Iraq War veteran Kris Goldsmith believes “patriot” and “anti-fascist” should be synonymous — and he’s turning that belief into action with the new Task Force Butler. The nonprofit’s tagline gets right to the point: “We are American veterans who hunt neo-Nazis.”
Goldsmith has seen first hand how fascist and militia groups subvert the trappings of patriotism to ensare veterans in right-wing extremism, and he stood up Task Force Butler as a competing force for good. The group draws its name and inspiration from a larger-than-life Marine, Maj. Gen Smedley Butler,...
Goldsmith has seen first hand how fascist and militia groups subvert the trappings of patriotism to ensare veterans in right-wing extremism, and he stood up Task Force Butler as a competing force for good. The group draws its name and inspiration from a larger-than-life Marine, Maj. Gen Smedley Butler,...
- 2/2/2023
- by Tim Dickinson
- Rollingstone.com
At face value, it sure seems like David O. Russell's new film "Amsterdam" must be swinging for the rhetorical fences. The film boasts an A-list cast, lead by three very bankable stars in Christian Bale, John David Washington, and Margot Robbie. It's lensed by repeat Oscar winner Emmanuel "Chivo" Lubezki, a true talent. Developing the narrative took years of work and collaboration. On paper, the movie has everything it needs to succeed and more, or at least it should.
The story itself is loosely based on a real-life 1933 conspiracy known as "The Business Plot," where a set of wealthy clandestine businessmen sought to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt to install an unelected regime of fascist-aligned veterans. The conspirators sought to enlist retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, but he had other plans. The effort was thwarted. That narrative forms the loose background of this heavily fictionalized film, where...
The story itself is loosely based on a real-life 1933 conspiracy known as "The Business Plot," where a set of wealthy clandestine businessmen sought to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt to install an unelected regime of fascist-aligned veterans. The conspirators sought to enlist retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, but he had other plans. The effort was thwarted. That narrative forms the loose background of this heavily fictionalized film, where...
- 10/4/2022
- by Jeff Ewing
- Slash Film
Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and John David Washington bring laughs to a exhaustingly wacky riff on a real-life fascist conspiracy in 1930s New York
There’s usually a no more heart-sinking way of starting a movie than with the larky, slippery announcement: “Based on a true story – mostly!” or “What follows is all accurate – kinda!” It usually means the film will fall between the two stools marked “creatively interesting” and “factually informative”. However, David O Russell begins his elaborate screwball mystery Amsterdam by declaring: “A lot of this actually happened.” He means the film is a wacky riff on the little-known 1933 “White House putsch” in which a cabal of wealthy American businessmen conspired to overthrow President Franklin D Roosevelt, hoping to dupe a retired major general called Smedley Butler into leading their fascist veterans’ organisation. (Maybe the nearest British equivalent was Lord Mountbatten being approached in 1968 by a group of...
There’s usually a no more heart-sinking way of starting a movie than with the larky, slippery announcement: “Based on a true story – mostly!” or “What follows is all accurate – kinda!” It usually means the film will fall between the two stools marked “creatively interesting” and “factually informative”. However, David O Russell begins his elaborate screwball mystery Amsterdam by declaring: “A lot of this actually happened.” He means the film is a wacky riff on the little-known 1933 “White House putsch” in which a cabal of wealthy American businessmen conspired to overthrow President Franklin D Roosevelt, hoping to dupe a retired major general called Smedley Butler into leading their fascist veterans’ organisation. (Maybe the nearest British equivalent was Lord Mountbatten being approached in 1968 by a group of...
- 9/28/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Award-winning journalist Jonathan M. Katz’s new book, Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America’s Empire, is an explosive deep dive into the forgotten history of American military imperialism in the early twentieth century. At its center is one of the United States’s most fascinating yet little-known characters — Gen. Smedley Butler, a Marine who fought in nearly every U.S. overseas war in the early twentieth century. In this exclusive excerpt, Katz documents how Butler played a pivotal role in an equally little-known episode,...
- 1/1/2022
- by Jonathan M. Katz
- Rollingstone.com
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