Hollywood and tyrants: How filmmakers take on the powerful
A look at how Hollywood has depicted authoritarians, from Duck Soup to The Last King of Scotland.
In film lore, movie moguls are nearly always pictured as tyrants, directors as dictators, producers as despots, so you'd think I'd be used to the notion of authoritarianism by now.
But this era of political autocrats has me rattled, not least because it will inevitably result in a raft of strongman movies in a couple of years.
Apparently, it has Jon Stewart rattled, too, at least judging from the speech he gave at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts when he was presented with the 2022 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
The banana peel in the coal mine
"Comedy doesn't change the world," he told the audience, "but it's a bellwether.
