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Jun. 19th, 2010 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
floatingleafWe're having a particularly tempestuous summer this year. There was a major power outage in our office building yesterday afternoon due to the sudden deluge of truly biblical proportions. It was almost uncanny: one minute the weather seemed relatively fine, just a bit overcast on one side; the next, the sky opened up and lights started flickering throughout the building. There wasn't even much thunder or lightning; just this torrential rain, like in a tropical jungle or something. It took mere minutes before all lights were out. Most of our computers died within a few seconds. The boss told us to go home - and better leave the building ASAP, because she'd been trapped in there twice before during a storm. So out we went (by the stairway, obviously, since we'd been warned to steer clear of the elevators just in case). Of course, I didn't bring an umbrella. Not that it would have helped much, anyway - the water seemed to be coming from all directions. I was drenched by the time I reached the car. Then I just sat in it, on the parking lot - because, seriously, who would drive in that??? The traffic didn't look like it was moving, anyway. Except for several firetrucks that went out all at once (there is a fire station right across the street from our office). When finally the rain eased up a bit, most of the traffic lights in the neighborhood were still out. So the drive home was a painfully slow crawl. Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any outages in my area - to my great relief, upon getting home I found both the fridge and the laptop still in working mode.:)
That's all my exciting news at the moment, I'm afraid. Unless you want to hear about the movie I've seen, which troubled me a little for, perhaps, the wrong reasons. My guess is that you don't, but I'm going to write about it anyway - so if you couldn't care less for gruesome historical dramas without a happy ending (yes, I'll be giving major spoilers too, because without them, I can't explain what my problem was), don't follow the cut.;)
The movie is called The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and tells the story of an 8-year-old German kid whose father is a major Nazi officer in charge of a concentration camp. Neither the boy nor his mother or sister have any idea what is really going on at the camp when they first arrive there - all they know is that daddy got a promotion and that's why they're all moving "to the countryside". The boy is terribly bored with no other children around to play with - so he goes out exploring and somehow finds his way to the barbed wire fence. Where there is another little boy on the other side. In a striped "pajamas", obviously. Now, the very concept of presenting this topic through the unprejudiced, unbiased and guileless eyes of a child is very interesting - but I have major issues with the storyline itself and its plausibility. First of all, the little Jewish boy behind the fence seems to be the only child in the camp - his only reason for being there seems to be so that the German boy can meet him. In other words, he's just a plot device. The thing is, I grew up on movies about the Holocaust, based on stories written by actual survivors - and in light of those, a small child incapable of hard labor would have been killed right away, upon arriving at the camp (yes, I have seen the piles of children's shoes and toys at the Auschwitz museum - and it is not a sight you can ever forget). Second of all, even if the kid was somehow left alive - he wouldn't have been able to just hang around, talking to a German officer's son across the fence. They play checkers together at one point, for heaven's sake! *headshake* But that's not the most absurd bit, actually. The most absurd bit happens when the German boy brings a spade and digs a little hollow in the ground under the fence... and then CRAWLS IN to accompany his new friend into the camp. The Jewish boy says that he cannot find his father, who was also in the camp - so he brings a spare striped uniform for the German boy to get changed into, so he can come in and help him look. Now, there are so many problems with this I don't even know where to start. I mean... if it was that fucking easy to get through the electrified barbed wire, then people would be getting the fuck OUT of that camp, instead of just sitting there waiting to die. Where were the guards? There were watch towers on every corner of that fence, with armed soldiers who wouldn't hesitate to shoot at once (at least that's the historical truth, as far as I know). Besides, even if it were possible, why on earth would the Jewish boy ask the German boy to come IN, instead of getting OUT himself?... If he "couldn't find" his father, then it was pretty obvious that his father was dead already (and the kid would have known this, having spent some time at the camp). And what would two little boys be able to do for him anyway? But forget all this. The German kid comes in and they both start wandering around the camp - and as they come into one of the barracks, that's precisely when the Germans start rounding up some random people and herding them towards the gas chambers. The two boys get mixed in the crowd and can't get out. And so, we get the spectacular tragic ending. The film ends with the mother screaming in primal despair as she finds her son's discarded clothes by the fence. And the father's more subdued reaction of shocked fury. But we never find out if the event had any impact on his worldview. It's a truly perverse form of poetic justice - he "got what he deserved", in a way; but thinking that is wrong, because the kid didn't deserve to die any more than all the other victims. So, it's high Hollywood/BBC drama (the movie is a joint US/UK production) that makes a simplistic moral statement and tries to fulfill an educational mission for the benefit of those who still aren't sure if the Holocaust really happened. A noble purpose, no doubt. I just wish the plot made more sense. This would have been a very moving story for me if I could believe it, you know? But it's just so... contrived. As if all probability were sacrificed for the sake of the dramatic impact. And you really don't need to embellish this particular historical period. It has all the drama you can possibly imagine just by itself, due to being what it is. Which could be why understated is the most effective way to talk about it (I'm thinking about the movie Good, among others). Turning it into a Disney fairytale - minus the last minute rescue/happy ending - simply doesn't work. Dark humor or surrealism MIGHT work - as exemplified by Life Is Beautiful, Pan's Labirynth or Bent. All very powerful works of cinematic art, imo. But this one? Ehhh... whatever.
Anyway... enough of my long-winded ramblings for tonight. My brain is switching into sleep mode.:P
That's all my exciting news at the moment, I'm afraid. Unless you want to hear about the movie I've seen, which troubled me a little for, perhaps, the wrong reasons. My guess is that you don't, but I'm going to write about it anyway - so if you couldn't care less for gruesome historical dramas without a happy ending (yes, I'll be giving major spoilers too, because without them, I can't explain what my problem was), don't follow the cut.;)
The movie is called The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and tells the story of an 8-year-old German kid whose father is a major Nazi officer in charge of a concentration camp. Neither the boy nor his mother or sister have any idea what is really going on at the camp when they first arrive there - all they know is that daddy got a promotion and that's why they're all moving "to the countryside". The boy is terribly bored with no other children around to play with - so he goes out exploring and somehow finds his way to the barbed wire fence. Where there is another little boy on the other side. In a striped "pajamas", obviously. Now, the very concept of presenting this topic through the unprejudiced, unbiased and guileless eyes of a child is very interesting - but I have major issues with the storyline itself and its plausibility. First of all, the little Jewish boy behind the fence seems to be the only child in the camp - his only reason for being there seems to be so that the German boy can meet him. In other words, he's just a plot device. The thing is, I grew up on movies about the Holocaust, based on stories written by actual survivors - and in light of those, a small child incapable of hard labor would have been killed right away, upon arriving at the camp (yes, I have seen the piles of children's shoes and toys at the Auschwitz museum - and it is not a sight you can ever forget). Second of all, even if the kid was somehow left alive - he wouldn't have been able to just hang around, talking to a German officer's son across the fence. They play checkers together at one point, for heaven's sake! *headshake* But that's not the most absurd bit, actually. The most absurd bit happens when the German boy brings a spade and digs a little hollow in the ground under the fence... and then CRAWLS IN to accompany his new friend into the camp. The Jewish boy says that he cannot find his father, who was also in the camp - so he brings a spare striped uniform for the German boy to get changed into, so he can come in and help him look. Now, there are so many problems with this I don't even know where to start. I mean... if it was that fucking easy to get through the electrified barbed wire, then people would be getting the fuck OUT of that camp, instead of just sitting there waiting to die. Where were the guards? There were watch towers on every corner of that fence, with armed soldiers who wouldn't hesitate to shoot at once (at least that's the historical truth, as far as I know). Besides, even if it were possible, why on earth would the Jewish boy ask the German boy to come IN, instead of getting OUT himself?... If he "couldn't find" his father, then it was pretty obvious that his father was dead already (and the kid would have known this, having spent some time at the camp). And what would two little boys be able to do for him anyway? But forget all this. The German kid comes in and they both start wandering around the camp - and as they come into one of the barracks, that's precisely when the Germans start rounding up some random people and herding them towards the gas chambers. The two boys get mixed in the crowd and can't get out. And so, we get the spectacular tragic ending. The film ends with the mother screaming in primal despair as she finds her son's discarded clothes by the fence. And the father's more subdued reaction of shocked fury. But we never find out if the event had any impact on his worldview. It's a truly perverse form of poetic justice - he "got what he deserved", in a way; but thinking that is wrong, because the kid didn't deserve to die any more than all the other victims. So, it's high Hollywood/BBC drama (the movie is a joint US/UK production) that makes a simplistic moral statement and tries to fulfill an educational mission for the benefit of those who still aren't sure if the Holocaust really happened. A noble purpose, no doubt. I just wish the plot made more sense. This would have been a very moving story for me if I could believe it, you know? But it's just so... contrived. As if all probability were sacrificed for the sake of the dramatic impact. And you really don't need to embellish this particular historical period. It has all the drama you can possibly imagine just by itself, due to being what it is. Which could be why understated is the most effective way to talk about it (I'm thinking about the movie Good, among others). Turning it into a Disney fairytale - minus the last minute rescue/happy ending - simply doesn't work. Dark humor or surrealism MIGHT work - as exemplified by Life Is Beautiful, Pan's Labirynth or Bent. All very powerful works of cinematic art, imo. But this one? Ehhh... whatever.
Anyway... enough of my long-winded ramblings for tonight. My brain is switching into sleep mode.:P
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(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-20 08:59 am (UTC)I haven't seen the movie but I've read the book and your opinion on this has really made me think (and for that I thank you). You have a different perspective on it than I do and I find myself agreeing with you completely.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-20 09:21 pm (UTC)I should also probably mention that I liked the acting and the attention to historical detail; it was really carefully done and not a bad movie at all, just... not convincing enough as realistic period drama (which is what it claimed to be). Some of the characters seemed very stereotypical too (though I really liked Vera Farmiga, who played the mother; she was quite convincing in her emotional breakdown after she finds out about the gas chambers). But like I said, I was force-fed the topic throughout my school years, so I am probably more critical of its presentation than an average Western European or American viewer.:)