I’m on episode 44 of Dirillis: Ertugrul (Resurrection: Ertugrul) and I am completely sucked in and have been since the first couple episodes. So much so that even when I learned there were 76 episodes in the first season, I kept watching. It’s based on the story of Ertegrul Bey, a turk who fathered Osman (which I assume will happen in Season 5 the way this show is paced).
The thing is, it is just shameless propaganda and basically a fictional rewrite of Ottoman History. I’m sure Erdogan loves it. It’s one part Game of Thrones, one part Triumph of the Will, and one part Dallas. And I can not get enough of it.
The fights are laughable, with every sword fight more and more absurd, and the important characters never getting hurt. Historical gender roles are strictly enforced, the Beys and Muslim scholars fawned over, and so on. As far as propaganda goes, it is a masterpiece.
The only show i have seen recently this over the top was a Russian state movie from 2018 called T-34. Do you have any other shows you have watched like this? Shows you know are just propaganda, but you watch them anyway?
TheOtherHank
I tried to watch T-34, but it was too much
dmsilev
Sergei Eisenstein’s films were like that. Battleship Potemkin, Alexander Nevsky, etc.
Omnes Omnibus
I’ve seen 1776.
Poe Larity
I hate saying I loved Cobra Kai, but there it is. It’s a weakness for the 80’s.
HumboldtBlue
Nope. I got nuffin’.
There’s always good jazz.
Danielx
Another Russian effort called White Tiger*, propaganda but spooky.
*also with tanks, but…Russian movie and Russians like them some tanks, so I’ve read.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Hmmm, you’re older than you look.
Omnes Omnibus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You should see the portrait in my attic.
Captain C
@dmsilev: I once saw Battleship Potemkin with a live avant-garde soundtrack by a band called the Red Microphone.
HumboldtBlue
Here’s Sha’Carri Richardson winning a 200 meter race into a head wind.
DMcK
Oliver Stone’s “JFK” fills that particular bill for me.
ETA: The “Space Battleship Yamato” manga & anime series too. Basically a rewrite of the Pacific war…IN SPACE! And JAPAN WINS!
Ninedragonspot
I watch some of the Chinese opera contest and variety programs, which are shot through at various levels with government propaganda (excerpts from “Red” operas of the sort made popular during the cultural revolution, 5000-years-of-history nationalist ideology, “national” Beijing opera vs. regional opera). The rah-rah stuff can be a bit annoying at times, but often one gets the feeling that the producers/hosts/performers also know that they’re just going through the motions.
smike
Is that one of them euphemisms I don’t understand?
Original Lee
With Fire and Sword, by Henryk Sienkiewicz, adapted into a TV movie / miniseries. This book and the two sequels are the books many older Poles know by heart. The screenwriters went for authenticity as well as costume drama chops, so they filmed it in (I think) 6 languages. You can find it with subtitles on YouTube.
Feathers
@smike: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Amir Khalid
The nearest thing to a propaganda movie I’ve seen is Starship Troopers. It’s not a bad parody of one.
smike
@Feathers: Aah, yes. Thank you.
Craig
Hey Cole, there’s a new season of Gomorrah on HBOmax.
AJ
I really enjoyed the paper thin simplicity of Greater.
It’s just football, Jesus, and good ole Murrican hard work. That’s the whole story.
A nice respite from the 5-dimensional chess spy stuff I normally tire my brain out with.
lurker
This is Spinal Tap
Airplane
Caddyshack
lurker
@lurker: This might mean I am confused about something…
In a slightly more serious vein, the kids watch a fair amount of anime. However, the younger one gets really annoyed with “all of the talking” which refers to various types of exposition, characters relating to each other emotionally in dialog, or narrators providing background … some of that is pretty clearly propagandistic, or at least from a strongly held point of view. However, none of the things I have seen them watching are as clearly pro-government as it sounds like your example is.
lurker
@lurker: on the third hand, a lot of friends really liked Red Dawn and the various Rambo movies. Anything Stallone did in that vein has a bit of a viewpoint. Some of these guys would watch such movies repeatedly well into adulthood from what I understand.
Yutsano
@lurker: Ya beat me to Red Dawn dammit.
Robert Sneddon
Top Gun and The Final Countdown are very much USA! USA! Fuck Yeah! propaganda supported in large part by the US War Department.
The Japanese counterpart to The Final Countdown is a manga and anime series called Zipang and it’s a lot more nuanced — the most important “weapon” in the time-travelled Japanese Aegis-class destroyer which was deposited back in 1942 is its library with things like history books, maps of oil fields discovered in the 1950s and later etc.
Tony Jay
Stargate SG1 – Did you know that the US and, in particular, the USAF are awesome, represent Earth diplomatically and culturally to a range of alien civilisations and are the only reason humanity still lives free from immortal Space Gods? But I still love it.
JR
I loved Iron Eagle as a kid.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Amir Khalid: Paul Verhoven has strong opinions about fascism, and for a long time he’s seen a lot of it in American society (see if you can catch his director’s commentary on Robocop, for example; it’s an even stronger indictment of America).
Mo Salad
24?
Nick D
The Baahubali trilogy of Indian films is over the top and tons of fun! I didn’t expect to enjoy the movies, but I just couldn’t stop watching. Very entertaining and somehow the over-the-top aspect just works.
Used to be available on Netflix. Don’t know if it still is.
Calouste
Downtown Abbey. Propaganda for compassionate conservatism and the superiority of the upper classes.
debbie
Any John Wayne movie.
Tony Jay
@Calouste:
Definitely, and it’s very much not an accident. The celebration and promotion of poshness has been a major cultural theme in Britain for the last decade or two.
I love Stephen Fry, but it’s all his damned fault*.
* Mostly a joke, though there was a point during his run on QI when you’d swear that every single guest was either an Oxbridge alumni and/or a former housemate of Pretty Posh Boy Jack ‘son of a a well connected booking agent’ Whitehall.
Incestuous bunch, our poshnobs.
Revrick
For some historical accuracy you might want to read “The Ottoman Endgame” by Sean McMeekin
Falling Diphthong
Hero, where the various noble fighters shall eventually admit that they can’t take down the Chinese Emperor after all, it’s just too important to the state that he survive.
WaterGirl
@Mo Salad: You are right about that one!
Jerszy
Occasionally I’ll dip my toe in Fox News.
Subsole
@JR: Beat me to it. I loved that movie and Top Gun.
Uncle Omar
Dragnet, the Jack Webb versions. Lawnorder bullshit up to your neck. At least all of the criminals were white. Probably because Webb wouldn’t hire black actors.
bk
How about every ubiquitous cop show
ETA: And that includes all those ridiculous western movies and tv like gunsmoke and bonanza
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@lurker: it’s a shame what happened to david zucker.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@debbie: thought that said john waters.
still nodding my head.
Lavocat
Yes. I believe it’s called network television. But, I’m willing to do through withdrawal to be rid of my junkie habit. PBS is a wonderful antidote.
LeftCoastYankee
I’m about 6 episodes ahead of you Cole. I keep thinking this is probably very pro-Erdogan because it hearkens back beyond to a Turkish identity before “Turkey” which he (and his supporters) can portray as a historical basis for their retrograde agenda.
You’re dead-on about the show’s pacing, and Netflix apparently turned 20+ episodes from Turkish TV into 70+ for some reason.
I think the hook is it’s a drama-filled premise (survival of the “tent”) in an eventful time (and place) in history, and it’s pretty far removed from my current world, so it makes me think. Also, the acting is pretty good even when the writing gets cringe-worthy.
And not to bum you out too much, I think Osman gets his own series after this: “ Kuruluş: Osman (Establishment: Osman)”. So, it’s 5 full seasons of Ertugrul.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Falling Diphthong: all Chinese movies support the central government, it’s one of the genre’s cliches. IF the emperor is evil, then it’s problem, but not one for which rebellion is the answer. This can make for tremendous theater, see 2006’s Curse of the Golden Flower.
As for American propaganda, Zero Dark Thirty is excellent propaganda. I saw it with a friend of mine who loved it, while I sat there with steam coming out of my ears. Not only were all of our wars completely justified according to that movie, they were justified with such a light touch that instead of being impressed the viewer was merely charmed, and, finally, moved. I’m surprised no-one here has already mentioned it.
Mom Says I*m Handsome
Speaking as the son of two Polish emigres, I can attest to a strong nationalistic and patriotic streak in Poles, one that manifests itself as a delusional superiority. My mother was crestfallen when she took world history at university in London, only to learn that Poland was hardly mentioned except as a stomping ground for Germans and Russians.
J R in WV
To me, Downton Abby was an indictment of the whole British upper class. Evil in every possible way, not worth the effort to destroy. They killed Alan Touring for being gay, even after his work in cryptography may have saved his nation… a perfect example of British class hatred!
A despicable people as shown by Brexit.
Matt
TBH, this sounds like the Ottoman equivalent of the pap they feed kids in the Dominionist homeschooling curriculum.
The greatest day in the world will be when the last “holy book” is thrown onto the smoldering embers of the last “holy place”.
J R in WV
@Robert Sneddon:
This is also a very real thing in the Eric Flint novel series beginning with “1632” wherein a small coal town is transposed from rural WV into 1632 Germany. The library, teachers, and builders become the secret weapon of the United States of Europe, fighting the Cossacks on the east, the Ottoman Empire on the south, and the French and British royalty on their west. And the Hapsburg Spanish royalty as well.
I can’t imagine a destroyer would have a very big library, my Sub Tender was 4 times the size of a destroyer and the library was a tiny room full of stuff I wasn’t interested in at all, and I’ll read anything to keep my mind busy. I think the chaplain was in charge of picking out books… another officer I never met, thank god.
KrackenJack
@J R in WV: Way late to the thread, but I wonder how long or well an Aegis-class warship could function in 1942. Lower grade fuel, no GPS, spare parts, munitions, etc. Even the battleships of the era required significant, specialized supply chains and plenty of dock time maintenance.