The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1939 film

Can be seen on Tubi.

The movie was made during an era in which the culture was confident of itself, and unified in its belief in its own righteousness.

At that time, material progress was still quite rapid despite the Depression. It was only sixty years or so from Kitty Hawk to the Apollo 11 mission to the moon and back. It was nearly interrupted before completion by the Nazi invasion of Poland.

The belief in material progress was based upon truth; as opposed to falseness, and even outright lies. That culture rewarded merit. Contrast this with the zeitgeist of today.

Example: The King, despite being a sympathetic man, intervened in the trial of Esmeralda, who was unjustly accused of murder. His intervention was noble, yet the manner in which he intervened did not yield the truth of the issue at hand; in which guilt was being attributed improperly to the innocent Esmeralda. The King attempted to get at the truth though the method of ordeal, which yielded a result adverse to the gypsy girl.

The guilty party was the judge, who fell in love with Esmeralda, and blamed her for that; because he believed that she was a witch. The judge killed a rival for her affections, and then tried to punish Esmerelda for what he had done himself. The judge, being a prominent man, expected to get away with murder on the basis of high station in society. Note the unjust outcome that favored the powerful over the weak.

Isn't that what's happening today? The movie was optimistic about the future by showing how culture progressed from that former time to a better time in which the truth prevailed. Justice prevailed when Quasimodo intervened to rescue Esmeralda from her imminent hanging.

Another character, who was also in love with Esmeralda, saved her through the power of the printing press (which symbolized material progress and reason).

One might call all this a type of propaganda, but somehow it is more satisfying to have justice prevail like this, by having the true killer punished, as Quasimodo threw the judge Frollo down to his death.

How disgusting it would have been to have Esmeralda being hanged for this judge's murder. Nobody would have liked that film if that had happened, because it allowed evil to prevail.

But isn't evil prevailing these days? It sure seems that way, as truth is being turned upon its very head, even the same as that judge was attempting to get away with it. There was no doubt of the judge's guilt. He openly admitted the murder, and expected to get away with blaming an innocent person for what he had done himself.

These days, the modern left is trying to blame Trump for his own assassination attempt. The modern left is like this judge in that story. We are regressing backwards in our culture to a time when truth didn't matter, and justice did not prevail.

Nobody is going to like a society like that, in which the evil "judge" who is guilty punishes the innocent, and rewards itself for its own wickedness. But isn't that the world we live in this very day?

Instead of being "progressive", the modern left is actually quite reactionary. We are descending into barbarism. Young people no longer believe America is great. Indeed, there are those who celebrate the evil deeds of the left and actually admire that kind of behavior.