Fascism on Film Podcast

'Europa Europa' and the cost of surviving fascism

"Europa Europa" is a powerful film by Agnieszka Holland, that tells the true-life story of Solomon Perel, a Jewish boy in Nazi Germany who survives the war through a seri

'Swing Kids' and the Disneyfication of fascism

Swing heil! That's right, kids, in 1993, a little over six months before Steven Spielberg premiered "Schindler's List," Disney's short-live Hollywood Pictures came out wi

'Sophie Scholl: The Final Days' and the high price of resistance

"Sophie Scholl: The Final Days" is a devastating and tragic look at a true-life hero of the German resistance movement, The White Rose. To see the machinations of Nazism

'Army of Shadows': A sobering look at resisting fascism

Jean-Pierre Melville's masterpiece, "Army of Shadows," is a gripping slow-burn look at the operations of the French Resistance during the Nazi occupation. Melville strips

'The Bridge': Hitler's youth pay the ultimate price

Bernhard Wicki’s powerful 1959 German anti-war film, "The Bridge" shows the tragedy and futility of following fascism to its final end. A group of high-school boys in a s

'JoJo Rabbit': You know, fascism for kids.

Silly "JoJo Rabbit," fascism is for kids. Every National Socialist knows that the way to sustain a reign of 1,000 years is through the corruption of the little ones. In

'Network': When the corporations take over the airwaves

Not even Sybil the Soothsayer could have predicted how much Paddy Chayefsky and Sidney Lumet's 1976 film "Network" would mirror today's world of infotainment and the corp

'The Great Dictator': Farcical fascism

"The Great Dictator" kicks off Season 3 of Fascism on Film. Charlie Chaplin takes on Hitler and the Nazi's in a biting satire that is noted today for its historical impor

'Melania': When a propagandist message fails to materialize

In a special one-off episode of Fascism on Film, we take a look at the pay-to-play Amazon-purchased documentary, "Melania" which fails as both documentary and as MAGA pro

'I'm Still Here': When they come for you

In the Season 2 finale of "Fascism on Film," James and Teal break down the 2024 film, "I'm Still Here." Walter Salles' look at Brazil under military dictatorship in the 1

'A Special Day': The Machismo Meet-Cute of 1938

 1977's "A Special Day" is a heartfelt romance of Hitler and Mussolini’s infamous cementing of their two nations culminated in a 24-hour Roman holiday. No, but it is set

Eddington: Fear is a Fertile Ground

In this episode, James and Teal tackle Ari Aster’s "Eddington," a dark, surprising film set in the earliest days of COVID—when fear, isolation, and conspiracy thinking we

'One Battle After Another': Which America do you live in?

Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another" is both a thrilling action film, and a mirror-holding look at current American society. Baked into its absurdist right v

'Hans Westmar': The Fascist Martyr

Released just months after Hitler came to power, "Hans Westmar" stands as one of the earliest cinematic expressions of Nazi ideology. Ostensibly a biopic of Horst Wessel—

Reich Cinema: 'Hitler’s Hollywood'

Between 1933 and 1945, more than 1,000 feature films were produced under the Nazi regime—most of them not overtly propagandistic, but melodramas, musicals, comedies, and

We’ll Always Have Fascism: ‘Casablanca’

Romance as Resistance: ‘Casablanca’ In this episode of Fascism on Film, we look at Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca (1942), one of Hollywood’s most enduring films and one of

Everyone Loves to Hate a Nazi: 'Inglourious Basterds'

This week, we take aim at Nazis as pop-culture film villains and the tropes associated with them in a discussion on Quentin Tarantino’s "Inglourious Basterds," in which t

Before the Curtain Falls: 'The Last Metro'

François Truffaut’s "The Last Metro" is a deceptively quiet film about survival, resistance, and performance under Nazi occupation. Set in a Parisian theater during the G

An Empire of Crime: 'The Testament of Dr. Mabuse'

"The Testament of Dr. Mabuse" is Fritz Lang's 1933 German detective thriller that arrived on the heels of Hilter coming to power, making it the regime's first official 'b

The Mistake of Identity: 'Mr. Klein'

In this episode of the Fascism on Film Podcast, we look at Mr. Klein (1976), Joseph Losey’s haunting story of identity, complicity, and erasure in Nazi-occupied France.