The Emperor of California
Thinking of “The Emperor of California” as either Nazi cinema, a Western or a Trenker film, I would say that the Nazi aspect is the least important one - especially as Trenker was not a real Nazi or German himself but only became both to be able to produce movies. He considered himself a Tyrolese and Tirol is also where his heart was. Although one could interpret his down fall in the end as propaganda for the Nazis, so to say that these things hadn’t happened to him in Germany because the German people would have been more loyal to him and hadn’t betrayed him, I think that Trenker’s true motive is his love for his “Heimat”: although he had found a new home in California, it could never be as good as his original “Heimat”. Watching the movie with regard to the “Heimat” aspect, it clearly becomes more a Trenker movie than a Nazi movie. Another aspect that contributes to this perception of the movie is his beautiful shots of the landscape, especially when we think of various mountain scenes that are typical for Trenker. This glorification of nature together with the ideals of the westward movement and the American dream (even though it is destroyed in the end) makes it on the other hand also a typical Western. In my opinion if it hadn’t been for the ending of the movie, Western would have been the best movie genre to put it in. But with this rather destroying ending, which fits into Trenker’s “Heimat” motive, it becomes some kind of a mixture of both; but in no way, at least in my opinion, is it a Nazi propaganda movie.