But my God, the man knows how to make movies. I didn't even realize it until I saw a list of his movies. I had no idea he had been involved in so many of my favorite movies, going back several decades. The man is just good at his job.
One way to master your craft is to look at predecessors and to learn from them. Everyone agrees that Riefenstahl was a great film maker. So Cameron studied and learned from her. What's the big deal?
I thought undersea UFOs destroyed the Titanic...
But the thesis ultimately fails due to one simple problem. The hero in Titanic was named "Jack", not "Jake". When faced with such elementary carelessness, I must give a failing grade.
Cameron stole his movie ideas from the nazis? What’s his next movie, TRIUMPH OF THE WILL, PART II starring Sean Penn?
Why should Leni Riefenstahl be excluded from all the directors that Cameron ripped off making Avatar?
...OR, perhaps a certain 'film studies' professor is bored and craves attention
So, Ms. Rienfenstahl one made a cartoon movie about a racially ambiguous little dude with an arrow on his head who wears robes like a buddhist monk and ‘bends’ air... or something?
;-)
Everybody is influenced by everything. Well almost. Probably not a stretch to think that there is some influence. What’s a stretch it to take that idea and say it’s a conscious remake. That’s where things get ridiculous.
Take George Harrison and My Sweet Lord and the Chiffons’ He’s So Fine. I doubt George set out to consciously rewrite or steal He’s So Fine. But doubtless he had heard the song and somewhere along the line it stuck in his brain. I think that’s how most of these things work.
Though there is the argument that Cameron’s movie career is nothing more than a vehicle to help him find his next wife, I find this analysis a far, far reach.
Movie reviewers get paid to write nonsense. This is a good example. Avatar was an anti-American leftist fantasy, but it was a ripoff of Dances with Wolves, not Leni Riefenstal.
There is a very good reason that Cameron is fascinated with Reifenstahl. It’s because she was actually a superb director. The author lists several of her movies, but I wonder if he actually looked at any of them.
She made several dynamic innovations to filmmaking, and was hugely influential in both the very advanced pre-Nazi German film industry, and later, in a secondary way, when many in their film industry fled to the US and ended up in Hollywood.
Directors like Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, and Fred Zinnemann were all very familiar with Reifenstahl’s techniques and brought them to the US.
And you can see her influence in such movies as The Big Heat, High Noon, and From Here to Eternity.
So, a director recognizes and is influenced by Leni Riefenstahl. He won’t be the first and certainly not the last. She was tremendously inventive and influential in cinematography.
This plays a large role in the continuing fascination with the Nazi era. They were masters of propaganda, and recognized that compelling visual beauty furthered their objectives. From graphic design to fashion design to industrial design to photography, music and movies, they utilized it all and did so with masters of their craft.
That it remains compelling to view is part of the horror, knowing what all the beauty was selling, the putrescent monster lying just beneath the surface. That does not negate the readily apparent skill and the ability of those individuals responsible, however.
This includes Leni Riefenstahl.
I haven’t seen Titanic or Avatar. I have seen Triumph of the Will. Granted it was subtitled, it eerily sounded like it could have been produced by the DNC.
