The documentaries “Night and Fog”, and “Capturing the Friedmans”, both were created to move their audience in a way to get desired reactions. Nevertheless, while they both were created to move their audience, the motivation behind the two are quite different. “Night and Fog was created to serve as a warning for people about the dangers of cruelty, while “Capturing the Friedmans was made in a way to have viewers question the guilt of the two Friedmans convicted of sexuals assault. Alain Resnais’ documentary “Night and Fog” is a film that focuses on the atrocities that took place within the concentration camps in Nazi Germany. Even so while while the focal point of the film is the Holocaust, this film is not a story about the oppression …show more content…
To do so, Andrew Jarecki portrays a sense of innocence and ambiguity from the alleged perpetrators, and victims.. One of the most profunding ways in which a sense of ambiguity is portrayed within this work is the absence of recollection. Within the film Arnold Friedman confesses to the fact that as a child, he sexaully assaulted his younger brother while in bed. However, when his brother is asked about this instance, he denies it all and claims it never happened. These moments are then paired with other instances of ambiguity such as the montage of interviews where former students will speak upon an instance of sexual assault within the computer classes, only to then have another former student deny every claim previously made. This absence of a universal truth works to make viewers question whether or not the assault happened. This ambiguity is then accompanied by home videos of the family dealing with infighting, denial, and total frustration with the entire process: in effect humanizing the men. Through this humanization its becomes increasingly harder for an audience to find guilt in the men. This process of reflexivity, allows audiences to view the stories of these two men from a different standpoint, and come to a different conclusion in regards to guilt of these men, than of before. In effect the audience can be moved to
Although there are many different stories about the holocaust, Elie Wiesel's story is very vivid and full of the jarring reality of his experiences. He doesn’t hold back any of the cruelness and torment he was forced to endure as an adolescent. In Night, Elie Wiesel uses repetition, imagery, and symbolism to illustrate the deprivation of his former self during his traumatic experiences during his time in the Nazi work camp.
In “True Confessions, Sort of,” Paul Arthur delves into filmmaker Andrew Jarecki’s questionable ethics in presenting Capturing the Friedmans. More specifically, does Jarecki’s operating under the guise of neutrality “enable (him) to evade responsibility for dealing with the complexities of his material?”(Arthur 7). Furthermore, does a documentary have a moral obligation to its viewers, or is it simply there to present a riveting story? Capturing the Friedmans details the horrific case of Arthur Friedman and his son, Jessie, who were accused and convicted of child molestation.
There are people crowded, shoulder to shoulder, expecting a shower and to feel water raining down their bodies. Sighs of relief turn into screams of terror as innocent people are gasping for their last breaths of air inside of the gas chamber. This was a daily occurrence for Jewish and other people involved in the Holocaust. This was just one horrific event of many that had happened to women, men and children. Some of the survivors have used their voice to speak out about their own background during their time spent in Auschwitz and other concentration camps. Elie Wiesel, author of the book Night, is one of the many who did so. Wiesel talks about his personal experience and shares his feelings, thoughts and emotions that he went through with others during the Holocaust.
There has always been some sort of discriminatory power around the world, and Nazi Germany is certainly no exception, having one of the biggest ethnically and racially centered genocides recorded in history. Night is a memoir written by Elie Wiesel, describing the challenges and torture he endured in concentration camps and travelling place to place with little food, from his own perspective. The book explains what the hardship felt like, how draining the journey was, and uses symbols to display that. The symbols Wiesel used to enhance the message of inhumanity are through silence, and eyes. First and foremost is the use of silence.
About two-thirds of Jewish people living in Europe at the time of World War II were killed by Nazis. Elie Wiesel’s novel, Night, is about a teenage boy who was taken with his family to Auschwitz and through many of the other concentration camps. Night walks you through all the horrible and tragic events that Elie and all the other people had to endure. In Night, Elie Wiesel uses several powerful, sad, and horrifying images to demonstrate some of the horrors that occurred during the holocaust.
In 2006, Elie Wiesel published the memoir “Night,” which focuses on his terrifying experiences in the Nazi extermination camps during the World War ll. Elie, a sixteen-year-old Jewish boy, is projected as a dynamic character who experiences overpowering conflicts in his emotions. One of his greatest struggles is the sense helplessness that he feels when all the beliefs and rights, of an entire nation, are reduced to silence. Elie and the Jews are subjected daily to uninterrupted torture and dehumanization. During the time spent in the concentration camp, Elie is engulfed by an uninterrupted roar of pain and despair. Throughout this horrific experience, Elie’s soul perishes as he faces constant psychological abuse, inhuman living conditions, and brutal negation of his humanity.
The Holocaust was a horrific time period when over six million Jewish people were systematically exterminated by the Nazi government. Throughout this period, the Jews were treated particularly inhumane because the Nazi viewed their ethnicities as a disease to humanity. Dehumanization is a featured theme in Elie Wiesel’s novel about the Holocaust since he demonstrated numerous examples of the severe conditions endured by the Jewish people. The nonfiction story Night by Elie Wiesel focuses on inhumanity and reveals human beings are capable of committing great atrocities and behaving cruelly, when such actions are condoned by society, peer pressure, and ethical beliefs. Elie Wiesel uses literary devices to produce a consistent theme of inhumanity.
As the famous journalist Iris Chang once said, “As the Nobel Laureate warned years ago, to forget a holocaust is to kill twice.” After experiencing the tragedies that occurred during the Holocaust, Eliezer Wiesel narrated “Night”. Eliezer wrote “Night” in an attempt to prevent something similar to the Holocaust from happening again, by showing the audience what the consequences are that come from becoming a bystander. Elie illustrated numerous themes by narrating the state of turmoil he was in during the Holocaust. In Night, Eliezer provided insight into what he experienced in order to teach the unaware audience about three themes; identity, silence, and faith.
“To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”, said Elie Wiesel the author of night. Elie Wiesel is a holocaust survivor, he went through 5 different concentration camps. He was dehumanized, malnourished, and abused. He lost all his possessions, his family, and his humanity. In Elie Wiesel’s “Night”, the German Army dehumanizes Elie Wiesel and the jewish prisoners by depriving them of family, food, and self esteem.
Francois Truffaut continued on to say that Alain Resnais’ Night and Fog, made in 1955, was the “greatest film ever made”. The 30-minute film based on the horrors of the Holocaust and Nazi concentration camps after World War II combines Resnais’ own cinematography with original images and footage of the captives in their unfathomable state. The film is lead with a somber narrative that not only accompanies the sobering images being shown but both compliments them and puts them into perspective. Carl R. Plantigna’s chapter from his book ‘Rhetoric and Representation in
“Triumph of the Will” and “Night and Fog,” portray Hitler’s vision for Germany, and the findings of Allied liberators of concentration camps in the beginning of World War II. A comparison of the films present two very different views of what Hitler deemed necessary for Germany. They each displayed propaganda in a way they’re eye-catching simply because of the raw footage. It took everything that we knew about pre WWII and corrected it, so that we knew the truth about how the people of Germany felt, and what they saw in those exact moments. The task of viewing these films was quite difficult, and although both films seem to be a highly emotional and factual, I believe that “Night and Fog” was a more superior piece of propaganda. I will
Traumatic and scarring events occur on a daily basis; from house fires to war, these memories are almost impossible to forget. The Holocaust is only one of the millions of traumas that have occurred, yet it is known worldwide for sourcing millions of deaths. Elie Wiesel was among the many victims of the Holocaust, and one of the few survivors. In the memoir, “Night”, by Elie Wiesel, Elie, the main character, is forever changed because of his traumatic experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camps.
Imagine, a world where nothing looks as it should. The amount of hate so high, it’s practically unbearable. Everyday you wake up with this feeling that you’re going to die; sometimes you don’t even fear this happening. In the book Night the author Elie Wiesel takes the reader to a place in time that they wouldn‘t ever want to be; a place with terrifying experiences were the usually. All of these awful experiences, during the Holocaust, truly changed Elie as a character.
I must say that this film is very traumatizing. There are some images in this film that will be burned and scarred into my mind for as long as I live. I have seen many holocaust films, but no one was as near as dramatic and depicting as Night and Fog. However I did like the theme of this movie. It is very sad but yet realistic. Our minds are murky and dull. We tend to only remember the important situation in our lives. Yet we don’t remember the importance of our own history. I say OUR history be cause we all are human beings on this earth. Whether we believe in Allah, Jesus, Jehovah, or whatever higher power, we are all one race, and that the human race. It is very sad to know that human beings were treated and
The Fog Crept closer with wisps of it dancing in the moonlight, a natural reaction I thought to myself, just the rain from the storm rain on the hot ground.