Qualcuno da odiare. Immagine e parola nella costruzione del nemico

Abstract

Two episodes deduced from the cinema summarize the enemy phenomenology. The first of them relates to what happened on the Planet of the Apes set (1968). During the backstage those who were disguised as gorillas and chimpanzees and those who maintained human features tended to form three separate groups: unknowingly, each one had adapted to the category they performed. They maintained the hostility which was in force in the script even outside of fiction. In an opposite case two enemies recognize each other on the cultural identity that the war, with its propaganda apparatus, helps to dismantle. This is what is told in the film I’ll Met by Moonlight. Two soldiers, one English and one German, both lovers of classical literature, recognize themselves not as enemies on opposite sides but as men who share the same culture. If this human condition is true then it will be in the interest of those who want to build enemies to point out the differences (physical appearance, eating behaviors, language, non-verbal interactions, clothing ...) in order to encourage the solidarity of one group over the other and instigate the opposition.