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They're also the "safe bad guy" - you can make Nazis the villain in your movie / game and no one will complain (except don't show the swastika, ss in some count

They're also the "safe bad guy" - you can make Nazis the villain in your movie / game and no one will complain (except don't show the swastika, ss in some countries.) Spielberg promised not to use Nazis as a trope after Schilder's list, and the last Indy movies suffered for it. Using commies as the enemy seems so dated and Jingoistic, even though the conflict was more recent.

stcredzero 16y ago
Yes, but the "safe" aspect is only a side benefit. Artistically, they're perfect. Really, the more you think about it, the more it seems like a video game or comic book writer made them up and they escaped into reality and stole a time machine. They were into the occult and old Nordic/Germanic mythology. They were developing and had bonafide super-science weapons: jets, ICBMs, and stealth aircraft while some of their opponents early in the war were still using cavalry charges. There was real-life superscience intrigue involving highly gifted super-geniuses. This intrigue involved nuclear weapons. They were urgently bent on world domination -- not as an eventual goal or as a someday-daydream wish, but as an urgent we-need-to-do-this-ASAP real-world project. They also seem to be securely in the top 5% of everyone fictional or real as far of level of atrocities goes. They just flat-out make really cool villains.
- starkfist 16y ago
  Don't forget, very stylish uniforms designed by Hugo Boss.
- astine 16y ago
  "Artistically, they're perfect." Curious turn of phrase, considering that one of the most enduring legacies of the Nazis is their sense of taste. The Nazis had a very Platonic idea of the purpose of art and everything that they touched was imbued with their aesthetic. From the parades, to the propaganda leaflets, there was a uniform sense of purpose and higher meaning. Hitler himself began as a starving artist and when he took over he made everything his. He was, arguably, the most successful art-critic of the 20th century. So, yeah, the Nazis are very distinct.
  - stcredzero 16y ago
    This makes me want to search on YouTube for one of those Hitler bunker videos criticizing Star Wars.
rikthevik 16y ago
Yeah, and then after the Berlin wall fell, action movies couldn't even go to communists for villains. So now it's just various vaguely European / Middle Eastern bad guys. Not as interesting.

stcredzero 16y ago

Yes, but the "safe" aspect is only a side benefit. Artistically, they're perfect. Really, the more you think about it, the more it seems like a video game or comic book writer made them up and they escaped into reality and stole a time machine. They were into the occult and old Nordic/Germanic mythology. They were developing and had bonafide super-science weapons: jets, ICBMs, and stealth aircraft while some of their opponents early in the war were still using cavalry charges. There was real-life superscience intrigue involving highly gifted super-geniuses. This intrigue involved nuclear weapons. They were urgently bent on world domination -- not as an eventual goal or as a someday-daydream wish, but as an urgent we-need-to-do-this-ASAP real-world project. They also seem to be securely in the top 5% of everyone fictional or real as far of level of atrocities goes. They just flat-out make really cool villains.

starkfist 16y ago
Don't forget, very stylish uniforms designed by Hugo Boss.
astine 16y ago
"Artistically, they're perfect." Curious turn of phrase, considering that one of the most enduring legacies of the Nazis is their sense of taste. The Nazis had a very Platonic idea of the purpose of art and everything that they touched was imbued with their aesthetic. From the parades, to the propaganda leaflets, there was a uniform sense of purpose and higher meaning. Hitler himself began as a starving artist and when he took over he made everything his. He was, arguably, the most successful art-critic of the 20th century. So, yeah, the Nazis are very distinct.
- stcredzero 16y ago
  This makes me want to search on YouTube for one of those Hitler bunker videos criticizing Star Wars.

rikthevik 16y ago

Yeah, and then after the Berlin wall fell, action movies couldn't even go to communists for villains. So now it's just various vaguely European / Middle Eastern bad guys. Not as interesting.