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His screenwriter Tony Kushner says they do not wish to demonize either side. Such remarks illustrate why, in an era of moral chaos, Hollywood is unlikely to restore clarity. With due respect to pop culture and its undisputed master, one doesn't reach the moral high ground by being neutral between good and evil. Spielberg is a fabulous entertainer, a magician of a director, a very astute businessman -- maybe, just maybe, it's too much to ask that he should be a significant moral philosopher as well. He brings to the screen an adolescent's fresh eye: that's his strength. He also brings an adolescent's naïve confusion: that's his weakness.

That's exactly the problem. Spielberg should stick to pure entertainment and stay away from historical cases. His lack of moral clarity... “we don't want to demonize anyone”... “there's no good vs. evil, just intolerance” etc, impedes his ability to recognize reality and to take the facts as they are.

"That's exactly the problem. Spielberg should stick to pure entertainment and stay away from historical cases."

He can't do that! He has been praised inside out, up side down by Hollywood and he believes he can do... anything! The flattery is his downfall. He is on the latest TIME magazine cover and strikes the mild mannered Birkenstock ego manic ("I'm just like everybody else") King of Hollywood pose... the questioner asks him something about his inner child, drips sweet praises and fawns and falls all over him... so, yes, he can do anything!

What was truly appalling was Spieberg's self reference to the Woody Allen movie Manhattan. But he got the wrong movie. His real role is like the Jew in Woody Allen's Zelig who blends into everything and ends up a Hitler rally. Spieberg seems to embrace the great liberal believe that life is about 'equality' 'relative values' and 'conflict resolution' while ignoring his own Jewish traditions and the fundamental reality of good and evil. Good and evil is intractable and doesn't end up leading to a nice neat resolutions but rather war. In other words, there is no truce with terrorism. But the liberal camp continue to flatter him and make him wealthly... and, now, he's just a shill.