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By
FRANK BEHRENS
What do you do with a
government that throws parties while most of the
population is out of work, starving and homeless?
You make it easy for demagogues to take the
concepts of intellectuals and turn them into an
easy road to power. What do you do when a newly
formed government (one that wrested its power by
violent revolution) decides to launch a
"pre-emptive" war against Prussia with no strategy
at all but with unlimited men who can be thrown
into harm's way? Add to that a political climate
where a mere hint of disloyalty to the regime
could lead you to imprisonment and worse.
Today's news? Well, perhaps. But I am referring to
a fascinating DVD from The History Channel called
"The French Revolution." Using all the usual
techniques of the modern documentary -- re-enacted
scenes, talking heads, slow motion photography,
the same shots shown far too many times along the
way -- we get at least a good idea of the momentum
of a revolution that snowballed out of control
when power was at least nominally given to "the
people."
One point, however, is not brought up in this
video. Many historians have commented that after
the American Revolution the landed gentry made
very sure the masses never quite could threaten
their power by setting up not only a
representative government (which all European
countries had at least in theory) but an electoral
college that assured that not every vote would
count equally. Hence we had no Terror in the
French style; but we have had a few presidents
elected who would have lost in a direct voting
system.
The most telling remark in the narration, I
believe, is the fact that Marie Antoinette never
said "Let them eat cake" because she never gave
even that much of a thought to those without great
wealth. So much for famous quotations.
There is also one of those "Making of …" bonus
features that should be of great interest to
students of cinema. However, the feature
documentary is a MUST for anyone concerned about
how countries can be so easily led to disaster by
arrogant leaders and dangerous ambiguous phrases. |
