What Lies Beneath

Sunday, Lorna and I saw a most fascinating and disturbing movie - Jojo Rabbit - at the Hyland, the local review cinema in London.  This film is a dark satire on Germany at the end of World War Two when the defeat of the German army seemed inevitable.

 

Much of the plot is seen through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy, Jojo, who has an imaginary relationship with Adolf Hitler and who begins as an enthusiastic recruit to the local Hitler Youth.  The story of growing realization of the hero to the evils of Nazism turns on the discovery of a teenage Jewish girl, Elsa, hiding in the attic of his house.  As the relationship with Elsa develops, we see the growing realization on the part of Jojo that Jews are not inhuman beasts which Jojo has been taught they were. 

The representation of the Nazis in the plot, symbolized by Jojo’s imaginary Hitler, as inept, ineffectual buffoons al la Sargent Shultz of Hogan’s Heroes becomes increasingly darker throughout the movie until the true evil beneath that movement is revealed.  Even the cavalry of the U.S. army riding over the hill at the end of the movie has its dark side in the presence of the other ostensible saving force  - the Russian Army who do not operate on the noble principles of the U.S. forces which abide by the Geneva Convention and who are greeted by the residents of the as conquering heroes. 

The film was received very positively by the audience which broke out into spontaneous applause at the end - a somewhat rare occurrence in my experience.  I was not able to join in the enthusiastic response even though on one level I thought the movie deserved such a response.   My ambivalence puzzled me.  Initially I thought it was because I felt somewhat manipulated emotionally with the juxtaposition of the satirical representation of Nazism as ineffectual buffoons with the potential for evil which they practiced off stage.

On reflection, for me there are two questions which the movie raises.  First, is it wise to satirize evil – represented by Hitler and Nazism.  It has been done with limited success by the previously mentioned Hogan’s Heroes and more effectively by Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator.  There was also the Italian movie, Life is Beautiful, which won popular success but also criticism for satirizing the horrors of life and death in a concentration camp.

The other question is the use of satire to minimize the dangers of what lies beneath the populism of the crowd which can appear to be at best benign and at worst rife with bigotry and hate.  This was effectively portrayed in the movie with actual film footage of the response of the crowds at Hitler rallies in Germany.  It can be very easy to satirize the antics of a populous leader, of which there seem to be, unfortunately, many examples today.  But underneath that sometimes-laughable mask lurks the potential and reality of evil.  Laughter can be a satisfying weapon to use against overblown and oversensitive autocratic leaders.  But - I’m not quite sure if it is the most effective one.

Blessings on your journey