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What Modern Day WWE is like

To the guy running that wrestling blog I heard about,

Something popped into my head when I thought back to the way Bryan and Reigns were handled throughout Wrestlemania season, and now that I thought it up, I have to share it with you.

Vince's handling of those two is like a movie executive being given the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie and the Ben Affleck movie at the same time. He decides to make both, but he pushes all of his force into the Daredevil movie, being very hands on with it and doing it his way, while he doesn't really care about the Spider-Man movie at all.

However, the Spider-Man movie catches fire entirely through the people, while Daredevil is hated by everyone. Even while knowing this, the exec decides to can all future plans for a Spider-Man franchise, and he makes a franchise out of Daredevil instead, blaming the people for "not getting it".

In other words, if Vince was working in any other industry with the mentality he had back then, he wouldn't last a year. 

Mr. Sharp

​Not really a good analogy.  

First up, movie production has WAY more going on than just simple popularity.  They've been trying to shove Fantastic Four movies down our throat for years now to prevent Marvel from regaining the rights to them, for instance, and not because they made any significant amount of money that would warrant a reboot so soon.  

Also, no one "hates" Roman Reigns in the way people hated the crappy Daredevil movie or the even crappier Elektra spinoff, it's more they hate what he represents.  He's a perfectly cromulent wrestler.  I think a better analogy for his issue would be ​the WWE Movie Company green-lighting a new movie based on Daredevil and starting the script, and then skipping right to releasing Daredevil 3 before they even figured out the plot of the first movie.  And they would open it on the same weekend as Spider-Man when there were no other super-hero movies opening for two months before or after that weekend.  And then blaming the audiences for not being able to fill in the gaps on their own.    

Comments

  1. But Roman Reigns is the juggernaut so none of this makes sense.

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  2. I don't care what Reigns represents. I think he sucks as an entertainer.

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  3. "John Cena in Daredevil 3 : You Cant See Me and I Cant See You Either coming to a Redbox near you!"

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  4. Roman is good. If he beat Rusev at Wrestlemania instead of Cena I think it would have been a lot better. A Wrestlemania with:

    Cena vs Ambrose
    Rollins vs Lesnar (was an intriguing matchup coming out of the Rumble)
    Sting vs HHH
    Rusev vs Reigns
    Ladder match sans Ambrose + Orton
    Wyatt vs Taker
    Sting vs HHH

    ...Would have been roughly the same as the Wrestlemania we got.

    However, having said this, even though Reigns' push was way too fast, I really enjoyed the physical main event we got.

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  5. Roman Reigns is the king of the sit down interview. Maybe they should get him to host a reboot of Tuesday Night Titans.

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  6. Man. This is some nerd-ass shit. This is the kind of wrestling blog / superhero mashup that I would be embarrassed to show my friends who just watch Total Divas.

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  7. Virgil's Gimmick TableApril 25, 2015 at 11:06 PM

    Why are you friends with people like that?

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  8. People who watch Total Divas (or any reality show for that matter) don't get to look down on anyone else's entertainment choices.

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  9. You realize that Seth Rollins used to call his finishers the Avada Kedavra and the Skywalker, right?


    Dude's a nerd.

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  10. You could compare Roman Reigns' change in character to the difference between the director's cut and theatrical cut of Daredevil. The director's original vision was clear and well-made, not a groundbreaker or anything but perfectly good for what it needed to be. Reigns was a silent ass-kicker whose voice could barely be picked up on the microphones, he wasn't going to light the world on fire but he was going to be an A or an A- player.


    The studio interfered and turned Daredevil into a for-the-masses piece of garbage. The WWE higher-ups interfered and gave Roman Reigns a DVD of the best of Tweety & Sylvester and said, "This! Do more of this!"

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  11. Roman Reigns sucks

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  12. I'm no Reigns booster, but the guy has clearly been pushed back into the midcard. Is it not time to stop riding his ass?

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  13. As Gorilla would say - Reigns vs Big Show, "main event anywhere in the country"

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  14. What's with all this superhero infatuation? Did I stumble upon the 411mania movie section by accident?

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  15. "They've been trying to shove Fantastic Four movies down our throat for years now to prevent Marvel from regaining the rights to them, for instance, and not because they made any significant amount of money that would warrant a reboot so soon."
    That's only true of Roger Corman's unreleased, microbudget 1994 production. The last couple of films sucked, but they were definitely budgeted with the intent to be blockbusters, not to retain the film rights.

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  16. Clearly the author of this email doesn't know who he is.

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  17. A single email question is hardly an infatuation.
    There's no other posts relating to superheroes on the front page.

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  18. Reigns was over, incredibly so. A year ago.
    Since they split the shield they have taken most of what got Reigns over in the first place. powerful asskicker, who barely speaks & doesn't show emotion and removed it to make him Rock Version. 2.4

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  19. Burt Macklin, Man Without FearApril 26, 2015 at 1:46 AM

    I liked Daredevil. And I LIKE. ME.

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  20. Needs more Sting v HHH

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  21. What did I just read?

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  22. Daredevil extended cut is a pretty good movie..

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  23. But he does the superman punch, I'm confused

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  24. I like Scott busting out his writing chops by using the word "cromulent".

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  25. There was a daredevil thread 2 or 3 days ago. You could've just ignored it instead of being a dick about it.

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  26. Roman Reigns sucks.

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  27. At this point I dont even know what their plan is with Reigns. The chicago crowd is going to shit all over the extreme rules match. So then what? Have Him feud with Kane? That's kinda the same thing. Nobody wants to seem him mix it up with the intercontinental crowd, besides Vince probably thinks he's above that. If Rusev gets the USA title back that would make sense, but then what wouldve been the point of the John Cena invitational? And it's still to early to get it off of Rollins so you cant have them feud with Reigns looking like a complete loser again.

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  28. exactly.


    imo "Daredevil" (at least the director's cut - which is the only version of the movie that I have seen) is a lot better than its reputation.

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  29. I have no clever response to this. Disparage away.

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  30. I have been an FF fan for 30 years and I have not seen the first two movies, nor do I want to see the newest one. Damn Fox.

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  31. Reigns should be the payoff to Cena's US Title open challenge bit.

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  32. I only want to talk about real men in spandex, not cartoon men in spandex.

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  33. I was personally joint we'd get Cena/Bryan unification at SSlam but if Bryan has to drop the belt or is out for a few months, then I'd totally dig this at SSlam. But, I think that's a huge match that you can't just throw out there on Raw.

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  34. Yeah.. I got into comics because of a Fantastic Four flipbook I had when I was a child and was always a fan, but the movies haven't done them justice.

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  35. "Eating an orange is a lot like modern-day WWE..."
    "EAT THE DAMN ORANGE!!!!"

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  36. Roman Reigns sucks

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  37. Even if the Reigns push was done right and worked exactly as intended, he still would have inevitably hit the ceiling at some point, lost momentum, and fallen back to Earth due to purposeful booking insanity. Not Reign's fault at all. It's because no one can ever - and I mean ever - become larger than the "WWE Brand" again. Cena certainly isn't. Vince must have hated to beg the The Rock and Stone Cold to come back all those times the past 12 years. That won't happen again.

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  38. Just saw a clip of the Rock lip-synching Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off".
    This is quite a time we live in...

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  39. Because, DC. (I feel this should be the new Because WCW)

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  40. He's going to Halle Berry himself above the rest of the cast somehow.

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  41. Thank you. As bad as this is, I still dislike Jokerface: Gotham City Massacre Part III more.

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  42. She makes any role sexier by the mere fact that it's her playing it.

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  43. I'd walk out on it for just being 2000s+ Tim Burton.

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  44. In other news. Extreme Rules is tonight

    Anyone else feeling extremely underexcited?

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  45. At least when the Rock played his father in that episode of That 70s Show, that was good stuff. I still stand by my prediction that the networks will be off television and on the internet in the next 15-20 years .

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  46. I think all the champions retain and nothing out of the ordinary is going down. So yeah, I'll watch it because it's on with the Met/Yankee game in the background.

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  47. The only real item of interest for me is whether the IC bout goes ahead and if not, what they do instead.

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  48. Maybe they'll have Bryan do a quick job so he can take some time off to heal up. Oh, and how many stretches of CM Punk chants during the course of the night.

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  49. I've sort of come to appreciate the first FF movie the same way I do the Phantom Menace. Neither is what I wanted to see from their respective franchises, but I also realize I'm not the target audience. Specifically for FF they took a property that had a following and presented a version of it knowing that the base elements of it were capable of attracting a following. Of course what happened is what usually happens in the trade-off you get in alienating the existing fans to attract the new ones with the changes you make. It's not really a bad movie: it's well made, everyone in it is likeable and does their best with the material. I'm a little harder on the sequel simply for the amount of potential they squander in the changes they make from the source material.

    Looking at this new movie I'm concerned because while seemingly heavily influenced by the Ultimate version of the characters, I'm already seeing enough changes from *that* version to make me question if there's enough of the original concept left to remain appealing to a potential new audience.

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  50. Fallon has to turn everything into karaoke, lip singing, etc.

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  51. Never cared for the guy. SNL, films, whatever else. I don't get his shtick but I must be in the minority because his show does well. Nearly everyday I read about something happening on there that's newsworthy, or at least entertainment worthy.

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  52. I don't mind him but all the singing nonsense gets old quick.

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  53. Lol its tonight? I really am out and away from this product more than I realised...

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  54. If you've never listened to the "How did this get made" podcast, I'd recommend it. They have a pretty good one about Daredevil. (I'd also recommend the Howard the Duck episode)

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  55. I'm cautiously optimistic about this newest one.

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  56. The last one about Con Air and Jason's love for it was fucking awesome.

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  57. I feel for the guy. I feel for anyone that has to be in constant Big Show and Kane feuds.

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  58. The Little Prince looks amazing, for an animated movie

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  59. "– We noted earlier this weekend that UFC President Dana White said that while he enjoyed Ronda Rousey’s performance at WrestleMania 31, she would not be working any matches for WWE. F4Wonline.com notes that members of WWE creative were “stunned” to hear those comments from Dana as they’ve been hoping to book Rousey vs. Stephanie McMahon in a singles match."

    To be clear, this is on par with Dixie Carter being stunned that WWE wouldn't let DX wrestle the Voodoo Kin Mafia years ago.

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  60. Forget the analogy. But I think the last state is fairly close to the truth.

    In baseball, a hitter is successful if he can get a hit 3 out of 10 times. That measuring stick wouldn't cut it in pretty much any other business.

    Vince/the WWE is notorious for bad decisions/leaving money on the table. I dumbfounded as what constitutes success, or what the board of directors expe

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  61. I'm actually curious as to whether they'll be lame enough to do the "Kane teases turning on the Authority, ends up slamming the cage in Orton's head allowing Rollins to escape" finish. That's the most predictable thing they could do - let's see if they do it

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  62. Dana would have to be certifiably insane to let her anywhere near a WWE ring.

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  63. I predict Bryan retires tomorrow a la Edge.

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  64. How do her appearance happen? I imagine that it all needs UFC's ok?

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  65. Probably some sort of 1 off sponsorship contract, if I had to guess.

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  66. I'll watch it because it's on and I don't have anything better to do.

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  67. Good. Stephanie getting offense in on Ronda would give me permanent Cornette face.

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  68. That analogy is working too hard to not really get anywhere. The WWE's handling of Reigns is like how movie studios tried turning Taylor Kitsch into a major star by plugging him into anticipated blockbusters and then being shocked when he couldn't carry anything. It's not like Kitsch was in a few movies and really caught anyone's attention...they just liked his look and wanted him to be a star.

    I just realized a day or two ago I have no idea what's going on in the WWE anymore. I don't think I could name one feud or one angle.

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  69. The board of directors at the WWE are still trying to figure out what the WWE is and how it can be leveraged into other entertainment mediums. The financial people there seem really concerned with goosing the stock by artificially inflating the Network subscription numbers.


    Better decisions should lead to a better bottom line, but those decisions don't seem to be taking place. They need to get away from making movies and trying to turn wrestlers into movie stars and refocus on better television. They're kinda in a death spiral right now.

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  70. The same way her movie career happens. As long as what she's doing outside of MMA doesn't conflict with her fight dates/scheduling and doesn't carry any heightened risk of physical injury or strain, she's pretty clear to do whatever she wants.

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  71. Considering that Steph and Ronda seem, by all appearances, to be friends, I don't think Steph would have any interest in doing anything in the ring to a crimp in Ronda's fight career, but it's not really worth brainstorming on because there's a -68% chance Ronda works a pro wrestling match within the next 3 years.

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  72. ROCK-em SOCK-em Robot!!!!April 26, 2015 at 12:43 PM

    Chris Evans was pretty awesome as Johnny Storm.

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  73. It's the "Damaged" forehead tattoo that I dislike, he might as well carry a sign saying "I'm crazy!" In fact that's pretty much what it is.

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  74. Wow, that is bad.


    What the hell -- did the costume designers say "hey, I always thought the Joker should look more like Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers"?

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  75. Purely aesthetic hate, character portrayal is an unknown at this point.

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  76. Best part of the movie.

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  77. Are you not entertained by the local men?

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  78. I couldn't even tell you who Taylor Kitsch is!

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  79. Very well could happen. Without Bryan, I really don't see myself continuing to watch wwe.

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  80. Well I think roman reigns sucks more than you do.

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  81. Really? Forgotten more than I know? Shit that's some good ganja. Anyway, I'll taken your challenge. I really want finder if you forgotten more than I know. At best I make you feel silly. At worst, I'll have learned something. Where do we begin? Typically most scholars start with Riefenstahl. Where do you wanna start?

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  82. Edison and the Great Train Robbery? Or perhaps Birth of a Nation & Cecil B. Demille? Maybe how United Artists was formed? The studio system. The Method. The French New Wave. Bergman. Riefenstahl? Why would you skip to German propoganda and not discuss the silent film directors who inspired Hollywood in the first place? Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Otto Preminger. Mack Sennett Studios. How do you discuss cinema and not talk about Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Arbuckle? Mary Pickford. Greta Garbo. Howard Hughes. Howard Hawks. Bogart & Bacall. The Blacklist of the 50's. Independent cinema of the 60's. Easy Rider. John Cassavettes. Post-war Japanese cinema & Kurosawa. You tell me where you'd like to start?

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  83. Ugh. I said DeMille when I meant D.W. Griffith. I hate when I do that.

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  84. Because German propaganda fueled a nation and a war. And when it cones to manipulative messages in cinema she was a forerunner. Which is one of the reasons most film classes begin with her as a prologue. You must forgotten that one.

    Now, were you going somewhere or were you just throwing as many random and disconnected names (aside from art form) that you could think of?

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  85. Funny, every film class I've seen (including the one I took in 1989) started with history of cinema. Then technique. Riefenstahl & "Triumph of the Will" isn't even the first movie discussed when covering propaganda & manipulation in cinema. Perhaps if you're just talking about courses in documentary filmmaking. But even there it usually follows discussion of newspaper syndicates expanding into newsreels. Starting a discussion of cinema with Leni Riefenstahl... that's arthouse stuff. Might as well start with Jean-Luc Godard and how many Criterion Collection DVDs you own.

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  86. Ryan O'Riley from OZApril 27, 2015 at 9:51 PM

    that not an argument

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  87. Ryan O'Riley from OZApril 27, 2015 at 9:52 PM

    u suck

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  88. Ryan O'Riley from OZApril 27, 2015 at 9:52 PM

    pretentious jerk

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  89. Ryan O'Riley from OZApril 27, 2015 at 9:52 PM

    u suck

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  90. Ryan O'Riley from OZApril 27, 2015 at 9:53 PM

    go to hell

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  91. Ryan O'Riley from OZApril 27, 2015 at 9:53 PM

    you are shit

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  92. I only had one that I sold for a pretty penny. Last Temptation of Christ. Technique is useless theory when you don't know what you're aiming to do. Not the first movie discussed? It rallied the Nazi regime...not sure how many films have that historical a score, aside from Edison's reel and Birth of A Nation. Birth was fairly shit but ground breaking just because there was so much ground to break (TMNT would have been groundbreaking then too) Train Robbery was pretty exceptional.

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  93. You don't know the half of it.

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  94. Happen often? How do you manage to do that often?

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  95. "Triumph" has been of interest to film historians because of its manipulation of imagery. Riefenstahl spent her later life defending the film for honestly capturing the power of the Nazi party, while critics contend the film's carefully arranged imagery helped form the myth of said power. This is what leads to debates over its genuine quality as a documentary because of its carefully crafted appearance of perfection. It documents a series of Nazi rallies, but shows no details on the workings of the events. Just the cold mechanical precision with which they were executed for the camera. There is debate over how influential the film really was in Germany as it served as a point of pride for the party, and served as a valuable recruiting tool, yet there's no way to ever gauge its true impact. It was definitely scapegoated after the fact, which is why Leni spent so many years of her life defending its artistic merit. It was grasped by those pre-war who were trying to sound the alarm regarding the rise of fascism in Europe. Within Germany itself there was an entire industry of films devoted to propaganda that arguably had a greater impact than "Triumph" which stirred public unrest regarding the terms which ended the previous World War, the "threat" of the Jews in Germany, the embracing of the Eugenics movement, the Maryanne belief and so forth.

    The counterpart to all this--primarily in Britain & the US--was the newsreel industry. While German films attempted to form a sense of national pride, in England the newsreels prepared and carried the country into war. Here in America the Roosevelt administration called upon Hollywood filmmakers to help craft pieces to help sell his agenda going all the way back to the New Deal. Had Pearl Harbor not happened this country would still likely have been carried to war in Europe on the back of Hollywood propaganda films. Even Walt Disney got in on the act (though somewhat reluctantly early on, given his personal beliefs).

    I'm not really sure how we got from Ninja Turtles to Donald Duck, but there it is.

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