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A Classic Movie for the Trump Era

I was looking at the movies available on tubitv.com, and found "Elmer Gantry", made around 1960, and featuring a powerful performance by Burt Lancaster.  (I watched it with the Brave browser and Adblock, which worked great.) 

The movie is more worthwhile if you take it allegorically.  The story is about Christian revivalists in the Bible Belt, but many of its points apply just as well to other popular delusions, such as democratic politics.

Elmer Gantry seems a lot like Donald Trump.  I wonder if the legacy of the Trump era will be that presidential candidates will always arise through the entertainment industry, and that their on-camera personality is the only thing that will matter.



Comments

Barb said…
DJT's decades of grooming in Hollyweird is part of my distrust. Reminds me of the scene in Back to the Future when Marty tells Doc Brown that Ronald Reagan is the president and Doc replies in disbelief "Ronald Reagan. The actor?!" It does seem like we're living a bad script. Who wrote the part about Joe Biden pulling out of the election on National Ice Cream Day? I laughed when my son told me. You can't make this stuff up or can you? LOL
I'll see if I can find Elmer Gantry to watch.
July 23, 2024 at 6:51 AM
kaBLOOnie Boonster said…
Barb, your distrust of the Entertainment Industry comes through in your comment. That industry seems to be too big a part of our culture.
July 23, 2024 at 8:10 AM
Wildsider said…
I'm not sure I get the significance of National Ice Cream Day unless we are talking about brain freeze, In which case oh yeah, that is funny.
July 24, 2024 at 3:46 PM
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