#9

Post by Stiltzkin » 24 Aug 2016, 04:36

Most of these movies are made to fuel nationalism, build up emotions, generate an enemy image (often as Monsters, although for Psychopaths like Dirlwanglers unit or Japanese torturers that would be the case). There are movies which could be summed up as being revisionistic (White Tiger) and propagandistic (Bondarchuks Stalingrad), often they would project their own behviour on the enemy (raping, stealing). Some Nazis were family fathers, playing with their children and then going to do their job in a concentration camp or execution unit (as if it was their regular job). Their ideology, superiority complexes and racism benumbed them from feeling pity and remorse. I would say that Polanskis Pianist did an overall better job at portraying different kind of characters (or "der Untergang/Downfall"). There is a certain banality attached to it.

Though I personally doubt that we will see any good WW2 movie in the nearest future. Germany will barely touch that subject, Russia would never make a movie about their atrocities (or things like Katyn) or failures like Operation Mars (the Americans did make a movie about Market Garden and Hürtgen, besides those silly John Wayne cigar in his mouth movies).