Ernest Udet chapter 4 - Myth, Aviation, Cinema, and Fascism

 

A. Manfred von Richthofen - the first mythical pilot 

in late 1917, in an attempt to raise civil morale, significant propaganda film collections also began to appear in Germany. One of them was the 10-minute production called "Pilots on the Western Front." In its first part, the film showed filming of enemy trenches, attacking observation balloons, and dropping small bombs. The second part focused on the air heroes, Imelman, Bolka, and even Herman Goering. The main theme was Richthofen. He is seen in several poses. With his dog, laughs and jokes with other pilots, and hosts a captured British pilot. Everyone looks relaxed and happy. The film ends in an air battle that ends in a British plane being shot down. The message is clear. This is quality propaganda for the elite corps, the young and safe eagles of the Second Reich. Substantial footage of the band remained, and it is scattered among documentaries about them, such as: The Red Baron: Master Of The Air. 

In his best-selling autobiography, Richthofen portrays a social, friendly, idyllic and ideal, authentic, charming figure, especially suited to young people before enlistment. He defines himself primarily as an athlete: a rider and a hunter. The autobiography is a key document in the design of the icon. His aura was so great that after he was finally overthrown, in April 1918, even the Allied news diaries devoted extensive coverage to him. His early and undecipherable death made him a myth. Generations of experts have tried to solve the question of how he was overthrown. However, the legend began when, since the beginning of 1918, the High Command systematically portrayed him as the example. 

The young and brilliant lieutenant was to serve as a symbol of German militancy and the desire to succeed, at a time when it was also difficult to persuade young people to become pilots. He was supposed to remain the invincible hero forever. The elite felt insecure, and received compensation in a military culture where hunting and warfare skills were highly valued. Richthofen's death, like his life, embodied many changes in the European aristocracy that had taken place. It is no coincidence that the men who fought in the colors of the Knights of the Flying Circus were descendants of the men who fought in bright colors, as the warrior elite of the Middle Ages. They grew up to see themselves as socially and militarily superior to ordinary people.  

After World War I, at a time when the United States, Germany, Britain, and France made only limited reference to the subject of air warfare, it was inevitable that Germany's most important war movie of the period would be: ''Richthofen, The Red Knight of the Air'' [1927]. It was an interesting mix of reconstructed footage from his career, combined with newsreels material. This film ends with the state funeral procession held for him in Berlin in 1925, which was the largest in the history of Berlin. German Air Force Day is set for the date of his death.

B. Ernest Udet - the second mythical pilot

Richthofen added Ernest Udet to his ranks when he was already a squadron commander, and shot down more than 20 planes, making him a star in his own right. The chance to fly with Richthofen was unstoppable for him. After Richthofen's death, Udet became the temporary commander, with the highest number of scores. But an instruction came from above that the regular commander would be Goering, who came from another squadron, and was also a much less good pilot, and not so well-liked. Competitive Udet may have been personally hurt by this.

Young Ernest Udet, born April 24, 1896, with the Medal of Heroism "Pour Le Merit" at the age of 22, also received his own autobiographical book during the war, published in August 1918, a few months after Richthofen's death. The content also appears in his late and extended 1935 autobiography: ''Mein Fliegerleben'', which sold 600,000 copies in its first year.

The debut book is called: ''Kreuz Wider Kokarde: Jagdflüge Des Leutnants Ernst Udet'', and the chapters mostly describe his air battles. The name of the author on the cover is his. Inside the book are many beautiful paintings of the flight experiences in the war. It is likely that they were painted in colors originally, but due to printing limitations they were printed in black and white. The technique is combined: photography, painting and drawing. It is clear that the painter is Udet himself, although there is no signature on the paintings. This can be discerned by the subjects of the paintings, and by the wavy drawing line, which has become the central feature of his cartoons style.

The name of the book, which in translation is: "The Cross Against the Lily", is important. The "cross" was the symbol on the wings of German planes. The "lily" was the symbol of the color circles on the wings of French planes. Both are archetypal symbols of wholeness. But here the cross is, also, the sight of the machine gun, and the lily is the target board mark. When the cross is placed above the circle, an optical illusion of a spinning propeller, or swastika, is created. 

Between 1919 and 1929, before becoming a movie star in "Mountain Movies", Ernest Udet was mainly a stunt pilot, who made a lot of money and became an international celebrity, thanks to many airshows he held in front of a large audience across Europe and later USA. He was of great value to Nazi propaganda, and Goering recruited him and made him a senior general and in charge of the fighter airplanes industry.

C. Aviation, Nationalism, and Popular Cinema

Memory of the First World War was built through the myth of the war experience, which gave it legitimacy by changing the true picture of reality. The image engraved in the collective memory, of the romantic fighter pilot, disguised also the terrifying reality of a World War II pilot, capable of destroying entire cities. Private and collective memory is built and is not copied. This construction is done not alone, but out of social, cultural and political discourse. That’s why aviation filmmakers, most of whom were air crews during the war, shaped their memories in less frightening terms. They sought to make their experiences less painful. But the roots of the stereotype lie in the war propaganda. These films had a great impact on the way the public thought about aerial warfare, and the way new aviation films were created. They have created a model for future generations, and an iconography that exists to this day. 

The golden age of aviation, from the early 20th century to the 1950th, coincided with the golden age of cinema. Cinema developed just as quickly and dramatically as flight, and both quickly established themselves as the most exciting and popular form of leisure and activity, while becoming an incredibly effective channel for disseminating ideas, attitudes and qualities that society deserves to preserve. Very quickly the first films reflected the Gospel of the Wings, according to which air transport would bring with it a golden age of progress, and the pilot is a romantic and chivalrous figure. 

In the interwar period, folk cinema still paradoxically promoted these familiar themes, but also took advantage of fears of an aerial bombardment in the next great war. At the same time, cinema during this period used photographs of the pilot and the aircraft for nationalist propaganda, which showed achievements in this subject as the spearhead of the national technological initiative. 

Aerial propaganda films were more important in countries where national pride suffered a blow as a result of the war, and they were defeated or angry. In Germany, one way to achieve this was technological progress, which was seen as proof of recovery and superiority. For example, the "Missile Madness," which began in 1923 and peaked in 1929. During the 1920s, rapid airplanes development gradually began to offer more practical insights for nation-building. The heroic status of the air crew, the rapid spread of gliding and flight sports clubs, the growth of commercial aviation, the success of the national company Lufthansa, and the almost fanatical interest in the flights of the new zeppelins, all testified to the popularity and public support. 

After 1918, German cinema quickly re-established itself as a serious enterprise, and within five years its output was lower only than that of the United States. The aviation films, however, reflected little of Weimar's democratic spirit. Most of the films were propaganda works. Under a spectacular cover they attacked the enemies of the nation and praising national achievements. The aviation films were a clear channel of self-praise. The struggle of the airplanes against the forces of nature depended not only on the technological superiority, but on the moral qualities of man in the cockpit, the "new man" who symbolized the best in the nation. 

The first aviation film after the end of the war was: ''Ikarus, Der Fliegende Mensch'' [1918]. The film was created as a patriotic film before the end of the First World War, but was re-edited and distributed after it, as a film with universal messages. The protagonist of the film is a young German inventor of a revolutionary engine, which the French covet, and enlist a beautiful countess to seduce him. The young man becomes an outstanding fighter pilot in the war, falls captive to the beloved Countess, but is rescued and at the end of the film he also reconciles with her. This impressive film is a romantic and light-hearted aviation-cinematic spectacle. The title of the work, the plot, and the timing, express the Gordian knot between aviation, cinema and myth.

Another film is: "Flight to Death" [1921], which deals with a flight contest. A major attempt to glorify the new man was Richthofen's biography from 1927. The film was distributed in the United States with a soundtrack. Even more successful were Ernest Udet's appearances in Arnold Punk's popular mountain films.

The Nazis did not enforce full control of the film industry until 1942, but the remaining filmmakers in Germany regularly reflected on Nazi ideology. Through UFA, the German huge nationalized film industry, there was a continuity of productions from the 1920th to the 1940th. Aviation films, in particular, had the continuity and clear development of patriotic themes, from productions in the Weimar period to those created after 1933. Example is Carl Ritter, who was an influential Nazi producer and director, beside being a veteran fighter pilot. He made several important aviation films during the period of 1920th-1940th.  

D. Aviation, Fascism and Mythical Modernity

A clear symbol of mythical totalitarian modernism in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy was the airplane. The linguistic symbols and metaphors associated with aviation discourse, its perception and interpretation, are many, and the sources that can be relied on in this context are very numerous. They include important cultural events, artwork, books, magazines, propaganda products, and more. Gabriel D'Anoncio and Futurism are of great significance as a distinct model, thanks to the respectable place they occupied in the overall cultural discourse. It was not the aviation itself, but its connections, not the pilot himself, but the concepts involved, that were the focus of attention. They served as a means of revolutionary liberation from the burden of the past. The social agenda, which has been the focus of attention in fascist regimes, is clarified through the narrative of aviation heroes, and through the vision of the new man that fascism has tried to make a reality through an anthropological revolution. The protagonists were models and prototypes that citizens were required to use in order to shape their lives. The norms and values ​​that the media published as embodied in those heroes permeated the social reality, and the world was understood according to their register. The plane and the pilot were totems, in the fullest sense of the word, of icons with archetypal characteristics, of modernity in fascist regimes. Indirectly, they reflected the desire for order. Directly, they were the embodiment of modernity. The spiritual reciprocity between fascism and aviation was unequivocal. It has created mythical modernity, as opposed to liberal modernity. 

Aircraft aroused admiration, enveloping those who flew them in an immediate aura of daring, vitality and youth. The flight was more than a forward movement in the air. The plane was more than a means to an end. The flight experience was seen as the ultimate empowerment of life. Aviation has become the form of the new era, on which it has made its mark. The pilot was a new kind of person. The German pilot was not just a new German man. The model deserved to have a formative impact on the entire world. There is no machine that requires so much concentration and willpower as the airplane, and the pilot knows what it means to control. Every pilot is an innate fascist. In this way the necessary spiritual connection is created between aviation and fascism. The cultivation of the new man was one side of the fascist regime and the elimination of the others was the other side. 

Hitler and Mussolini had a passion for speed, and powerful planes and cars where tools for their call for action. Moreover, the airplanes provided a powerful symbol of military force. They described the German character. Accordingly, the Nazis worked to make the Third Reich air-conscious, and thus one capable of fully dealing with the challenges of the 20th century. When Goering declared "We must be a pilot nation", he declared the Nazi commitment not only to training the reserves of military pilots, but also to assimilate and cultivate the moral values ​​of aviation, which were courage combined with self-sacrifice and service to the national community. Through a special ministry, they reorganized the aviation clubs as the "German Aviation Association", took full control of all activities on the subject, and began planning the establishment of the Luftwaffe - the new air force. Hitler created a dramatic dynamic image of himself through the personal use of air transportation. 

Nazi air propaganda began seriously in a film about the Nazi Party Conference in Nuremberg: ''Tag Der Freiheit - Unsere Wehrmacht'' [1935]. Lenny Riefenstahl made this film, which celebrated the Nazi armament program, announced in March 1935. The film deals with the political conference and military demonstration that took place at the assembly, which introduced the new mechanized army, and the concept of the ''Blitzkrieg''. The Air Force and Air Defense are given central screen time, and the film ends with a flight in a swastika formation.

Propaganda was strengthened in the cinematic news diaries of the period. One newsreels from 1936 revealed the new types of aircraft in the army. The most interesting scenes deal with bombers. The background music is threatening, and you see bombers loaded with bombs. Bombers performs maneuvers and they all hit their targets on the first try. The film ends in a mass flight, when the announcer announces: "The German Air Force is strong and proud, ready to maintain German peace and protect the land of the ancestors."  

The accumulated imagery was strong enough to arouse widespread fear in other countries, allowing Hitler to use the Luftwaffe threat as a political weapon in his foreign policy during the late 1930s. Air operations during the Spanish Civil War, and in particular the attack on Guernica, which was widely covered in film diaries, confirmed the power of the Luftwaffe and the threat it posed.

Myths and archetypes in cinema - the case of Ernest Udet

Many central archetypes operate in the individual psyche and society: the feminine-masculine, the evil, the almighty hero, and the Sacrifice Savior. The archetypes operate in the woman's psyche as in the man's psyche. As reality becomes more complex, the need for archetypes becomes more important.

Cinema is a place where the myth clearly stands out. We need heroes to identify with, and film actors sometimes become a model for human lives. Famous actors are like cultural archetypes. They guide us over time as a stable mythological model, where they are more important than the various characters they replace on screen.

Many actors, because their personality is built around the persona of the actor and not around their true self, fail to form a strong enough personality. The imaginary may also cause the actor over-pride and arrogance. In many cases, the adoption of the character of the false hero is very easy, for the actor and the fans, but the disillusionment is very difficult. This is also because commercial cinema underestimates the depiction of grim reality.

Ernest Udet was an example of such a star. He, too, was endowed with a personality that was not strong enough in relation to the persona of his actor. In many cases, the adoption of the character of the false hero is very easy, for the actor and the fans, but the disillusionment is very difficult. The original myth that is appropriate for comparison in the context of the Nazi regime is the legend of Daedalus and Icarus.

Modern cinema deals extensively with archetypal-mythological models of male-female relationships. The anime and the animus strive in these films to connect into one complete being. In every culture we will find that the myth revolves around opposing pairs, which are binary pairs like life-death, man-god, heaven-earth, blessing-curse and more. The inclusion of opposites is the key to individuation, the wholeness of the self, which is the goal of every individual.

The archetype of the opposing duo has deep roots in popular and military culture: the brotherhood of the warrior duo, the warrior bond with his weapon, and the brotherhood of the unit and the nation. The nature of close ties is flexible. In Udet's case, he was in competition with Herman Goering for the role of squadron commander and failed. Later, during his Nazi career as a senior general, he was in a contest, in which he also lost, against Erhard Milch, for his proximity to Goering and control of the Ministry of Aviation.

Each archetype also receive a negative aspect, which may take over. The magic of evil is a magnet for filmmakers. In the mountain movies, in which Ernest Udet got his fame as a hero pilot, the captives must be rescued at almost any cost. In the face of demonic evil forces one must embark on an active and collective struggle of survival. If at the same time the protagonist manages to maintain a photographic and human brotherhood, and inner forces develop in him, the journey is an initiation into life.

An archetypal duo associated with evil, and an important component of the fighter pilot myth, is the "hunter and prey". Richthofen described in detail his teenage experiences as a cavalryman and hunter, as the primary basis for his flying skills and military leadership. Herman Goering was filmed as a proud pilot alongside a plane he shot down. Hunting is proof of masculinity. It legitimize the abandonment of the sacred connection to others. It encourages a violent mentality. Hunting is also an expression of the ability to disengage from religion.

The military hero embodies the best qualities that the younger generation seeks to instill. The warriors were a focal point of admiration in every generation, in their lives and deaths. Their qualities were focused on one character, who was an exemplary public and a savior, and took on a mythical character. A particularly revered hero is a superhero, omnipotent, with superhuman powers. Behind the character of the superhero is the personality of the magician archetype, powerful, omnipotent, and with a variety of appearances. A situation in which the "I" identifies with the archetype of the magician creates something that does not belong to him. It's inflating the self beyond its dimensions. Man becomes in his own eyes a supreme man. Archetypes have intense and non-personal energetic power. The temptation to be drawn into identification with the magician's personality is inversely related to self-confidence, ego power, and self-awareness.

Germany's famous aircraft squadron in the First World War was nicknamed the "Flying Circus". Its pilots were among the elite of German officers, who adhered to military and moral code, which was expressed in strict adherence to military norms and integrity. Many of them came from the ranks of the German nobility. Richthofen belonged to a noble family with Prussian military heritage. The flying circus officers were unable to put on the wizard mask. The aura of the superhero did not suit them. The trickster archetype suited. The cunning clown, who is a part of magician archetype, was suitable for their image in the general population.

The German society in crisis needed a leader to connect the character of the trickster to the character of the hero. This was Adolf Hitler, who understood his role well. The former corporal was able to inflate his ego without being blamed. This attracted to him and to the Nazi movement all the shadow forces, which are expressed in an aspiration for honor, control, superiority, competition and power, and are characterized by exploitation and deception. The parallel between Hitler and the archetypal magician figure exists in the context of other archetypal figures, such as the almighty hero, the trickster clown, the hunter and the hunted, and the Sacrifice Savior. All are popular in the German folk tradition.

One of the dangers of being the magician archetype is narcissistic, arrogant and forceful arrogance. Goering's pompous figure, Hess' lust for control flying to Britain on his own, and Udet's debauchery were all expressions of this. As long as the hero has no other way to deal with life, he needs his grandiosity. But the magician denies his feelings, and operates in primitive mechanisms of denial and division. He therefore avoids the integration of real emotions, and a real adaptation to reality. As a person he is superficial and lonely. He is connected to technology as compensation. He is a technological hero. He is stuck in a kind of adolescence. His personality is characterized by immature idealization, and immature faith in the future, from which idealism and over-boldness that know no bounds may develop.

The comic books with the blatant graphic illustrations are one of the important sources for the super heroes of the movies. For example, Batman and Superman were heroes of comic books before becoming heroes of movie series. Today's superheroes began as illustrations, and received most of their grandiose design and power in cinema. Ernest Odet was a gifted cartoonist. Carl Ritter, the important Nazi filmmaker and agitator who made nearly a hundred films, and was also a fighter pilot and flight instructor, started as the owner of a graphics studio. Hitler was a painter, and his graphic ambitions were the source of his spiritual power.

A major motif that characterizes comic book characters like Superman, Spiderman and Batman, is that they have super-virtuoso powers. Their abilities express the urge to break free from the limitations of human existence and take off beyond them. The mythical motif of supernatural flight expresses it. The desire for super natural flight pushed humanity on its path to evolution. Aviation joined this desire. Early commentators used the mythological legend of Daedalus and Icarus as a metaphor for describing its achievements. The Nazi's miracle weapons, on which they hung their hopes, after the great failures of the Luftwaffe, were also mostly aviation: the jet, the rocket interceptor, the cruise missile, the ballistic missile, the long-range bomber, and more. The "bad guys", the Allies, had flying abilities that turned out to be even more powerful. As such, they challenged the Nazis even more.

One can look at superheroes from the perspective of a narcissistic disorder. Of lack in parental love, which creates a bond in creating a relationship and empathy for other and reinforces a sense of insecurity, seeking compensation in a fantasy about. Modern consumer and impersonal society encourages this fantasy by fierce achievement competition. The impulse is not an authentic inner fulfillment, but a victory over the other, who is sometimes also endowed with the same superpower. As a result of this extremism, the bad guys are utter villains. The grandiose urge may excite all evil forces in the psyche. 

One of the other dangers of the magician archetype is over-narcissistic, arrogant and forceful pride. As long as the hero has no other way to deal with life, he needs his grandiosity. But the magician denies his feelings, and operates in primitive mechanisms of denial and division. He therefore avoids the integration of real emotions and a real adaptation to reality. As a person he is superficial and lonely. He is connected to technology as compensation. He is a technological hero. He is stuck in adolescence. His personality is characterized by immature idealization and immature faith in the future, from which idealism and over-boldness that know no bounds may develop. Evil Hitler, Goering's pompous figure, Hess' lust for control who flew to Britain on his own, and Udet's debauchery, were all manifestations of this.

The negative hero is a double of the positive hero. They wear masks, which hide their true identity. They run away from painful emotions and translate them into an urge for revenge. The Nazis wore masks. They hid, for example, the rearmament of the army and the re-establishment of the Luftwaffe, as much as they could. They deceived the leaders and peoples of Czechoslovakia and Austria and conquered their countries. The Holocaust took place under the guise of fraud, when the victims were allegedly sent to labor camps, and up to the last minute did not really believe that this was their end.

The evil hero is a double of the good hero, as in the split of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", which is one of the descriptions of Nazi society. The cognitive ability to sharpen contradictions is the base for creating symbols. Every archetypal element in human life is double-faced. Each archetype also receive opposite aspect, which may take over. In many mythical stories, the source of evil is the clinging to a particular object as the sole source of satisfaction from the ego's desires. In the "Ring of the Nibelungs" myth, for example, the ring allows him to be enslaved to greed, and is therefore eventually thrown back into the waters of the Rhine. In other stories, the source of evil is the unbearable, governmental, parental or communal hierarchy.

The magic of evil is a magnet for filmmakers. The evil theme in Ernest Udet's films is that of the egocentric desires. In all the mountain films, the protagonists' feelings regarding the rescue of their loved ones, who are trapped in the storm, are described in detail. The answer is the same in all movies: rescue the trapped, even at the cost of sacrificing life. In the face of demonic evil forces one must embark on an active and collective struggle of survival. If at the same time the protagonist manages to maintain his humanity and positive inner forces are developed in him, the journey is an initiation to life.

The Nazis, in the name of this opposing egocentric desires, became addicted to the forces of control and power. They preferred the mythical principle over human existence. They set out on a crusade into heaven, which was also a crusade against the infidels in their faith. Therefore in Udet's case, the evil ego from which he was freed in the movies reappeared in his failed private life.

The Comics magazines are  an important source of the movies' mythological heroes. For example, Batman and Superman were heroes of comic books before becoming heroes in movies. . The comic book heroes draw power from small, rejected animals, which have a hidden power: a spider for Spiderman, and a bat for Batman. The identification with a weak and mysterious animal allows for a metamorphosis in the hero's soul.

A small animal with metamorphic power is the bird. The young generation of Germany in the Weimar Republic developed state-of-the-art gliders and flying techniques which imitated the flight of birds. They discovered, among other things, the hot air thermals, which birds use to soar in circles. In this way the gliders broke many distance records during the 1920s. Otto Lilienthal, the Jewish pilot who built gliders with wings that mimic the wings of a bird, was immortalized in a magnificent burial shrine.

In fairy tales miraculous events take place that save the heroes. The rescuer can be an external figure, but at the same time the statement comes true: "God helps those who help themselves." Moreover, the path is often more important than the goal. The messages around embarking on a journey are complex. It is difficult to know whether the master is a deceiver who intended to plunge the hero into the abyss, or whether the fall is a way to mobilize mental resources. It is faith and effort that bring salvation. The Red Baron, and the silver aerobatic plane that Udet brought from the United States, were such guides. It was impossible to argue with the Nazi fantasy, because it was part of their ability to survive.

The journey with the guide leads to the theme of the Sacrifice Savior. The myth of the victim is ancient, and has many meanings, both positive and negative. It involves the sacrificial archetype. When a person sacrifices himself, there is an identity between him and the world, and this is the key to a new consciousness. Often self-sacrifice comes as compensation for the sin of pride.

The spirit of sacrifice is one of the qualities of fighter pilots, and it was nurtured by the Nazi regime. Death while flying, in battle or as a result of a technical malfunction, or human error, often occurred at the beginning of the aviation era. The pilots were therefore perceived as sacrificing their lives voluntarily, as Sacrifice Saviors. Richthofen's death made him a myth. The official denial of Ernest Udet's suicide was sweeping, and it was reported that he died in a flight accident. Hitler and Goebbels committed suicide with a cyanide pill. So did Goering at the end of the Nuremberg trial. They have all voluntarily sacrificed themselves. 

Since the Savior Sacrifice motif is a powerful archetype, it emanates from the self even without conscious intention. The shape of the airplane resembles the cross of Christ, which is a major source of self-sacrifice. The Germans were only a few months away from completing the development of their wonder weapons, when a turning point occurred in the war that led to their defeat. The German people were driven, at the very end, by a powerful unconsciousness.

Karl Ritter's Filmography During the Nazi Regime

Magneto

Magneto (Max Eisenhardt) is a fictional character appearing in Americancomic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby, the character first appears in The X-Men #1 (cover-dated September 1963) as an adversary of the X-Men.

The character is a powerful mutant, one of a fictional subspecies of humanity born with superhuman abilities, who has the ability to generate and control magnetic fields. Magneto regards mutants as evolutionarily superior to humans and rejects the possibility of peaceful human-mutant coexistence; he initially aimed to conquer the world to enable mutants, whom he refers to as homo superior, to replace humans as the dominant species. Writers have since fleshed out his origins and motivations, revealing him to be a Holocaust survivor whose extreme methods and cynical philosophy derive from his determination to protect mutants from suffering a similar fate at the hands of a world that fears and persecutes mutants. He is a friend of Professor X, the leader of the X-Men, but their different philosophies cause a rift in their friendship at times. Magneto's role in comics has varied from supervillain to antihero to superhero, having served as an occasional ally and even a member of the X-Men at times.

His character's early history has been compared with the civil rights leader Malcolm X and Jewish Defense League founder Meir Kahane. Magneto opposes the pacifist attitude of Professor X and pushes for a more aggressive approach to achieving civil rights. Magneto was ranked by IGN as the Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.

Ian McKellen portrayed Magneto in a majority of the X-Men film series, while Michael Fassbender portrayed a younger version of the character.

source: Wikipedia

Rey Skywalker's Alternative Family Origin

In The Rise of Skywalker, Rey learns that She is, in fact, the granddaughter of the big baddie of the nine Star Wars  films, Emperor Palpatine. 

In The Last Jedi,  Rey learns that her parents were nobody special. It added something special to the legacy of Star Wars: that an individual’s lineage didn’t define their connection to the Force.

In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Anakin Skywalker raids the Jedi Temple, and eventually finds a room full of children. Anakin pulls out his lightsaber and murder of children is totally the most unforgivable act and probably the moment when there’s no turning back from his Darth Vader destiny.

Ray's actual origin should have been that she belonged to that group of Jedi Order's small training children. She was then the youngest, hid and survived. She may even have been on arriving stage, and the massacre took place before she joined the group. In a miraculous way, she was transffered to another planet. She grew up there and learned few practices of the Force. She stayed young thanks to anti-aging treatments.

This narrative could explain everything about Rey, and add many new dimensions to her charater, without a need for a Dark Force's legacy.

The toddler years are a time of great cognitive, emotional and social development.

Mortal Engines - the movie

This movie is about confrontations between moving futuristic cities, sometimes a real clash of giants of iron and stone, that provides a more creative action movie than any blockbuster this year in Hollywood.

The story is the stuff from which real nightmares are made, but also a great starting point for science fiction movies. ''Mortal Engines'' is based on a series of youth books dealing with young people born into a horrifying, but fascinating at the same time, post-apocalyptic world.

The background story for the plot is called "The 60 Minutes War". Within one hour in the 21st century, the nations of the world have destroyed each other, and the majority of people and the natural conditions that allow it to exist. The plot itself takes place about 1,000 years later, after the world has undergone a technological, economic and political reform and is composed, among other things, of independent cities.

Unlike the classical days of Greece, the future cities are mobile - they have adapted themselves to a resource-free world with chains that make it possible to move like a huge tank.

This is how we meet at the beginning of the movie London, which runs a wild chase after a small German settlement in order to swallow it as a kind of fuel. They call it "municipal Darwinism".

The 60-minute war eliminated most of the technologies and most of civilization, thus driving humanity into an electric prehistoric era in the spirit of the 19th century.

Mankind combined new technological developments and archaeological discoveries of old technologies. In such a world, an air battle between a hyper-sophisticated plane and an upgraded balloon is commonplace. It's a world where curious engineers and archaeologists have equal potential to achieve technology that will change the rules of the game.

In this respect, "Mortal Engines" is excellent. The world is luxurious and layered, merging past and future, nature and technology, in a spectacular and charming way. The action is rich in images, and in masses of moving parts in every frame that energize the journey. Even when a scene is just a dialogue in a room, the director makes sure to remind us that the room is only a cell in a wonderful machine city that is constantly in motion.

The mobile city also represents a beautiful representation of the British classes who have also returned to a rigid division. It is still a democracy, but one that is based on fighting for survival and therefore its bloodthirsty citizens.

The director created wonderful and fascinating cities, that manage to ignite the imagination. It is not just London - every city and town is an independent state, a small world that is built up to the last detail, rich in cultural and technological history.