Monday, September 30, 2024

Hitler's People: The Faces of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans. Review.

 


Hitler's People: The Faces of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans
Even if you've read many books on the topic, you'll want to read this one

I'm sitting on the couch, next to my brother Greg. I'm about five years old. The TV is our magical portal to old movies. The elegant dancing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The wit and romance of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. John Wayne's righteous action hero. But not today. I am witnessing horrors that will haunt me for the rest of my life.

Naked, skeletal bodies stacked like firewood. Even worse, some still live, in a nether world that strips them of any concept of human dignity. They stare at the camera and at me and Greg sitting there on the couch in suburban New Jersey.

My mother is furious. "This is what they did to us!"

Friday, September 20, 2024

"Am I Racist?" Yes, Matt Walsh, You Are.

 


Am I Racist?

New Daily Wire Film Wants to be the next What Is a Woman?



Am I Racist? is a one-hour-and-forty-minute documentary from The Daily Wire. It was released in the U.S. on September 13, 2024. It stars Matt Walsh. Walsh had previously starred in the Daily Wire's 2022 documentary, What Is a Woman? That film interrogated trans extremism. Woman enjoys a high 78% score from professional reviewers at the Rottentomatoes site, and an even higher 86% score from amateur reviewers. For this reviewer, What Is a Woman? is a must-watch film that makes important points in sometimes funny ways. Am I Racist? is merely so-so. A key difference between the two superficially similar documentaries lessens the impact of the newer work. More on that, below.