too many historical inaccuracies. the movie is set in 1937
1. fascism wasn't anti-semitic until the mid thirties, and the first racial laws were passed in 1938 on account of the pressing ideological pull of the dominant ally, Nazi Germany. Hitler needed the Italians to get on par with the racial discrimination, otherwise he couldn't justify to the Aryan German people being allied with an inferior people, and all the propaganda efforts put into making the Germans feel as a unite comradeship against their many inferior enemies would promptly fail its purpose. Mussolini obediently submitted to his requests and promulgated the race manifesto, despite counting many Jews among his friends and acquaintances himself, like his ex lover the writer Margherita Sarfatti
2. Margherita Sarfatti was a strong supporter of Mussolini, but that changed when the racial laws were passed. She soon left the fascist party and went to Argentina. So if she ever went to the USA to promote Mussolini, this was surely before the regime turned anti-semitic.
3. Italy and Germany did not attack Spain. They aided and military and politically supported the nationalist rebels leaded by Franco, who tried a coup during the civil war to restore a conservative regime which had been subverted by the late socialist government and numerous anarchist riots. IE Spain was already a mess. Many Italian Marxists, communists and socialists also went and fought in Spain alongside the republican forces - which were aided by the URSS - against the falangistas and the fascist regular troops.
4. Rivera painted that mural in 1933, so all dates and facts happening in the movie mismatch.
5. In my understanding there was wide sympathy and support for Italian fascism in the American parlors, which isn't as apparent watching the movie. They favored fascism in juxtaposition to communism, as the latter was founded on class conflict, and the first on induced/enforced social peace and corporatism - which was already part of the American culture and economy, although in a more liberal form (and it still is). The fascist ideology found ground in the frightened middle and upper classes in all of the world, as the unions were getting stronger and the rich were scared of a Marxist revolution.
1. fascism wasn't anti-semitic until the mid thirties, and the first racial laws were passed in 1938 on account of the pressing ideological pull of the dominant ally, Nazi Germany. Hitler needed the Italians to get on par with the racial discrimination, otherwise he couldn't justify to the Aryan German people being allied with an inferior people, and all the propaganda efforts put into making the Germans feel as a unite comradeship against their many inferior enemies would promptly fail its purpose. Mussolini obediently submitted to his requests and promulgated the race manifesto, despite counting many Jews among his friends and acquaintances himself, like his ex lover the writer Margherita Sarfatti
2. Margherita Sarfatti was a strong supporter of Mussolini, but that changed when the racial laws were passed. She soon left the fascist party and went to Argentina. So if she ever went to the USA to promote Mussolini, this was surely before the regime turned anti-semitic.
3. Italy and Germany did not attack Spain. They aided and military and politically supported the nationalist rebels leaded by Franco, who tried a coup during the civil war to restore a conservative regime which had been subverted by the late socialist government and numerous anarchist riots. IE Spain was already a mess. Many Italian Marxists, communists and socialists also went and fought in Spain alongside the republican forces - which were aided by the URSS - against the falangistas and the fascist regular troops.
4. Rivera painted that mural in 1933, so all dates and facts happening in the movie mismatch.
5. In my understanding there was wide sympathy and support for Italian fascism in the American parlors, which isn't as apparent watching the movie. They favored fascism in juxtaposition to communism, as the latter was founded on class conflict, and the first on induced/enforced social peace and corporatism - which was already part of the American culture and economy, although in a more liberal form (and it still is). The fascist ideology found ground in the frightened middle and upper classes in all of the world, as the unions were getting stronger and the rich were scared of a Marxist revolution.