The contents of culture are a good way to gauge the morals and beliefs of a society. Movies specifically are good indicators. It then comes off as more than a lighthearted issue when few American-made movies characterize Nazi Germany as actual people and instead dehumanize them. The Germans are nearly always shown in a negative light when in reality fewer than 40% of Germans voted for Hitler when he was elected. Furthermore, even fewer Germans knew about the Holocaust during the war. Most films inevitably depict all Germans as a single force hellbent on killing every Jewish person at whatever cost. World War II films such as Inglorious Basterds that dehumanize Germans through guilt by association, making them seem like an evil force, and …show more content…
The Disney movie Mulan depicts them as one-dimensional evil characters that only have a lust for blood. Beliefs that dehumanize like these can affect our interaction with other cultures even today, so it is important that we understand the symptoms so we can eliminate it. The Inglorious Basterds are a group of Jewish-American soldiers that are chosen to fight Germans behind the front lines. Their goal, as stated by the commander Lieutenant Aldo Raine in the beginning of the movie, is “Killin Nazi’s.” He continues to state that “Nazi[s] ain’t got no humanity.” This not only sets the tone for the entirety of the rest of the movie, but also explicitly states that Nazis are going to be dehumanized in the Film. The first standard that a movie has to satisfy is that it tries to associate the actions of the one group of Germans such as the Schutzstaffel (S.S.) or Hitler with the entire German military. By relating the actions of one person to many others it becomes easier to do inhuman things to them such as torture. Inglorious Basterds fits this category well. In the first scene of the movie we see members of the S.S. driving to a Frenchman’s home. Upon his arrival the audience finds out the a Jewish family is missing and the S.S. officer suspects the man of hiding them. The man confesses that they are hidden under the floorboards and the S.S. officer and his soldiers ruthlessly shoots them all but one. By opening with this
Many things that happen also have a trigger event – the final straw, or the
Just like France, the United States, and Russia, Germany also began to make films, as a way to entertain the working class in an inexpensive way. By 1933 Adolf Hitler came to power, creating very harsh social condition that made several writers, actors, and directors flee Germany because they feared that if they stayed they would have gotten killed. Joseph Goebbels later came to run the UFA, as a government owned production company to make films that were shown to civilians and the military as propaganda on March 13 , 1933, and intended to censor German cinema to make the people believe that they were fascist. Numerous movies in that period of time tried to steer clear of talking about the Holocaust to distract people from what was really happening and to make Hitler seem almost godlike. One film in particular directed by Leni Riefenstahl called The Triumph of the Will became a well known example of propaganda in film history. Throughout the film, you really get to experience a sense of historical context that influenced thousands of people during the time of World War 2. Today, several people view The Triumph of the Will and have a difficult time distinguishing whether or not they can conclude if they view the film as propaganda or an actual piece of art.
The movie that they inspired was “Inglorious Bastards”. The director who made “Inglourious Basterds” was Quentin Tarantino's, in 2009 Quentin had an idea to create a movie about how they killed Nazis and in the movie. And the main point of making this movie was to help the viewer to get informed about how the Nazis were unfair to their prisoners and were really one of the worst groups in Russia, and they added one thing to the movie that the Back Devils didn’t do and that is every Nazi you killed, you skinned the top of their head. This is considered a trophy to the “Bastards”. Also in the movie they put in a quote saying “ The worst is yet to come” which was included in the movie “Inglorious Bastards”.
The most notorious for the heinous deeds were the Schutzstaffel, or the SS. This paramilitary branch of Nazis, who were highly regarded by Hitler, treated the Jewish race with no respect for their own livelihood, or had any sympathy for what they were going through. As Elie describes his time in the concentration camp of Auschwitz, he mentions one of the SS officers who came into their barracks, “...with crime inscribed upon his brow and in the pupils of his eyes. He looked us over as if we were a pack of leprous dogs hanging onto our lives.” (Wiesel 47). This excerpt from the novel displays the sincere hatred he had for the malnourished and weak Jews who stood before him. These special soldiers slaughtered Jews by the thousands, without making any sort of attempt to stop what was occurring. The SS had one goal during World War II, and that was to exterminate the Jewish race from the Earth. At any moment, someone could be killed, no matter the reason. The Germans didn't care, all they wanted was the Jews
Steven Spielberg had planned to produce a movie about the Holocaust for around ten years before he actually became involved in directing Schindler’s List (Perlez, 1993). Much of the movie was filmed in Kraków, Poland, which was the location of Schindler’s factory. Liam Neeson stars as Oskar Schindler, and Ralph Fiennes stars as Amon Göth. The plot takes place in Nazi Germany between 1941-1945. The main character is Oskar Schindler, who originally supports the Nazi party but eventually decides to protect the Jews from the atrocious acts committed by the Nazis. Specific examples from the movie of how it is accurate include the ending scene where the Schindler Jews are liberated. In this scene, every Schindler Jew that was alive is present. In addition to this appearance, Schindler’s List portrays the brutality of the acts that were committed at the concentration camps. In one scene, a group of naked women are herded into a shower room that is actually a gas chamber in disguise. Despite the fact that the emotional response of the women is inaccurate as the women would not have known that the shower room was a gas chamber, the scene illustrates the inhumane method that the Nazis used to annihilate the Jews in many of the concentration camps, specifically Auschwitz (Lobet, 1994). The film was also shot in many of the same locations where the actual events occurred. For
The movie Schindler’s List, is set in Nazi Germany and follows the journey of a group of Jews. Initially being used as cheap labor by the shrewd businessman Oskar Schindler, the Jews are later taken to concentration camps. At these camps the Jews face dire situations. Not only are they provided with barely enough food and water to survive on, but they live with a constant fear of death. One day, Schindler notices the condition of the Jews and sympathizes with them.
Also, the British accents added an interesting feel throughout the film the reason the director used British actors was because of the way they can more accurately convey emotions and possibly the fact that the German accent can be slightly harsh sounding. Viewers can envision the director wanted the Germans in the film to be liked, especially in the beginning, maybe to get a different view of them. If it is possible to understand the Holocaust, one could see that Jews were seen by the Nazi’s as less than human. We as a society know it is wrong to treat anyone as less than human, yet we began to feel the same towards Hitler and the Nazi’s.
When Hitler and the Nazis came to power, their beliefs were, “the government principles and were quickly spread in publicly displayed posters, on the radio, in movies, in classrooms, and in newspapers,” (United States Memorial Museum, 2016). The Nazis began to put their ideology into practice with the support of German
there was a sort of cultural dominance taking place by the outsiders. the Old European culture was dying it was being lost and the American culture was infiltrating in. judt acknowledgesthat “ in more ways than most contemporaries could have foreseen, a new Europe was being born. (Judt, 237). he first introduces the German victims which he separates from the German aggressors, so we first get this picture of Germany destroyed and under occupation and then he states that the greedy Americans were coming in and using their cultural imperialism to change Europe. He 's almost trying to challenge all the different assumptions and narratives that people have on such a controversial view. The soviets and the Nazis are no longer the enemy in his narrative but the Americans are.the author comments that “American films flooded into Italy in time for the pivotal 1948 elections; Paramount was encouraged by
Schindler’s list is an incredibly moving, realistic representation of one of the darkest chapters in human history, the Holocaust. It covers a wide range of themes including Jewish labour, discrimination and massacre, as well as the power each individual possesses and the difference that one individual can make. Moreover, it accurately depicts the suffering and injustice faced by the Jews during World War II, showcasing - in gory detail - the length at which the Nazi regime was prepared to go in order to exterminate Jewish people and culture. The film itself follows enigmatic businessman Oskar Schindler's real life trials and triumphs in his pursuit of saving Jews from Nazi extremism, of which he is quite successful. This success is found through the use of many methods in saving the Jews.
Schindler's list is about the Holocaust. Speilberg wanted to educate the world about what had happened in the past events and to also silence; those who deny that it ever happened. Moreover, Spielberg films the movie in the early 1900s when genocide against Serbs, Bosnian, Muslims and ethnic Albanians was taking place in Yugoslavia. The fact that another genocide could happen in the present day pushes Spielberg to give a comprehension of the situation. This event which featured in the film affected the group Jews. Hitler's plan to eliminate the group and to get rid of them succeeded as it was too late for thousands. Oscar Schindler, the protagonist, and the eventual savior sacrifice his life to save his Jewish factory workers; without him,
One last example is, ?gossiping and smoking by the grass.? This suggests that the Nazis are laid back and acting very casual. They don?t pay respect for the dead. They are totally unconcerned or unphased by what is happening.
Inglourious Basterds argues that the American lens of Jews in World War II is inaccurate by contrasting the traditional American lens with a strong Jewish lens through parallel plots in the story. In Inglourious Basterds, we mentioned the opening scene which starts with the “Jew Hunter” in complete control and using fear tactics to make a French farmer give up the Jews he is harboring. This scene shows the “Jew Hunter” in full control of the situation with all power resting solely in his hands. The Jewish family being harbored is completely helpless as they hide under the floorboards. The Jews in this scene are in line with what the American perspective of Jews in World War II, helpless and at the mercy of the Nazis. However the Basterds violently contradict the American lens of Jew’s role in World War II history. This is done so in the way the film is laid out with alternating five different chapters, which alternate between Jews having power and lacking power. The Basterds reverse the power structure and become the ones inflicting fear. They begin to not only kill Nazis they make the Nazis fear Jews. This can be seen in one scene where the “Bear Jew” walks out of a dark tunnel, bat banging
Historians have examined many possibilities to the roots of the Holocaust and World War Two, however, another possibility, which is rarely studied, is Social Darwinism. Social Darwinism is a theory which was influenced by the works of Charles Darwin, however, truly developed by British philosopher and scientist Herbert Spencer. The heart of his theory was the belief that evolution continued by the survival of the fittest. This theory states that evolution occurs when individuals that possess beneficial features, the fittest, survive and the weaker individuals perish. Moreover, its wide interpretation led others several various conclusions, including new theories such as the notion of racial superiority.
Nazism has been portrayed throughout modern films, such as The Lion King, Cabaret, Sophie Scholl – The Final Days, Schindler’s List and Downfall. The accuracy of the rise and fall of Nazism varies, however the ideas of Nazism are consistent throughout these films. These films accurately portray the rise and fall of Nazism in Germany as well as Hitler’s ideology. Although some of the films are modified to create a more appropriate rating so a wider range of audiences are able to view them, therefore some of the historical accuracy was lost.