"Jojo Rabbit" Topic

Very funny, very sad.

YouTube link

I want to see this. Did they handle things well? Nothing in terribly poor taste?

It's really well done – the scenes at the Deutsches Jungvolk were very funny, but also completely believable, i.e. this is exactly what happened, maybe not quite so obviously juxtaposed as the "Germany is the most cultured country in the world – now, kids, let's go burn some books" but the contradictions were there all along.

Another good thing is that you're never quite sure what year it is set in.

Poor taste ? Well…Nazi Germany was in "pretty poor taste".

The Hitler as an imaginary friend is well handled.

I just saw it yesterday and it was quite enjoyable.

It does take you up to the end of the war.

Spoiler !

I thought it was one of the best movies from last year. Here's my write-up of it: link

Spoiler !

Only a spoiler if he said who won.

Humanizing Hitler and the Holocaust by Satire and Humour is wrong. Yes I did see the movie and regret the time it took.The only good thing is I saw it for free.

@ Redblack,
I don't think the movie humanized Hitler or the holocaust in any way, but it did humanize their victims.

The atrocities should never be forgotten and this movie will help keep them alive for another generation.

Robert

Humanizing Hitler and the Holocaust by Satire and Humour is wrong

Lighten up. No more than Roberto Benigni's 1997 Oscar winner 'Life is Beautiful' "humanized" the Holocaust by turning the concentration camp experiences of Jews into a comedy.

Or the TV show 'Hogan's Heroes' making us think that evil Nazis are harmless – and perhaps even likeable – buffoons for that matter.

i recognize satire and black humour as effective means of combating evil things. IMHO this movie failed it made the Hitler Youth organization too funny thus minimizing the effect it had on young people at that time Today too many people lack the basic history that they should know to view this movie in its setting.

My favourite movie is "Life Is Beautiful" I saw it once and will never watch it again. It was too traumatic and I want my memory to be the last few scenes when Benigni kept in character, for his son, as he was being marched off. Everything that came before led to that scene and to a message that has never left me.

In comparison Jojo is not even close in showing the message that "Bad things can happen to good people" The evil is too deeply buried to be meaningful, often relying upon an occasional phrase like Jojo's mother when she was asked about the hanging people. Maybe if Jojo had seen the the girl die it would have hit the audience more It's comedy was not balanced by equivalent tragedy. If it had been it would have been a great movie .

But the theme of 'JoJo Rabbit' is ultimately one of redemption and the triumph of goodness over evil. The 10-year old JoJo transformed from a brainwashed Hitler fanatic at the beginning of the movie to repudiating his idol, literally kicking him out of the house as a symbolic rejection of the beliefs he once held dear.

Sure, his mother was killed but even before that tragedy occurred, he was gradually brought around to see the errors of his ways by Elsa, with whom he formed a special bond. He was forced to reconcile his beliefs and convictions with the evil and injustices he's seeing, which of course proved to be impossible.

'JoJo Rabbit' isn't a movie about "bad things happen to good people" even though we do see some of that. It's about how even a boy exposed and susceptible to the lies of the state for most of his young life has innate goodness and can be redeemed. That's the brilliance of this movie.

I saw the Hitler Youth section as being "more realistic" than the period propaganda – we're used to seeing propaganda footage beautifully lit and filmed to show off the superiority of the Aryan youth as they train and go through their gymnastics, but what Jojo Rabbit presents is a bunch of brainwashed pre-teens who can't even tie up their own shoe laces.

The good thing about movies is the way everyone can see it differently. There is no right or wrong just views.The discussion here has raised some interesting points for which I thank you.I can now go back and rewatch the movie again with the new interpretations in mind.That is the good thing about monitoring able to relive an experience and for TMP in providing that material.6

You're welcome. It's by no accident that this movie has been nominated for 6 Oscars including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress for ScarJo and Best Adapted Screenplay.

I think this is Tarantino's year though for OUaTiH. 'Joker' is good but a little overrated. Just watched Sam Mendes' '1917' over the weekend. It's good but not quite SPR-good. Will post comments on it later tonight.

Turns out that two of the top films neo-nazis love the most are Downfall and American History X.

There are edits that remove the anti extremist message and recut it just enough so that these films become examples of paragons fighting against overwhelming odds. Something these people can identify with as a minority with radical views.

If you portray nazis as not only dangerous, but also as highly competent people with only one purpose in life then you pretty much help to promote the myth because if people start to buy into the idea nazis were a superior form of society then they may have been right about killing people.

If you portray nazis as a parody you take away their agency, especially if they are murderers, suddenly they are crazy people who murder, fanatical rather than purposeful, a very important distinction.

A while ago they did some psychological tests, they put a group before a serious problem, like stranding them a long distance from the nearest inhabitable place and have their vehicle break down. Two people stepped forward with a solution, one was a rational one to stay put and wait for help because people were aware they were on a fixed itinerary, while the other made an obviously bad suggestion, like starting off in the wrong direction over difficult terrain promising it would be a shortcut. The difference was that the one with the sensible plan did little to inspire confidence, while the person with the bad plan oozed confidence. Almost all groups ended up following the bad plan even when it involved getting across a wild river without proper gear.

If you portray people by parodying them you highlight their vanity and inherent flaws, that's why the Producers by Mel Brooks or Jojo Rabbit can't be recuperated by the neo-nazis because parody means you are confronted with your own self-awareness. The Nuremberg pageantry was all ludicrous because you can quickly start to ask yourself what these people are trying to compensate and it leads to spiteful murdering of innocent people …

The film doesn't pull punches, even Yorki's laconic acceptance that he is enrolled into the army as an eleven year old is very strong especially at the end where he simply switches off being a nazi to go home. It was never "his" belief, he simply did what was expected of him.

And the central relationship between JoJo and Elsa is extremely strong, she deludes him even more rather than try to convert him so that he understands it's been a lie from the start and how easy it is to keep people on board even if the claims are beyond ridiculous and any sane person would step away.

And then it drives home the fact that the whole system is self-defeating and that even an imaginary "best pal" Hitler is merely a delusion.

In a sense by making nazis fallible people we make them more vulnerable, if they are unstoppable and purposeful they will be given the benefit of the doubt. Even Lanzman's Shoah, possible the strongest film on the subject strips them naked showing they were not inhuman monsters or rabid fanatics who could not form a single thought outside party lines, but pathetic people who did horrible things on command often for no other real reason than that they were expected to and happened to do a good job of it.

Evil is remarkably mundane and JoJo does a masterful job of confronting you with that when you least expect it. One moment it's slapstick, the other it's harsh reality.

Only seen bits and pieces of it, but it reminded me of a sort of Nazi 'Calvin and Hobbes' :)

The film paved over and ignored the fear created by the holocaust. Ask Anne Frank how she felt at any given time and no doubt she would have told you she was frightened out of her wits. But the girl in the attic in the movie exhibited 2020's American girl sensibilities, a totally unrealistic attitude considering the kid could have turned her in at any moment.

To portray Hitler as a buffoon in this film and a maniacal, foaming at the mouth lunatic in 90% of all other films is very dangerous because it makes all of us more vulnerable to another Hitler in the future. Hitler charmed his way to the top when he needed to. I am more afraid of another charmer who will seize power in the future.

Another thing to consider is the technological means of repression. In this era of cameras, facial-recognition software and computer memory of every keystroke you make, a future Hitler will have the ability to repress a society that the real Hitler couldn't even imagine or dream about.

I laughed at several scenes like the "heil Hitlers" that were exclaimed whenever someone came into a room, and the scene with the children carrying a Panzerschreck, but overall I believe it was very wrong to try to get cheap laughs out of the Holocaust.