MSNBC: Film showing Hitler's soft side stirs controversy
It has long been understood in Germany the importance of speaking the truth about Adolph Hitler. As the nation has struggled to come to terms with the darker moments of its past, Germans have felt a strong need to speak the truth about Hitler, lest such a thing ever happen again on German soil.
Up until now, however, "speaking the truth about Hitler" has meant that any depictions of his charm, appeal, and positive attributes have been taboo in Germany. The nation fears that to present him as anything but a monster would be to encourage the miscreant neo-Nazis and Holocaust-deniers who perversely adulate Hitler to this very day. The recent film "The Downfall" has broken that taboo, stirring up a cloud of controversy in its wake.
The film certainly depicts Hitler as a madman, by all accounts. The creative talent behind "The Downfall," however, chose to also present Adolph Hitler as distinctly human - frail, suffering from illness, yet charismatic and even showing glimpses of kindness. The Hitler presented is far more complex than anything seen on German screens - or, I dare say, in theaters anywhere in the world.
Is it going too far to show Hitler in any kind of positive light at all? I think not. In fact, it's dangerous to present him merely as a beast, while ignoring the very appealing qualities that seduced a nation. While we must not ever forget the monstrosities Hitler committed, we must also be brave enough to cast a clear eye on this complex man, searching for what it was within him that could so appeal to an entire nation.
It's often observed that no one is tempted to something that is evil on the face of it; the devil's greatest trick is to wrap sin in the clothes of virtue, so that we are seduced by the grain of goodness in it even as our conscience protests that something is deeply wrong here. If we are to resist such sly efforts by the tempter, we need first to understand that this is his best method - to twist God's good gifts into something perverse yet appealing.
Adolph Hitler personifies this work of the tempter. If we are to fight the purveyors of genocide, we need to understand not only that they are monsters, but that they are tremendously appealing monsters. Their appeal is their great strength, their great deception. Perhaps "The Downfall" and the works that will certainly follow it can be a first small step toward understanding the monster within the human being Hitler - and slaying the one within our own selves.
Up until now, however, "speaking the truth about Hitler" has meant that any depictions of his charm, appeal, and positive attributes have been taboo in Germany. The nation fears that to present him as anything but a monster would be to encourage the miscreant neo-Nazis and Holocaust-deniers who perversely adulate Hitler to this very day. The recent film "The Downfall" has broken that taboo, stirring up a cloud of controversy in its wake.
The film certainly depicts Hitler as a madman, by all accounts. The creative talent behind "The Downfall," however, chose to also present Adolph Hitler as distinctly human - frail, suffering from illness, yet charismatic and even showing glimpses of kindness. The Hitler presented is far more complex than anything seen on German screens - or, I dare say, in theaters anywhere in the world.
Is it going too far to show Hitler in any kind of positive light at all? I think not. In fact, it's dangerous to present him merely as a beast, while ignoring the very appealing qualities that seduced a nation. While we must not ever forget the monstrosities Hitler committed, we must also be brave enough to cast a clear eye on this complex man, searching for what it was within him that could so appeal to an entire nation.
It's often observed that no one is tempted to something that is evil on the face of it; the devil's greatest trick is to wrap sin in the clothes of virtue, so that we are seduced by the grain of goodness in it even as our conscience protests that something is deeply wrong here. If we are to resist such sly efforts by the tempter, we need first to understand that this is his best method - to twist God's good gifts into something perverse yet appealing.
Adolph Hitler personifies this work of the tempter. If we are to fight the purveyors of genocide, we need to understand not only that they are monsters, but that they are tremendously appealing monsters. Their appeal is their great strength, their great deception. Perhaps "The Downfall" and the works that will certainly follow it can be a first small step toward understanding the monster within the human being Hitler - and slaying the one within our own selves.
posted by Bob at
1:20 PM
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