The Hoaxters

The Hoaxters only rates a four out of ten. The production value is very high, and it has big-name stars doing the narration, but the subject is so repugnant that it is almost nauseating to watch.

I'm glad it wasn't listed as a Documentary, because it is certainly anything but. Its purpose is indoctrination, pure and simple. It is sort of the American version of a Leni Riefenstahl film, except that her films are a lot more upbeat and enjoyable to watch.

It starts out equating Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito. Then, the first banner headline word zooms across the screen: "COMMUNISM" Almost immediately, Stalin is equated with the first three. "All dictators are the same," is chanted throughout the film at intervals in between segments of the narration.

The film is a classic example of what George Orwell termed "double-think." It rails against "The Big Lie" while at the same moment spouting some of the most incredible whoppers I have ever heard! Just a minor example is J. Edgar Hoover, the King of Blackmail, stating that he would never want to see anyone publicly embarrassed as a result of his investigations.

At one point, it is railing against dictators and the one-party system, and in the same breath has the nerve to show film footage of Senator Joseph McCarthy!

The thing I personally found most offensive was its presentation that all the anti-war protests at the White House were engineered and funded by the International Communist Party, and that as soon as Stalin and Hitler had a falling out, the demonstrations instantly evaporated.

The film kept my interest. In fact, it is fascinating. But rather in the same morbid way as I imagine watching a train wreck taking place would be.

At the very least, "The Hoaxters" is worth watching as a lesson in history, and also as a textbook example of propaganda techniques which are still widely used and very effective today.