And While We’re On the Subject of the Oscars…
By dcmediagirl on March 2, 2009 at 1:22 PM in Current Affairs
…Slumdog and Sean Penn have taken their hits. Well, what about The Reader?
Shorter version of this “uplifting” movie: A woman has a sexual relationship with a fifteen year old boy. Years later she goes on trial. Turns out she was a guard at Auschwitz, during which time she helped ensure 300 Jewish women locked in a burning church would die. And all this because she didn’t know how to read. The end.
So are we to conclude that all those who commit genocide or crimes against humanity are illiterate, and if only they were taught to read the world would be free of mass killing? Or that the (many) educated Germans — doctors, lawyers, judges, priests, authors, and composers, just to name a few – who enthusiastically jumped on board the National Socialist train were telling the truth when they claimed “they just didn’t know”? But I guess that because Hanna was illiterate she had an excuse for not knowing the difference between right and wrong — even though she was a guard at Auschwitz.
“Redemptive”? How about disgusting?
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I think it is more disgusting that they don’t teach English as a second language in Mexico as well as how to use a gun for self-defense, and how to apply for a job in the U.S. through the internet.
Why in the world do you think that learning English as a second language might somehow be helpful to people in the middle of a drug war? English will not save you in a drug war. It makes no sense to me.
We need to take note what happens in a country when there is no middle class. Mexico is a model for that. Private gun ownership is more strict in Mexico as opposed to here as well. We see that more gun controls does not equal less gun violence. I imagine Democratic leadership salivating at the prospect of turning us into Mexico, and in turn turning Mexico into a U.S. territory full of future Democrat voters. Anybody who has spent time in Mexico, real Mexico and not tourist villages has seen the rich gated communities, concrete walls topped with broken glass bottles set in cement to keep the poor away from the elite. They have seen the peasant class ride bicycles and peddle wares on the streets. I see that as the Democratic elitists vision for America. No more energy problems when only the elite own private cars. No more class envy when everybody is equally indigent. No more right to bear arms. The right to bear arms will fall to the private army of the elite class. Talk about slumdog… we are on that path if we don’t wake up as a nation.
And yet the Clint Eastwood movie “Gran Torino” was completely snubbed by Hollywood because it has many UNPC dialogues even thought the end message is one of tolerance ,acceptance and respect BASED on integrity,honesty and HARD WORK. Foreign concept to the welfare culture that is in control of this country.
hmmm, something that makes sense, no wonder they snubbed it.
What I want to know is, if Hollywood is so damn worried about the downtrodden, why the hell don’t they put their time and money where their mouths are?? Don’t advocate spending our money, pony up some of their extra millions, promote programs that will lift these people out of poverty not more welfare checks.
As they say, put up or shut up. I’m tired of the hypocrites.
Hollywood is too busy saving the world, saving those that, in the eyes of the “world”, are of a celebrated cause. How so very mundane it is to save anybody in Michigan or West Virginia…
i loved gran torino!
Looovved Grand Torino! While it was UN-PC it was very PC in a way.
A break-through story IMO.
Wow…got much pent up anger?
Scary….
There was a question whether The Reader would do well in the awards because of its sympathetic treatment of a concentration camp guard who was “just doing her job”. Other major directors who normally line up together stepped out and spoke against it.
There were other things they criticized: The portrayal of the concentration camp survivor as a rich Park Avenue dweller surrounded in expensive art.
Strange things I noticed – they kept the concentration camp survivor’s sleeves long when most filmmakers would feature her tattoo. The kid’s family was named “Berg”, when they could have picked a more Germanic and less possibly Jewish name, and at the end he got her a job with a tailor – another traditionally Jewish trade.
It’s hard to believe the filmmakers didn’t try for moral ambiguity with all these things, but nobody I know thinks there was any moral ambiguity about the situation at all.
Did they expect sympathy for someone who was ashamed she was illiterate but not ashamed she let people die in a fire, and personally picked out which were to die at the camps?
Weird filmmaking indeed. Not to mention Winslett’s award for looking tortured throughout the film when her character made it clear she had no regrets whatsoever about her actions.
This is a tough movie for us in the U.S. to digest. Its actually about post-war Germany and how their collective guilt affected their country, and still very much does. Their guilt has helped maintain peace in Europe since WWII. Pretty much the entire German population had a hand in Hitler’s rise to and maintenance of power. They’re aware of it, and deal with it in different ways. That’s what the film’s about.
I lived in Germany for over three years. I wouldn’t say German guilt alone kept the peace. I would say that European ignorance and stupidity of the danger of a Hitler type leader (loved, adored, unquestioned) has much to do with the guilt.
After all, how many European countries stood down and let things happen? How many laundered goods and money for the Third Reich? Quite a few.
But unless you had your soul removed you could not stand by and watch this carnage go on. The ability to read and write have nothing to do with that.
There was a German underground resistance. How do I know? Let’s just say I met some of them.
i think i witnessed this past year how someone like hitler could rise to power, and take over, and do the things he did….
Hitler was a “salesman”. He told people what they wanted to hear. He was for the worker, against capitalism, and for strict gun control. He admired FDR and sought a “third way” government… a “tweener” between communism and capitalism. Sound at all familiar?
I think Spammy ate my comment. I didn’t know “Keynesian” was an unacceptable word.
Also, Gran Torino was a hell of a film. Clint deserved a Best Actor nod.
I liked Gran Torino too. A different story. Not cliched. One of Clint’s best.
Like Hugh Jackman sang, “the Reader, I didn’t see it.”
Sara, you are right on. I’ve said all along, The One’s popularity is just like Germany with Hitler. But why would the European’s fall for the same thing again by their adoration for BO? I would think they of all people would be onto him. Did they not suffer enough 60 years ago?
Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it. – Winston Churchill
(Hmmm, do you think that could have anything to do with Obama returning the bust of Winston Churchill to England?) ha
you are talking a bit irresponsibly here. are you saying those who voted for Obama were following the evil satan of Hiler? and that Obama will turn out to be such a person?
If you want to say that Obama had kool-aid drinking followers then say that – why would you make the Hitler analogy, unless you really mean it.
Sorry, but “Europeans” didn’t fall for Hitler. Germans did, but their reasons for doing so are far more complex than the adoration of Obama.
The Europeans who think Obama is great are a different generation. They do not remember World War II, or Hitler, or Mussolini. They were not born, and most of their parents were not born. It was their grandparents’ era, and none of them will ever forget.
Did you see Ann Coulter’s crack at the CPAC meeting regarding Obama’s 80% approval in Germany during the election? I don’t normally like her, but this one was sooo funny. Something about the poll was so relevant since Germans really know how to pick a leader. (I’m German, so I can say that.)
Anyway, what exactly about this whole movie plot for the Reader was supposed to be entertaining? It sounds absolutely dreadful.
I do know that history repeats itself. Human nature never learns, it seems. This time around the world could be a lot worse off from it’s passive attitude.
Three words…
My. Pet. Goat.
Thank YOU!
This movie takes the weirdest most amoral turn imaginable at the midway point.
It’s creepy. And unfortunate.
That’s an odd take on the movie. For a short time during the scenes of the trial, it appears that the film will be sympathetic to this brutal murderer. But ultimately, the main character is shown to be just as culpable as the rest of the guards – and her act of claiming responsibility for writing a document she couldn’t possibly have composed is clearly shown NOT to be an act of kindness to her coworkers. Instead it’s revealed as just another sop to her own vanity (not wanting to be perceived as illiterate).
The final scenes of the movie show dramatically how completely this loathsome woman destroyed the lives of everyone around her thru her amoral worldview and inability to empathize on even the most basic level with anyone. Perhaps in her inhumanity, the viewing audience could see her as horrible but pathetic. But in no way was the movie uplifting and it didn’t try to excuse her behavior.
Did we watch the same show? Maybe because no character actually mouthed words at the end about how awful she was, people missed the point. How could they miss seeing how completely destroyed Liam Neeson’s character was at the end of the film? He tried to redeem himself by sending her the recordings. He had feelings of guilt for not speaking in her defense. At that point, the story is about him trying to come to grips his memories with her. At the end, he is unsucessful.
I came from the movie with the idea that there are amoral people in the world. And they will do amoral things. And if you let them, they will destroy you. Not exactly uplifting.