In 1933, as America struggled to pull itself from the ruins of the Great Depression, the world was coming to terms with a rising movement.
The collapse of the economies of the West created a time of social foment, and into that mess stepped fascism. Fascism's clarity of purpose was unquestionable. A single autocrat, empowered by the newly mechanized military and industrial systems of modernity, was able to project power with remarkable effectiveness. Coupled with print and the new broadcast media, the domination of the physical world was coupled with the ability to similarly dominate the information space.
In the economically struggling United States of the early 1930s, many looked across the ocean to Mussolini's Italy with admiration. Look at what he's accomplishing! Look at the trains, running on time! It was bold and strong, and there was an appeal to that.
The yearning for a single strongman to tower like a colossus over America found a focus, for some, in Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt's corporate supporters, like the media magnate William Randolph Hearst, were eager for him to seize the reins. Roosevelt had popular support, and having survived an assassination attempt by an anarchist, had been lionized as a hero. What if, Hearst pressed Roosevelt, you were to simply take over? Suspend the Congress. Rule by fiat, by diktat, and get done what needs to be done!
Hearst was so into this idea that he produced a movie as part of his effort to persuade Roosevelt, a propaganda piece about a president who casts aside the restraints of the Constitutional order and saves America.
"Gabriel Over the White House," it was called. In it, a lazily corrupt president has a near death experience. He survives, but is...er...possessed...um...by the Archangel Gabriel. And possibly also the spirit of Abraham Lincoln.
I know, I know, but this was a film for the masses. It's not any dumber than The Fast and the Furious, eh?
Angelically animated by Gabriel, the president starts agitating for real change. When Congress tries to impeach and remove him, he forces them to adjourn, and takes over to rule as America's first dictator. A "Jeffersonian dictator," or so the film tries to convince its viewer, and that makes perfect sense if you know nothing about Jefferson but his name.
Then he fixes everything, at which point he dies a hero and the savior of America.
Again, the film was American fascist propaganda. This is not me being the Little Leftist Boy Who Cried Fascist.
It's unabashedly, intentionally, and explicitly fascist, in the same way that Birth of a Nation is unabashedly, intentionally, and explicitly racist. Calling it fascist isn't invective. It's just true, like saying the sky is blue, or grass is green. Gabriel Over the White House was inspired directly by 1930s fascism, and was made in an attempt to encourage the rise of fascism in the United States.
So.
If someone were to remake this movie today, how many Americans would uncritically embrace it?
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