I just spent a bit discussing the Billy Wilder film The Spirit of St Louis (1957) with ChatGPT. It had a hard time understanding my question about why Wilder made the film. He was successful enough to refuse. He fled the Nazis in the early 1930s. He had close family that died in the Holocaust. Why would he make this film that puffs up a well-known antisemite and Nazi sympathizer? I still don't know.
@FranklyCurious I don't think it was well known that he was a sympathizer until much later. He was most widely known as an American icon and explorer who crossed the Atlantic in the first non-stop flight, and whose son was kidnapped and never recovered.
The reality of his sympathizing just wasn't a focus over the rest of his contributions.
Not that I'm defending the man, or the ignorance surrounding him. I know when I learned about him from my dad.
@Error418tws And I don't mean to criticize Wilder, whose work I love. You are probably right. It was likely far enough from the 1930s that a lot of people had forgotten. Today, I think he's better known for his antisemitism than for his transatlantic flight!