Posted on 08/25/2018 6:03:45 AM PDT by Kaslin
Editor's note: This is part one of a two-part series.
In an exclusive interview with Townhall, New York Times bestselling author Dinesh D’Souza discussed his controversial new film — Death of Nation: Can We Save America a Second Time? — his recent pardon by Trump, and the impact the movie is having ahead of the midterm elections.
Amid growing censorship of conservatives in the public square, D'Souza says the film is the target of censorship that reflects the “pathological state of our national debate.”
“There are three kinds of reactions to the movie,” D’Souza told Townhall. “The reaction from conservatives is almost unanimously positive. The people who actually go see the movie — whom I assume are mainly Republicans and conservatives — give it a 90 percent-plus rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Now, on the left, the reaction morphs into two different categories. One category is what I call, ‘Let’s ignore the film and hope it goes away.’ This is the approach of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, and NPR. None of these media outlets have devoted a single word of coverage to the movie. It’s extremely strange and reflects the pathological state of our national debate, or perhaps I should say, our non-debate in America.”
However, The New York Times and The Washington Post have weighed in on the docudrama film that has grossed over $5 million since its release August 3, according to Box Office Mojo.
“The theme here, in the third category, is very predictable and both of those articles are almost interchangeable. They say the same thing: Dinesh D’Souza’s movie portrays (Adolf) Hitler as a liberal Democrat and compares the Democrats to Nazis. It’s what I call the art of political caricature.
“First of all, nowhere do I say that Hitler was a liberal Democrat. No reasonable person could see the film and think that. Now, what I do say is much more pressing and that is that Hitler and the Nazis did get some of their bigoted, and even murderous schemes, from American progressives and the Democratic Party.”
In the film, you raise an interesting point about the intolerance of the left, and how progressives and fascists drive speakers out of the public square. You’ve said that you’ve personally experienced this, and now the world is watching social media companies engage in censorship. What would you like to say about this in terms of your film?
D’Souza: Well, the fascists were illiberal, and they manifested their illiberalism in two sorts of distinct ways. The first way was to demonize, ostracize and attack dissenting views, and again, that fascist stream lives on in the left today. I say lives on because the fascists are still on the left and the strategy of hounding, intimidating, and even beating up your political opponents is a leftist hallmark shared not only by the fascists, but also by the communists in the 20th century.
Also, political correctness is an encouragement of cultural conformity, a way of muzzling people into submission so they don’t deviate from the leftist party line. And that I think is a line of connection between the fascists of the last century and the leftism of our own time.
You experienced what you described as a “political hit” after the release of your first film, 2016: Obama’s America. You’ve claimed that the federal government went after you for a campaign finance violation that nobody has been charged with before. You were sentenced to five years of probation and eight months in a community confinement center. It was only earlier this summer that President Donald Trump pardoned you. What would you like to say about this now?
D’Souza: Well, I had reasons to suspect that my case was motivated politically in part because the FBI came knocking on my door literally a week after Obama was railing against my movie on his personal website, BarackObama.com. That’s odd.
Later, I found out that the FBI had red flagged me as a right-wing conservative and there was clearly an effort on the part of the FBI to notify the Justice Department that here is a political opponent that you guys might want to go after.
Third, I learned from my FBI file that when they found out about my case, the $20,000 (campaign finance) violation, they immediately assigned $100,000 to investigate it. That, I’m told, is also unorthodox and strange and reeks of a political hit.
In the film, you make the argument that there is a similarity between the situations faced by President Trump today and President Abraham Lincoln in the mid-1800s. What do you see as the similarities?
D'Souza: Let’s lay out the parallels. Number one, Lincoln was an outsider. He was not expected to get the Republican nomination and unexpectedly he did. He ran against the majority party, the Democratic Party, and somewhat surprisingly he won. In part, he won, because the Democratic vote was split between two Democrats, one in the North and one in the South.
The moment that Lincoln won all hell broke loose. There was an extreme reaction from Democrats both in the North and the South. In the North, some Democrats were calling for Lincoln to be assassinated, which happened later. In the South, the Democrats were willing to break up the country rather than endure the prospect of a Lincoln presidency, so there was all this craziness going on, and the craziness is still with us today and it’s coming from the same party.
Now, what did the Democrats call Lincoln? They called him an extremist, an authoritarian and a tyrant. And what are the charges that the Democrats make against Trump today? He’s an extremist, he’s an authoritarian, he’s a tyrant.
Just ignoring it or giving it bad reviews. Typical leftist media.
Alas, the people that should see it, won’t.
I’d like to avoid CWII.
But the Left seems to be rushing toward it.
D’Souza is a genius and the left cannot tolerate him.
Another good interview of him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYriRbBSqoM
Youtube has so far not censored Dinesh. Many videos there of his debates and interviews.
The left fears the truth more than anything. It’s the antithesis of all they hold dear.
Yes.
The tech companies also. "Conspiracy" no more.
Tech Companies Are Gathering For A Secret Meeting To Prepare A 2018 Election Strategy
Validating another old saw: to anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.
A great Dinesh speech about the Death of a Nation!
No. No one is censoring it. It is a documentary, and docs just do not do well. I am told by people who distribute films that 99% of all docs lose money.
To get your doc on PBS (which I have) you have to PAY THEM!
Most theaters will give DOAN maybe 2 showings a day/night. I tried to go see it three weeks ago and it was only available at limited theaters at certain times. Well, welcome to the world of moviemaking.
It has now grossed $5.4m. Not bad, but in the movie business, this means the FILM has made $2.7m of its investors’ $6.2m budget. This does not include “prints and advertising”/marketing, which is never disclosed, but is likely at least $1m and probably $2m.
So basically the film has made about 25% of its money back. DVD sales and licensing will likely add another 10%.
The issue is not box office receipts, but rather media coverage of the film’s release. Although I agree that the word censorship is misapplied here. Boycott, blacklisting, or smear campaign might be more accurate.
They will do everything they can to suppress it, just like they are cutting every single means that Robert Spencer has to get his word out to the people about the dangers of radical *slam.
I doubt it will have an impact on the election as we would never have seen it if we were leftist loons. I could be wrong.
Maybe it will motivate right thinking people, who would normally skip this election, to get to the polls in November.
The media may be ignoring or down playing this movie.
And some say documentaries are in a different category, just don’t do well at the box office etc
I hear Michael Moore is making a movie about Trump. When that hits theaters, it will be interesting to compare and contrast the reaction in the media to that one, compared to this one. We will see.
Everyone possible should read the book. It pieces the history together in a much more chronological way and in far more detail. Scares the hell out of me what the Demonrats are up to.
I read a fascinating interview with him after he got out of prison. It was interesting to hear his thoughts about prison & the justice system as he compared them are & post prison.
That being said, something about this guy just bothers me. I can’t put my finger on it, but he annoys me.
Pre prison
Just read your home page.
Thank you for using your talent and passion for discovering and telling the truth to the masses via book & film!
“It has now grossed $5.4m. Not bad, but in the movie business, this means the FILM has made $2.7m of its investors’ $6.2m budget. This does not include ‘prints and advertising’/marketing, which is never disclosed, but is likely at least $1m and probably $2m... So basically the film has made about 25% of its money back. DVD sales and licensing will likely add another 10%.”
With private equity you never really know the true numbers. Documentaries are usually less expensive to make than dramatic feature films. And the cost for “film” and “prints” has drastically changed because of everything digital. So, for example, with cheap software (Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve, which is $299 for the Studio version) you can create Digital Cinema Packages (DCPs) for theatrical distribution without outsourcing to specialty shops like filmmakers had to in the past. Or, if you have a multi-million-dollar budget, like this film, you can get these things done for much less than in the past. What used to cost tens-of-thousands of dollars now costs thousands or even hundred.
The published budgets of films are, in some cases, reported low in order to appeal to indie filmmakers. So you’ll hear things like so-and-so film was “shot” for $15,000. But this is not the entire budget. On the other hand, and more frequently, budgets are inflated in order to make the audience feel they are getting some kind of value or bargain. Which sounds better, paying $15 to see a film that was made for $15,000 or $15,000,000?
You are probably right that this film did not return a profit and may never do so. But most films don’t. Many never even get picked up in distribution deals at all. Films like this are not mainly about making money. It’s great when they do. And it helps to sell the next project. But profit is not the only measure of success here.
Really, I find D'Souza to be very thorough, educational, honest and sincere.
All this reminds me that I need to buy the book (hard copy). If I like it, Santa might give some copies to friends and rels as early Christmas gifts.
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