Going under
Drove to Seattle yesterday to hang out with friends, and also see Der Untergang (or Downfall), which as it settles more & more with my mind, I realize is one of the best movies I've ever seen. Essentially it tells the story of the last 12 days of Hitler's Third Reich, centering around the events that took place in his underground bunker headquarters; it tells the story of the falling apart of a fascistic command, and the downfall of a vision, in the literal deaths of Hitler's closest idealogues. The movie has aroused controversy for sympathetic portrayal of Nazis, and for "humanizing" Hitler; the semantics are arguable, but it is this phenomenon exactly which make the movie so powerful: we are allowed to see the face of the world's most hated man.
If you don't believe me, pay attention early in the film, as Hitler screens women for a secretary position: before we ever see him, we see nervous young women waiting outside his office, told to wait as Hitler's aid notifies him of their arrival. The aide stands just inside the open doorway and speaks to the off-camera Fuhrer. There is a pause, which seems to never end, and he appears. In that pause, all your built up labels and notions, your societally-implanted hate for this man are summoned before you, and temporarily dismissed. You feel nervous. This is Hitler.
This in contrast to Hollywood movies, which cast endless extras as ever-expendable Nazi "stooges." A man behind us laughed as characters uttered lines full of blazing self-confidence and faith in the future of the Reich, as though to say "see? You lost. Ha!" He made the mistake of distancing himself from men & women, in Germany, in the 1940's. Waste of a 6.00 movie ticket. Is it not the purpose of drama to give us characters in whose shoes we can walk for a while, to use our imaginations and wonder what goes on in their inscrutable little minds? To wonder what it would take to put us in their positions? (Even the nearly deleriously delusional Hitler) The very idea that you could get inside the head of Hitler, or even Goebbels or Himmler or any of the innumerable Good Germans is by default taboo in our society; this movie dares to break that taboo, not to generate sympathy, but to prop up a mirror: these were humans, just like us, and we could do this again. We are capable of this, see? It happened right here! Now, how did it happen, where did it start? Think about it.
From an interview with the director & Ganz: " There is no need to humanize Hitler because we all know that he was a human being. The task was to create a three-dimensional picture of this man. It was to get as close to what this man really was—and had to be—to seduce a whole civilized nation into barbarism. To me it's obvious that a demonic creature would never be able to lure a whole people into something evil like that. Of course he was a politician. Of course he had all the means as a human being to manipulate people. And therefore we depict him in that very way. [...] It's not enough to explain. It's not enough to describe the horror, because in doing so, you diminish the horror. You have to examine the background. You have to find out what the roots of this were, and you have to find out why all this was possible."
And the interesting thing is, okay so the Nazis are all guilty, the German people are guilty, because they allowed Nazism to flourish. "They gave us their vote, now their throats are being slit." What then is the level of responsibility of the rest of the Western world, considering America only went to war after being attacked by Japan? And what bearing does the answer to that question have on our curent political situation? Hm. To be continued?
Current Music: William Shatner, Mr Tambourine Man
or, alternately: Pain, Chuck al Hashib
If you don't believe me, pay attention early in the film, as Hitler screens women for a secretary position: before we ever see him, we see nervous young women waiting outside his office, told to wait as Hitler's aid notifies him of their arrival. The aide stands just inside the open doorway and speaks to the off-camera Fuhrer. There is a pause, which seems to never end, and he appears. In that pause, all your built up labels and notions, your societally-implanted hate for this man are summoned before you, and temporarily dismissed. You feel nervous. This is Hitler.
This in contrast to Hollywood movies, which cast endless extras as ever-expendable Nazi "stooges." A man behind us laughed as characters uttered lines full of blazing self-confidence and faith in the future of the Reich, as though to say "see? You lost. Ha!" He made the mistake of distancing himself from men & women, in Germany, in the 1940's. Waste of a 6.00 movie ticket. Is it not the purpose of drama to give us characters in whose shoes we can walk for a while, to use our imaginations and wonder what goes on in their inscrutable little minds? To wonder what it would take to put us in their positions? (Even the nearly deleriously delusional Hitler) The very idea that you could get inside the head of Hitler, or even Goebbels or Himmler or any of the innumerable Good Germans is by default taboo in our society; this movie dares to break that taboo, not to generate sympathy, but to prop up a mirror: these were humans, just like us, and we could do this again. We are capable of this, see? It happened right here! Now, how did it happen, where did it start? Think about it.
From an interview with the director & Ganz: " There is no need to humanize Hitler because we all know that he was a human being. The task was to create a three-dimensional picture of this man. It was to get as close to what this man really was—and had to be—to seduce a whole civilized nation into barbarism. To me it's obvious that a demonic creature would never be able to lure a whole people into something evil like that. Of course he was a politician. Of course he had all the means as a human being to manipulate people. And therefore we depict him in that very way. [...] It's not enough to explain. It's not enough to describe the horror, because in doing so, you diminish the horror. You have to examine the background. You have to find out what the roots of this were, and you have to find out why all this was possible."
And the interesting thing is, okay so the Nazis are all guilty, the German people are guilty, because they allowed Nazism to flourish. "They gave us their vote, now their throats are being slit." What then is the level of responsibility of the rest of the Western world, considering America only went to war after being attacked by Japan? And what bearing does the answer to that question have on our curent political situation? Hm. To be continued?
Current Music: William Shatner, Mr Tambourine Man
or, alternately: Pain, Chuck al Hashib
posted by josh p at 12:51 PM
2 Comments:
Hats off gentlemen...
You know, I have been waiting to write about this movie and the huge impact it had on me but I honestly couldn't have put it better than you have. Everything I felt was sumarized by your writing. Thank you.
I must add the I felt hints of sympathy for the situation. The desperate end quickly approaching. This idealistic and perfect future these fellows had planned and created was collapsing around them. Uncertainty was setting in and so was the desperation; the finality of utter defeat.
I am extremely happy to have gone and seen it with you and Duncan. This was a moment in time.
A beautiful review, thank you for writing it. My deepest respect.
The aspect I found most fascinating was the veneer of insanity that shaded every aspect of the film, the history, but I feel that insanity is the easy way out; it's simple to write off the atrocities of history as the work of madmen and then think of them no more. The director included the insanity (the parties, the exuberant desperation, the everlasting desperate optimism of a counterattack salvation), but he also invites us to dig deeper and see the full dimensions of a harrowing situation and these people who were a part of it all either by design or by riding the wind.
Insanity isn't an on/off switch; the same goes for the distinction between human and monster. Everything is blurred as the mathematical precision humans cling to is only invention; existence is a desperate mix of chaos and rejuvination flowing across the universe like a whirlwind armeggedon that no one escapes.
The director seemed to face this with open eyes and presented his work, which shook me more than a piece of art has in a long time.
-Duncan
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