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Letters They Wouldn't Publish
March 20, 2004
Letters to the Editor The Washington Post letters@washpost.com Dear Editor: Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, criticizes a recent documentary alleging a conspiracy to assassinate John F. Kennedy, and notes that in 1992 he likewise criticized Oliver Stone's conspiracy film, "JFK." Valenti recalls that he wrote: "Young German girls and boys in 1941 were mesmerized by Leni Riefenstahl's 'Triumph of the Will', in which Adolf Hitler is pictured as a new-born God. Both 'JFK' and 'Triumph of the Will' are equally a propaganda masterpiece and equally a hoax." Since Mr. Valenti recognizes that 'Triumph of the Will' was not 'just a movie' but had a real impact on German society, it is surprising that he did not speak out when Riefenstahl was included in the Academy Awards ceremony's annual tribute to recently-deceased film industry figures, last month. The applause from the Academy Awards audience did diminish somewhat at the mention of Riefenstahl's name. But one would have hoped that others in the film industry would have spoken up, and that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences might have expressed some remorse. Instead, the Academy's executive director, Bruce Davis, defended the inclusion of Riefenstahl on the grounds that she was "on any film historian's list of greatest documentaries," and therefore "it would have been a pointed statement of one kind not to include her." It would have been more than 'pointed'--it would have been a powerful affirmation that the use of art to promote fascism is morally repugnant. And a statement from Jack Valenti and the Motion Picture Association of America, deploring the Academy's honoring of Riefenstahl, would have been most appropriate. Cordially,
Rafael Medoff, Ph.D.
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