of cherry-picked facts, overt omissions, inept historical reenactments, slanders, innuendos, stuff taken from his earlier movies, shots of him walking pensively through empty areas and clips from other and better movies." He added that the documentary "could well be of service to future historians struggling to make sense of our current madness."[20] Owen Gleiberman, reviewing for Variety, said "Dinesh D'Souza goes over the top—of hate, and of truth—in his latest documentary, a radical-right screed that equates liberalism with Nazism." Gleiberman compared the film to D'Souza's previous documentaries, "Death of a Nation breaks through to a whole new slime-o-sphere of over-the-top ideological libel."[4]

The Hollywood Reporter's Frank Scheck called the documentary "painfully unendurable" and that D'Souza's new film was more "hyperbolic and hysterical" than his past films, particularly with the claim that "Democrats... are merely fascists and Nazis, minus the cool iconography". Scheck also found the film to have "many poorly staged, cheesy historical reenactments featuring actors who wouldn't pass muster at a small-town dinner theater". The critic concluded, "For all of its incendiary arguments, Death of a Nation is ultimately tedious and repetitive."[21]

Bill Goodykoontz, reviewing for The Arizona Republic, described the documentary as "messy, unintentionally hilarious". Goodykoontz said he gave D'Souza's 2016: Obama's America "a somewhat positive review" based on filmmaking skill but found Death of a Nation to include "live-action recreations that are laughably inept". The critic also found the documentary to lack a narrative flow. He said, "D'Souza does some of what he did in Hillary's America, taking established facts... and pretending like they are some sort of secret that he alone has uncovered. He addresses some of the counterarguments to his positions... But he's not putting his claims together in any form that makes sense."[22]

D'Souza blamed the negative critical reception and the resulting Rotten Tomatoes score on critics being leftist and suppressing his message with negative reviews.[6]

Conservative figures

The conservative online magazine American Thinker claims that the film's broader points are reasonable, but that the film "oversimplifies, sometimes distorts, and excludes inconvenient facts." The commentator stated that despite the film's flaws, the film makes an accurate case that modern Democratic policies of "statism and socialism" have caused black Americans to have increased dependence on the government, which the commentator describes as "a form of enslavement."[23]

Conservative political commentator Tomi Lahren, who attended the premiere of Death of a Nation, praised the film for exposing Americans to conservative viewpoints that "they might not have seen before." Lahren claimed that films like Death of a Nation are a useful tool to bring conservative voices to the public eye.[24]

Carol M. Swain, a conservative television analyst and former political science professor from Vanderbilt University, lamented that film will likely not be seen by most African-Americans, claiming that the film could change their minds on American political parties. Swain encouraged African-Americans to dig into the history of the Democratic Party.[25]

Historical accuracy

Historian Adam Tooze (a self described liberal historian as stated in his book [crashed (2018), Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World, London: Allen Lane, 2018. ISBN 9781846140365) (it is important to note his political affiliation as there are propagandists trying to change history and trick the minds of the ignorant), said of the film's premise that the contemporary US Democratic Party's policies matched the Nazi Party's policies is false. The Independent reported, "[Tooze] said it was commonplace for conservatives to try and smear progressives by saying the Nazis also had a welfare programme... almost all political parties in Europe in the 1920s supported some sort of welfare scheme. The difference, he said, was that the Nazis were bent on launching 'all out war'."[26]

Associate professor of history John Broich said of the film's premise of connecting liberalism with fascism that the film committed a category error, "a fallacy in which one compares or conflates things that actually belong in different categories". Broich said, "Fascism and leftism belong in fundamentally different categories, because the essence of fascism was, and is, anti-leftism." He said, "While historians certainly debate the details, they all agree with this basic precept about the core of fascism." Broich quoted fascism scholar Robert Paxton, "[Fascism is] dictatorship against the Left amidst popular enthusiasm."[27] Paxton, who appears in the documentary, said that he was interviewed under false pretenses and found "D'Souza's conclusions to be a distortion of history".[28]

Professor of history Kevin M. Kruse of Princeton University debunked one of the film's arguments, that Southern Democrats who were against African-Americans' civil rights did not defect from the Democratic Party when it began supporting such civil rights, saying that some did defect.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ Arkin, Daniel. "How a faith-based movie studio is seizing the moment in Trump's America". NBC News. NBC UNIVERSAL.
  2. ^ a b c d "Death of a Nation (2018)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
  3. ^ a b c Herndon, Astead W. (August 17, 2018). "A New Film Compares Democrats to Nazis and Trump to Lincoln. At This Screening, It Was a Hit". The New York Times. Retrieved August 21, 2018. ...the movie has been roasted by actual historians and film critics, who point to the many misrepresentations and falsehoods littered throughout the film.
  4. ^ a b Gleiberman, Owen (July 30, 2018). "Film Review: Dinesh D'Souza's 'Death of a Nation'". Variety. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
  5. ^ a b Bond, Paul (July 30, 2018). "Dinesh D'Souza's New Film Makes Incendiary Claims About Democrats' History". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
  6. ^ a b c Alexander, Bryan (August 9, 2018). "Dinesh D'Souza blames 'leftist' critics for 'Death of a Nation's 0% Rotten Tomatoes score". USA Today. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  7. ^ Carras, Christi (August 1, 2018). "Donald Trump Jr. to Co-Host 'Death of a Nation' Screening in D.C. With Dinesh D'Souza". Variety. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  8. ^ Stanley-Becker, Isaac (August 2, 2018). "Under Trump, a red carpet for Dinesh D'Souza, who claims Hitler was a liberal in new documentary". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  9. ^ Arkin, Daniel (August 5, 2018). "How a faith-based movie studio is seizing the moment in Trump's America". NBC News. Retrieved August 6, 2018.
  10. ^ a b c Rubin, Rebecca (August 5, 2018). "Dinesh D'Souza's Pro-Trump Doc 'Death of a Nation' Suffers Mediocre Debut". Variety. Retrieved August 6, 2018.
  11. ^ a b McClintock, Pamela (August 1, 2018). "Box Office: Pro-Trump 'Death of a Nation' Is First Political Doc to Bow Nationwide in 10 Years". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 2, 2018. Critics have lambasted the doc, which currently boasts a zero rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
  12. ^ Rubin, Rebecca (August 1, 2018). "Box Office: Can Disney's 'Christopher Robin' Top 'Mission: Impossible – Fallout'?". Variety. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  13. ^ a b D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 5, 2018). "'Mission' Notches Best 2nd Weekend For Franchise With $35M; 'Christopher Robin' No Eeyore With $25M – Sunday Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  14. ^ Vasquez, Zach. "From box office to Oval Office: can a film ever lead to political change?". The Guardian. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
  15. ^ McClintock, Pamela (August 6, 2018). "Box Office: Why Dinesh D'Souza's 'Death of a Nation' Didn't Get a Big Trump Bump". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 6, 2018. Note: CinemaScore polls audiences automatically if a film is distributed to a certain number of theatres. If a film has smaller distribution, the producers may pay CinemaScore to conduct a private polling.
  16. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 5, 2018). "'Mission' Notches Best 2nd Weekend For Franchise With $35M; 'Christopher Robin' No Eeyore With $25M – Sunday Box Office". Yahoo! News. Retrieved August 6, 2018.
  17. ^ Hennigan, Adrian (July 31, 2018). "Democrats Were More Racist Than Nazis, Says Dinesh D'Souza in New Film; Critics Not Impressed". Haaretz. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  18. ^ "Death of a Nation (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  19. ^ "Death of a Nation reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  20. ^ Sobczynski, Peter. "Death of a Nation Movie Review (2018)". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  21. ^ Scheck, Frank (July 31, 2018). "'Death of a Nation': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  22. ^ Goodykoontz, Bill (July 30, 2018). "Review: Dinesh D'Souza's 'Death of a Nation' is messy, unintentionally hilarious". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  23. ^ Warner, Howard. "Dinesh D'Souza's Death of a Nation". American Thinker. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  24. ^ "Watch: Tomi Lahren Gushes Praise for D'Souza's 'Death of a Nation'". The Western Journal. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  25. ^ Svab, Petr. "Film Critics, Audience Sharply at Odds Over D'Souza's 'Death of a Nation'". The Epoch Times. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  26. ^ Buncombe, Andrew (August 4, 2018). "Donald Trump Jr compares Democrats' policies to those of the Nazis". The Independent. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
  27. ^ Broich, John (August 1, 2018). "There is nothing liberal about fascism". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
  28. ^ Smith IV, Jack (September 8, 2018). "Historians say Dinesh D'Souza lured them under false pretenses to interview for new pro-Trump film". Mic. Retrieved October 22, 2018.

External links

Template:Gerald R. Molen

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Death_of_a_Nation_(2018_film)&oldid=868598388"