“Death of a Nation”

LOUISA: 

LOUISA SAYS:

Controversial conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza is back with yet another two hours of sensational fibs in “Death of a Nation,” a “‘documentary” filled with his same old arguments that are again reheated to rile up the right wing base. Through admittedly well done historical recreations, D’Souza examines the ideas of fascism and white supremacy, coming to the finger-pointing conclusion that today’s modern liberals are indeed the true racist enemy of the people. I am not making this up.

The film follows what proves to be a very Trump-ian narrative: yell a bunch of fishy “facts” as loudly as you can and repeat them until your audience is too worn out to ask questions. It becomes even more jaw dropping when there’s a scene with Hitler (Pavel Kríz) saying “if you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed,” and the director attempts to use that quote against Democrats! This film and its disjointed narrative makes no sense and is a laundry list of contradictions.

The case for comparing Trump to Lincoln and today’s progressive Democrats to the Nazi party (again, I am not making this up) jumps all over the place, from racism and slavery in the past to a christ-like adulation of Ronald Regan. To D’Souza’s credit, the film takes a total of 4 minutes before he makes the first mention of Obama and Hillary. It ends up in a rallying cry to stand up for your faith no matter what (while a dramatic reenactment of a beheading with a giant crucifix on the wall takes center stage) and a final diatribe about how Democrats have one goal: to take away all of our heard-earned money and destroy America from within.

The historical facts presented are twisted into oblivion and when D’Souza backs himself into a corner and is no longer easily able to manipulate his “research” or weasel his way out of the lie, he goes for broke and hits ’em with a rousing patriotic music number. That’ll make them forget to ask the tough questions! The film ends with a passionate gospel choir rendition of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” just to emphasize the point that Republicans aren’t racist.

The gimmick seemed to work with my audience of mostly elderly folks during a weekday matinee. Oh how they howled with laughter whenever the film showed prominent liberal celebrities, politicians, and talking heads reacting with tears and disgust to Trump’s election night win. I wanted to stand up and yell “what’s so funny about that?” because it was downright bizarre. It’s like they voted for the man simply as a big “f you!” to anyone who ever made them feel stupid or inadequate in life. That’s probably what did happen, and it’s probably going to happen again because a mindset like that is really what’s destroying our country.

I’m earnestly concerned about the mental stability of audiences who take this stuff to heart. Nobody takes this crap seriously, do they?