Emptying the Dustbin

From Greil Marcus's essay on Wim Wenders in The Dustbin of History:

"There is no real need to explicate what Wenders is saying, though one could easily say, along with him, that any film that says the Germans were embarassed, anxious, and scared, even though they didn't have a clue, is a lie - any discourse that means to have it both ways is a lie."

There's something incredibly gratifying about watching Marcus call bullshit on people - this quote concerns an essay Wenders wrote about the German film Hitler: A Biography, which, from what I can glean, Wenders seems to think has some apologist overtones. Marcus spends most of his essay on E.L. Doctrow's Ragtime and Robert Altman's Nashville calling all kinds of bullshit - on Doctrow, on Altman, on pretty much every critic who likes Doctrow and Altman. I like how Marcus can register genuine dislike for, even a form of disgust with, something, and not get bile all over the rug.