Oliver Stone says his upcoming Showtime documentary series Secret History of America will put the 20th century’s star butchers Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin “in context.”
Hitler and Stalin
That Hollywood would glorify Stalin is hardly a shock to anyone. If you go back to many Cold War-era movies, you will find tortured excuses — even fulsome praise — for Mother Russia.
Only Nazi Germany was allowed to appear on the screen as evil incarnate. For decades, Hitler has been the perfect role model as villain — right out of “central casting.” The highest-priced Hollywood talent scout could not have given the movie moguls a better gift. Funny mustache, silly goose-step, the “Sieg Heil” salutes, a “Master Race” theory, his evil shouting speeches. And that’s before we even learned about the gas chambers and the Holocaust.
Stalin was smarter about his evil. He murdered millions — but — he did not shout himself hoarse in public. He kept his mouth shut, and just did it. A good Hollywood producer can’t do as much with that. Hitler, by contrast, was in the world’s face as he committed mass murder.
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