DIRECTOR: Oliver Hirschbiegel
CAST: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Corinna Harfouch, Ulrich Mathtes
HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE: Oddly enough, yes. And, no I’m not just talking about the litany of memes launched using Hitler (Ganz) screaming at his generals as their fuel. It doesn’t really feel like a film one would be in the mood to come back to… And yet, occasionally one just has to indulge in a movies where bad things happen to Nazis.
DID I LIKE IT: There are a few reviews where the old “did I like it” prompt feels like the inappropriate question. As Nicole Kidman teaches us, the default nature of the movies is to get us to engage in some degree of empathy or support or connection with the characters. This movie behaves for long stretches as if we are meant to do that very thing, with moments of a soft-spoken Hitler behaving kindly towards those—usually women—in his employ, and the distinct impression throughout the film that the collapse of the Third Reich is somehow a sad development.
The moment I might start to forget myself and let the film guide me in some direction a traditional narrative film might attempt, I’m immediately compelled to remind myself exactly what I’m watching. It can be a discombobulating experience, regardless of how well filmed and acted it might ultimately be.
I’ve come to the conclusion that’s the movie’s point. You watch these people come to something resembling exactly what they deserve and you can’t help but wonder how any person might be seduced by such unthinking and unrelenting hate*, but when those disturbingly lost people are depicted as the protagonists of a story, I for one realize my bewilderment is far too close to complacency. I must always remember what the movie is actually about.
*Although in recent years, its become clear that far fewer people have trouble imagining how a person becomes a Nazi than there really ought to be.