O Fortuna is perhaps the single most used piece of music in cinema soundtracks, ever. It is typically paired with visuals of war, militarism, spartan conditions, imperialism and tyranny. It was composed in 1937 by Carl Orff during the height of the Nazi party’s power and is closely associated with the Nazis as a cinematic trope (accused of being a Nazi, it appears that Orff himself was just trying to survive the Nazi regime).
I attended a movie last night to be confronted by this spectacle of National Guard propaganda. When it was over, I was relieved to hear the younger members of the audience snickering and poking fun at it. But the blatant similarity between the soundtrack and Orff’s immortal and infamous O Fortuna is jarring. Is there a remnant of real Nazis or Nazi-sympathizers pulling strings in the Pentagon? Are they sliding the mask off just a little to peek out at us?
[+o(]
Clayton -