July Fourth Triumph of Will

Did anyone else watch the NBC special fireworks celebration from New
York this Friday?

It was the longest most expensive fireworks display I've ever seen.
But that's not what bothered me. The strange part of the show was the
extreme control on all the images. The matching huge fireworks and
even the smaller fireworks were exactly worked out. The fireworks
were choreographed almost to each explosion and these shots were
matched to everything else, such as the crowds, all waving flags (each
of exact size, given to each member of the crowd) and a booming voice
extolling the virtues of this great country.

It was this exact control over such vast numbers of people and force
that was so creepy. It made me think of New Objectivity and Triumph
of the Will, except that this was all being edited live. Leni had the
benefit of weeks of editing, these folks did it all essentially 'in
camera.'

Granted the word means different things to different people, but to me
this display of power and control was as 'fascist' as any product I've
ever seen from this country.

In article <50c2fb1d.0307061007.534ba0f.DeleteThis@posting.google.com>, Lokke Heiss <lokkeheiss.DeleteThis@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Did anyone else watch the NBC special fireworks celebration from New
> York this Friday?
>
> It was the longest most expensive fireworks display I've ever seen.
> But that's not what bothered me. The strange part of the show was the
> extreme control on all the images. The matching huge fireworks and
> even the smaller fireworks were exactly worked out. The fireworks
> were choreographed almost to each explosion and these shots were
> matched to everything else, such as the crowds, all waving flags (each
> of exact size, given to each member of the crowd) and a booming voice
> extolling the virtues of this great country.
>
> It was this exact control over such vast numbers of people and force
> that was so creepy. It made me think of New Objectivity and Triumph
> of the Will, except that this was all being edited live. Leni had the
> benefit of weeks of editing, these folks did it all essentially 'in
> camera.'
>
> Granted the word means different things to different people, but to me
> this display of power and control was as 'fascist' as any product I've
> ever seen from this country.

I didn't see that display, but I did just see a documentary on TV about fireworks
in the USA. The fireworks in these shows are set off in time with signals from
a computer. They showed how the fireworks experts would pick different
explosives, with different designs and colors to be set off at each second
of the music being played.

It is choreographed to the music, while with a silent film, the music is
usually timed to the onscreen events.

I didn't hear anything about controlling a crowd's actions/reactions other than
keeping them at a safe distance; and hoping for certain reactions from certain
symbols.

Rick
"We learn from history that we do not learn from history." Hegel