Canadian Film Weekly (Jul 28, 1943)

Address all communications—Thoe Managing Editor, Canadian Film Weekly, 25 Dundas Square, Toronto, Canada. Published ay Fila Publications of Canada, Ltd., 25 Dundas Square, Toronte, Ont., Phoes ADelaide 4317. Price 5 cents each or $200 per year. Entered as Second Class Matter NEB About Fascism (Continued from Page 1) as leader. He is shown telling all those high-sounding lies that bamboozled his followers about the future of Italy. Italian youths in gym suits are shown in pleasing poses, vast crowds cheer Mussolini on his balcony perch, and Il Duce goes about starting projects. There is very little in the film to indicate that Mussolini is a liar and a murderer. We are told that the Italiams and the Germans don’t trust each other. The Italiams hate the Germans. Who doesn’t? That doesn’t excuse them or entitle them to the special consideration of the National Film Board. The last lines of the commentary are confusing. For something like twenty minutes we have heard about the glorious traditions of Italy and seen the happy folk at play under the beneficent and welcome eye of Mussolini. Then, in conclusion, we are told that “And with the Allied convoys heading for the gates of Italy, Italians everywhere are remembering the words of hope spoken in their land four centuries ago: ‘Italy shall find her liberator and at long last the true banner of this people shall once more be raised in pride among the nations of the world.” It is a little early to lead the people to believe that this quotation has a present-day application. The happy folk in “The Gates of Italy” seem to have found their incarceration pleasant. Very little in the film would lead you to believe otherwise, since there is no acknowledgment of the anti-Fascist Underground and no word of disaffection. No doubt there is much greater opposition to Mussolini now, since it is Italy which is suffering Mussolini's folly, as did Ethiopia, France, Spain, Greece and Albania earlier. Some newspaper reporis say that Sicilians are welcoming the Allies. Others report that Allied sentries have had their throats slit at night. . The re-education of the Italian people to remove the effects of the Fascist mental poison is concerning post-war planners but the NFB, in saying that Italy is awaiting a liberator, gives the idea that all Italiams were the unwilling slaves of Mussolini. Let us wait and see. The Allied occupation armies were welcomed after the last war by the Germans—but here we are again. The present bewilderment of the Italians is not enough to stand up against the sympathetic and favorable side of the film. We see healthy youth, new projects under way and war—all surface manifestations of Fascism. We are not told that the glorified projects of Mussolini are like a rosy apple with a rotten core; that they are meaningless under such a system. We see war by Italy but are not told that it is the inevitable product of the hated thing called Fascism—or what Fascism is. True, Italy has glorious traditions and its emigrants have made their mark in America. And no doubt the Italian people have been misled. But it is also true that Mussolini, their leader, has created a political and social system that is directly opposed to ours. His desire, and that of Hitler, is to impose that system on us and destroy Democracy and its defenders. We are fighting to prevent that. Canadians are dying to keep our way of life free of Fascism. Why doesn’t the film tell these things? A Futile Film Not only is “The Gates of Italy” a futile film but it is dangerous for what it doesn’t tell. More than that, it is a poor historical document. Why doesn’t the film explain that Fascism opposes Canadian FILM WEEKLY Vol. 8, No. 81 July 28, 19438) HYE BOSSIN, Managing Editor July 28, 1943 everything we know, love and understand—such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of every kind of expression? In revealing Mussolini’s coming to power, why doesn’t it tell of the murder of Matteotti, leader of Italian labor, and of the dissolution of the Italiom parliament? What about the murder, imprisonment and torture of its elected members? Why doesn’t the film make more of the rape of Ethiopia, an ally whose country was freed by the British, instead of dismissing it as “The African Disease”? What about the over-running of Albania, the attack on Greece and Mussolini’s recent refusal to honor a British request that Greece’s starving, helpless and harmless children be sent to Britain? What about the expression of Mussolini's blood lust on Spain? Why is there nothing about Italy stabbing France in the back, which won historic denunciation, the phrase becoming a part of our literature? Whai about the thousands who were imprisoned, exiled, tortured and killed because they opposed Mussolini and Fascism? Why doesn’t the film tell what Fascism really stands for so that its growth here in other guises might be combatted? A Sin of Omission There isn’t any doubt that the National Film Board is opposed to Fascism, here and overseas. It is a first-rate organization whose past work is deserving of praise. But the errors of omission in this film are made greater by the favorable things shown. It creates a feeling of sympathy that is out of place as long as Canadians are dying at the hands of Italians who still support Mussolini and Fascism. With some deletions and a few additions “The Gates of Italy’ would seem like a film made in Italy. Exactly what is the message intended by the film? Every prominent Allied leader has denounced Fascism as a social, economic and political system. The National Film Board has all the material it needs to show that not only is Mussolini criminally bad but that the way of life founded by him is a negation of Civilization. The NFB could easily have borrowed some of Mr. Churchill's famed phrases to put Mussolini in his place. The National Film Board is supposed to make people aware of the real nature and intentions of our enemies so that the will to resist will reach its peak. A film which for the most part glorifies on enemy country and lets its leader have his say without refuting him adequately doesn’t belong on our screens—nor should it be shown in other countries as coming from us. 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