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Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer


Jojo Rabbit is Taika Waititi's 6th film. It is about a boy named Jojo, a Hitler Youth in Germany as WW2 winds down, who discovers that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl, Elsa, in their house. His imaginary friend, Hitler, does not approve. Waititi describes the film as an anti-hate satire.

It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won Best Adapted Screenplay. It has many nominations, besides the Academy Awards.

The cast of the film is Roman Griffen Davis as Jojo, Thomasin Kenzie as Elsa, Scarlett Johanssen as Rosie (Jojo's mom), Sam Rockwell as Captain Klenzendorf, Rebel Wilson as Fraulein Rahm, Stephen Merchant as Deertz, Archie Yates as Yorki, and Taika Waititi as Imaginary Adolf Hitler.





This film is currently polarizing. It's sense of humor and jokes at the expense of the Nazi regime, as well as it's ideas of Love Defeats Hate, has won many fans. There are also many arguments questioning the film's satire, it's depictions of Nazis and Hitler Youth and imaginary Adolf Hitler, and if the satire is liberal self-aggrandizing.

A popular detractor of the film is this piece from Esther on Film. She really hates Jojo Rabbit and it's flawed message, and her piece is worth a read from both the film's fans and detractors.

Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Feb 20, 2020

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Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:

Esther's review is great and reminds me of my distaste for Django Unchained's depiction of the Klan.

I like the review, but I have a gripe with this

quote:

Let’s talk about Elsa, played by Thomasin Mackenzie. She’s a Jewish girl being hidden by Rosie (Scarlett Johannsson), the mother of Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis). The film introduces her as a horror movie monster. She skulks in the shadows, just out of sight. Her fingers slowly curl around a doorframe, like a ghost in a Guillermo del Toro movie. Jojo is terrified of her right away. Is this because the film is from his perspective, and Nazi brainwashing has conditioned him to see Jews as hideous monsters? If so, this might be an interesting choice. I don’t think this is a fair reading of the scene, however.

Because that's the only way I read the scene. Jojo's our narrative perspective, the movie is introduced by showing only his view, because his Adolf is physically manifested in the visual world. So yes, I think it is a fair reading to say that Elsa's introduction as a horror movie monster, and I did think it was an interesting choice.

I'm not disparaging Esther, but I feel like she's intentionally misreading that scene because she really hates the movie.

edited for grammar and misspelling

Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 16:13 on Feb 20, 2020

SolarFire2
Oct 16, 2001

"You're awefully cute, but unfortunately for you, you're made of meat." - Meat And Sarcasm Guy!
I believe the writer of that article doesn't understand that the film differentiates between Nazis and Germans. She calls Sam Rockwell's character a Nazi but it's clear from his introduction to the last time we see him that he isn't.

TheOmegaWalrus
Feb 3, 2007

by Hand Knit
I enjoyed the movie, too few legit comedies are made these days.

However, I will say that given the subject matter, director and cast, I found myself wishing that they went all in with the concept and humor.

Instead they told a reasonably safe story and traded some cutting comedy (that Waititi is known for) for a fairly dry drama.

I'd recommend it, but I probably won't watch it again.

LemonLimeSoda
Jan 23, 2020

TheOmegaWalrus posted:

I enjoyed the movie, too few legit comedies are made these days.

However, I will say that given the subject matter, director and cast, I found myself wishing that they went all in with the concept and humor.

Instead they told a reasonably safe story and traded some cutting comedy (that Waititi is known for) for a fairly dry drama.

I'd recommend it, but I probably won't watch it again.

agreed
if the film had kept its' fever-pitch the first thirty minutes had, I would've loved it much more
I felt like the film pulled its' punches and suffered as a result but still recommend seeing it

sean10mm
Jun 29, 2005

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, MAD-2R World

Franchescanado posted:

I like the review, but I have a gripe with this


Because that's the only way I read the scene. Jojo's our narrative perspective, the movie is introduced by showing only his view, because his Adolph is physically apart of the world. So yes, I think it is a fair reading to say that Elsa's introduction as a horror movie monster, and I did think it was an interesting choice.

I'm not disparaging Esther, but I feel like she's intentionally misreading that scene because she really hates the movie.

Yeah, that's such an incredibly obvious reading that it's a real :wtc: that she gets THIS CLOSE to seeing it and then goes "forget it."

I also have another minor quibble with the review:

quote:

Compare it to the characters of Shoshanna and Zoller in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, another irreverant take on the Holocaust.

Neither film is really trying to be "a take on the Holocaust" in any meaningful sense. If anything a better criticism is that it essentially punts on engaging with the Holocaust entirely beyond "Jewish people have to hide from Nazis."

henpod
Mar 7, 2008

Sir, we have located the Bioweapon.
College Slice
Great movie. Jojo's little cheerful friend was my favourite character for some reason, even if he's not in it so much.

"but my girlfriend...shes a jew"
"oh, never mind that! we've got bigger problems now. There are Russians out there! :)"

This clip convinced me to watch the movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyF_XafkUCk

henpod fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Feb 20, 2020

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Franchescanado posted:

I like the review, but I have a gripe with this


Because that's the only way I read the scene. Jojo's our narrative perspective, the movie is introduced by showing only his view, because his Adolf is physically manifested in the visual world. So yes, I think it is a fair reading to say that Elsa's introduction as a horror movie monster, and I did think it was an interesting choice.

I'm not disparaging Esther, but I feel like she's intentionally misreading that scene because she really hates the movie.

edited for grammar and misspelling

100% agreed. The review made a lot of really good points, especially about the ending which seemed like a bald faced cop-out even at the time, but the example you posted is specifically a problem I have with a lot of modern reviewing which is "decide whether you like a movie and then build your case backwards from there". It's just super weird to be like "this seems like it could have been what Waititi intended if this had been a good movie, but instead it's a bad movie so it clearly wasn't".

TrixRabbi
Aug 20, 2010

Time for a little robot chauvinism!

SolarFire2 posted:

I believe the writer of that article doesn't understand that the film differentiates between Nazis and Germans. She calls Sam Rockwell's character a Nazi but it's clear from his introduction to the last time we see him that he isn't.

But, he is a Nazi. He works as a Nazi officer overseeing the Hitler Youth. In the film's climax we see him fighting in the ruins of Berlin as one of the last front before the fall of the city. Just because he's disillusioned or come to regret joining the party doesn't mean he isn't a Nazi. He probably has a registration card somewhere with his name, Party: Nazi.

And this gets back to the reality of WWII and Nazi Germany. There's massive questions about the guilt of the entire country that resulted from the Holocaust, from the active perpetrators in the party to the bystanders who did nothing to resist the persecution of the Jews (and many of whom benefited from it by taking their property and businesses). I don't think you can say Sam Rockwell's character isn't *really* a Nazi just because he's a person disillusioned with the ideology and the war.

mobby_6kl
Aug 9, 2009

by Fluffdaddy

LemonLimeSoda posted:

agreed
if the film had kept its' fever-pitch the first thirty minutes had, I would've loved it much more
I felt like the film pulled its' punches and suffered as a result but still recommend seeing it

Same same. The beginning felt like a much more fresh idea than the Anne Frank story we ended up getting instead. I enjoyed it anyway, but like many good but not exceptional movies I'll probably forget everything about it in a year.

TheOmegaWalrus
Feb 3, 2007

by Hand Knit
As The Death of Stalin has shown, accents in a comedy are really an all or nothing game. Either you have all of your actors ham it up in a culturally-insensitive way or you let everyone speak in their natural accents.

The cast in this movie just did whatever. Scarlett Johansson was fun to watch, but hearing her labor to do a German accent when no one else even tried was off-putting.

I'm convinced that, like Blade Runner, there's a director's cut somewhere that got left on the editing floor which is the caliber of film we've come to expect from Waititi.

Maybe in a few year's well get it. A lot of the movie had the feel of being made-by-committee.

SolarFire2
Oct 16, 2001

"You're awefully cute, but unfortunately for you, you're made of meat." - Meat And Sarcasm Guy!

TrixRabbi posted:

But, he is a Nazi. He works as a Nazi officer overseeing the Hitler Youth. In the film's climax we see him fighting in the ruins of Berlin as one of the last front before the fall of the city. Just because he's disillusioned or come to regret joining the party doesn't mean he isn't a Nazi. He probably has a registration card somewhere with his name, Party: Nazi.

He's not a Nazi officer, he's a wermacht officer who got placed in the Nazi youth assignment because injury deemed him unfit for frontline combat. He clearly has no interest in Nazi ideology, he just pictures himself a loyal German soldier.

Ogmius815
Aug 25, 2005
centrism is a hell of a drug

SolarFire2 posted:

He's not a Nazi officer, he's a wermacht officer who got placed in the Nazi youth assignment because injury deemed him unfit for frontline combat. He clearly has no interest in Nazi ideology, he just pictures himself a loyal German soldier.

I note that while the moral culpability of ordinary Germans, and especially nominally non-ideological members of the German military is an interesting, if somewhat worn topic, nothing interesting about the discussion will survive if we adopt the position that any depiction of a member of the WWII era German military that is not 100% negative is always unacceptable.

fenix down
Jan 12, 2005

Ogmius815 posted:

I note that while the moral culpability of ordinary Germans, and especially nominally non-ideological members of the German military is an interesting, if somewhat worn topic, nothing interesting about the discussion will survive if we adopt the position that any depiction of a member of the WWII era German military that is not 100% negative is always unacceptable.
I haven't seen the movie since it came out, but my initial read was that the main topic is telling the brainwashed person to drop their preconceived notions, with the side story about good people turning a blind eye to suffering because they weren't yet being scrutinized. (i.e. "gently caress you got mine")

That being said, if someone came away with the read of "very fine people on both sides" I can see how/why it would be upsetting.

Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer

SolarFire2 posted:

I believe the writer of that article doesn't understand that the film differentiates between Nazis and Germans. She calls Sam Rockwell's character a Nazi but it's clear from his introduction to the last time we see him that he isn't.

Sam Rockwell is a Nazi. He's also the weirdest character in the film, and his treatment is why I think Jojo Rabbit is a far-from-perfect film, or at least fuels why people feel unsure/negatively towards the film.

Rockwell's character is a war hero for the Nazi regime. He is complicit in all of their crimes. Even with his doubt, even with his understanding and outspokenness of how they are on the losing side of the war, he still 1) actively trains Hitler's Youths, 2) assists in killing their enemies, 3) willfully goes down on a burning ship while acknowledging that he deserves it.

He detracts from the Nazi party because he's bitter for his treatment after losing an eye. He is a career soldier. It's what he is good at. It's what he has created his identity around. He actively fantasizes about a beautiful costume decorating him as a hero for atrocities committed against an enemy.

He is a closet homosexual, and yet because Nazis believe homosexuals are an abomination, implicitly he has worked against aspects of himself. He doesn't believe in race superiority, or at least his belief in it is fragile, and yet still assists in exterminating other races. He knows that the enemies of the Nazis are going to win the war, but he sticks with them, either out of solidarity for a party that has promoted him as a hero, or out of Germanic pride for his country.

Rockwell's character seems to respect ScarJo's character because she actually has a spine and is willing to stand up for what is right behind a facade of complicitness. He is her foil, because he seemingly believes the same thing as her, but because being complicit affords him immunity to bigotry and actively gives him power and accolades of being a hero, he goes along with the Nazi party to their doom. He is the incarnation of the mentality "gently caress You, Got Mine" and he openly embraces the bullet for this.

Rockwell does show remorse, or at least towards Jojo (and vicariously Elsa) because of Rosie's sacrifice. He does seem to genuinely grow from seeing someone die for their morals and their beliefs, when she could probably succeed in the same selfish ways he has, through being a beautiful, charming and capably cunning woman. And he saves Jojo a second time, while knowing that he's about to eat a bullet for never having a true belief system. But he eats a bullet for being a Nazi, because being complicit to an evil regime is to be a part of the regime. Kinda like Vonnegut's Mother Night.

Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer
Just keep in mind, right before Klenzendorf rescue saves Jojo from the firing squad, he is fully dressed up in his fantasy uniform complete with long flowing cape, happily smoking a cigar and smiling while blasting enemy troops in the face with a machine gun.

edit: corrected the word choice for accuracy.

Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Feb 20, 2020

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Yeah the most generous reading of Klenzendorf is that he is like you said, a career soldier who fully bought into the idea that fighting for your country is Good and Just regardless of context. The fantasy uniform underlines this: his idealized version of being a soldier is as some kind of heroic Arthurian figure who righteously battles his foes until he dies honorably, instead of a washed up Nazi complicit in monstrous war crimes.

Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..

Guy A. Person posted:

Yeah the most generous reading of Klenzendorf is that he is like you said, a career soldier who fully bought into the idea that fighting for your country is Good and Just regardless of context. The fantasy uniform underlines this: his idealized version of being a soldier is as some kind of heroic Arthurian figure who righteously battles his foes until he dies honorably, instead of a washed up Nazi complicit in monstrous war crimes.

I think we can further this in two ways, and both of them underline how the film is kinda shaky.

The first is that Klenzendorf is presented as a genuine war hero who is put off by the superficial patriotism of the Nazis. He embodies the courage that Jojo desires, but the genuineness of this courage leads him to be disillusioned with the Nazis. They are all pretending to be him, and he can see that they are transparently not. This is part of a genuine line of criticism that the movie takes towards Naziism, which is that for all of its statements about grandeur and masculinity, it's all fake. The uniforms are cheap cardboard. The Nazis are arming children and lederhosen-wearing farmers. It's all bullshit, but Klenzendorf is real.

And then you add to this that Klenzendorf does slightly undermine the Nazis, and has some respect for Scarlett Johansen's Rosie. She has authentic toughness, courage, and conviction like him, and so he at least respects her. I think he also chooses to lie to protect Elsa not just out of respect to Rosie, but out of respect for Elsa's courage, and because he doesn't think that Jojo is "really" a Nazi.

This brings us to the other part. Else tells Jojo that he's not really a Nazi, he's just a little boy who likes playing dress-up and wants to belong to something. Klenzendorf is what Jojo's future if he stays in the Nazi party. He never really grows up and gets stuck in a state of arrested development (I think that Klenzendorf's suppressed gay relationship can be read as part of this). When we see Klenzendorf at the end, he's in his element, living out his fantasy. But... that's his fantasy. He can only be what he wants to be in war.

You put this together, and the character of Klenzendorf supports what I think is the movie's main criticism, which is that Naziism is hypocritical and superficial and shallow. They preach courage and virtuous masculinity, but they're actually confused and weak. And... that's not really the salient problem with Naziism. Like, the problem with the ideology of fantastical, all-consuming rule-by-murder is not that it doesn't live up to its ideals.

Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..
This reminds me that we don't actually see Klenzendorf die. For a movie which has its first message be "don't look away," it sure doesn't show you much.

Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer

Hand Knit posted:

This brings us to the other part. Else tells Jojo that he's not really a Nazi, he's just a little boy who likes playing dress-up and wants to belong to something. Klenzendorf is what Jojo's future if he stays in the Nazi party. He never really grows up and gets stuck in a state of arrested development (I think that Klenzendorf's suppressed gay relationship can be read as part of this). When we see Klenzendorf at the end, he's in his element, living out his fantasy. But... that's his fantasy. He can only be what he wants to be in war.

You put this together, and the character of Klenzendorf supports what I think is the movie's main criticism, which is that Naziism is hypocritical and superficial and shallow. They preach courage and virtuous masculinity, but they're actually confused and weak. And... that's not really the salient problem with Naziism. Like, the problem with the ideology of fantastical, all-consuming rule-by-murder is not that it doesn't live up to its ideals.

You could also say Klenzendorf has nothing else to do but take his desserts in front of the firing squad. He is good at being a soldier. It's his identity. (He's suppressed the rest.) He's on the losing team, knows it, and is already boozing away his feelings of being a has-been who's about to lose the only thing he excels at: war.

Really, the movie seems to posit there are two types of people: those who can kill the rabbit whether they want to or not, and those that can't or won't kill the rabbit. Klenzendorf can kill the rabbit, Jojo can't kill the rabbit and Elsa and Rosie won't kill the rabbit. Maybe that's three?

Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Feb 20, 2020

TrixRabbi
Aug 20, 2010

Time for a little robot chauvinism!

fenix down posted:

That being said, if someone came away with the read of "very fine people on both sides" I can see how/why it would be upsetting.

I think this is how the movie comes off. It's not that you can't have complex or even sympathetic depictions of Nazis, it's just that it feels like it lacks the nuance necessary to handle this depiction. In many ways, Klenzendorf should still be condemned for his complicity even if he's ultimately conflicted and sympathetic in certain ways. Again, it comes back to the movie not being nearly angry or mean enough about the core issues of hate and fascism and tries too hard to empathize with certain figures in the Nazi war effort while painting the rest as cartoonish buffoons. On his own, Klenzendorf is an interesting character worth exploring, but in context with the rest of the movie it feels like one more check in the film's attempt to hug it all out.

Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer
What fate would you find more fitting for Klenzendorf? He's been disrobed of his costume and shot to death by a firing squad like he's just some simple soldier, no honor or recognition of any "heroism"

The focal point is always Jojo, a 10 year old boy. We never* stray from his perspective on the events. Jojo isn't angry or mean, so I feel like anything more severe would be jarring. Another example: ScarJo's death is the heaviest the movie gets, and all we see are her shoes. The movie could show us her grotesque face to show the weight of her actions and the horror of the nazis, but it would be out of place.

*correct me if I'm wrong

TrixRabbi
Aug 20, 2010

Time for a little robot chauvinism!

It's not the fate of the character I take issue with, it's the overall arc and tone of the film itself. Again, I appreciate the commitment to showing Jojo's idealized point of view, but I still feel that the film veers too much into a warm, fuzzy area that wants too hard to find the good in people in one of history's darkest moment, and it strikes me as dishonest or at least misguided (again, I keep repeating it, the Love Trumps Hate mindset). If anything, I'm fine with Klenzendorf's character, it's Jojo I take the most exception to. I think were the film more brutal and more angry in its approach, we wouldn't need to argue whether Klenzendorf is too sympathetic. We would see this sympathetic figure, but we would more acutely feel the level to which he has collaborated in genocide.

I keep seeing people say the movie is not actually about Nazis, which I don't think is accurate. What I'd more acutely say is that it's a film set with the backdrop of The Holocaust that isn't actually about The Holocaust. Think about a film like Schindler's List, which I feel is actually quite excellent but has been fairly criticized as not being about 6 million people who died but about 1,000 people who lived. It's an incredibly hopeful movie that finds the good in people who had been Nazi collaborators, but it also never shies away from the brutality and injustice. Now, that's a drama and Jojo Rabbit is a comedy, so how do you translate that? I think Jojo Rabbit is not nearly acidic enough, it's not angry, it doesn't recognize or reconcile the realities of Nazi Germany, anti-Semitism, fascism and hate. The indoctrination Jojo has received is depicted as silly (literally believing in horned demonic Jews and having a goofy buddy buddy Hitler as his imaginary friend) and it sinks away too easily. It's not that Jojo is culpable in being brainwashed from childhood, it's that the movie doesn't really get at just how evil that is and how hard it is to overcome.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Like the thing is even Klenzendorf's ideal version of a "good soldier" is still -- like Fran correctly points out -- someone who murders people by shooting them in the loving face. It's a monstrous thing to just decide to be a conscienceless soldier who follows orders to the end for the sake of some bizarre notion of honor, and the movie doesn't really come down nearly as harshly as it could on this by showing some of the brutal things this philosophy leads to.

It's basically like "well this guy is just a career soldier, he doesn't really believe any of this asinine poo poo". But then the moment where he is in a stupid outfit firing on the enemy -- surrounded by literal child soldiers and terrified civilians -- the enemy he is fighting is notably off screen* so you don't see the ugly poo poo he has to do as a guy "just following orders". Also I would have preferred if he didn't "save" Jojo, because that's too close to the honorable death he desired; the American soldiers could have just sent Jojo away since he's like 10 or whatever.

* at least my memory is pretty confident in this, please correct me if I'm full of poo poo

SimonCat
Aug 12, 2016

by Nyc_Tattoo
College Slice

SolarFire2 posted:

He's not a Nazi officer, he's a wermacht officer who got placed in the Nazi youth assignment because injury deemed him unfit for frontline combat. He clearly has no interest in Nazi ideology, he just pictures himself a loyal German soldier.

Ah yes, the myth of the "Clean Wermacht."

Also, Nazi ideology was so pervasive in German society that nearly 30 years after the war was over it was still possible to play "gotcha" and find out how many Old Comrades were in the audience.

Watch the first 20 seconds of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZq9OpHLY2U

SimonCat fucked around with this message at 22:31 on Feb 20, 2020

Horizon Burning
Oct 23, 2019
:discourse:
It's a bad film and it's only surviving on nerd praise because it's made by the Ragnarok guy.

Ratios and Tendency
Apr 23, 2010

:swoon: MURALI :swoon:


Hand Knit posted:

This reminds me that we don't actually see Klenzendorf die. For a movie which has its first message be "don't look away," it sure doesn't show you much.

It's intended to be a family film. The most important audience is young people who are going to have to start navigating alt-right/Nazi poo poo online.

e/people seem really determined to misunderstand this movie, it's weird.

Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer

Horizon Burning posted:

It's a bad film and it's only surviving on nerd praise because it's made by the Ragnarok guy.

I mean, I like Ragnarok, it's fine, but I don't give a poo poo about MCU. I like Jojo Rabbit enough, and there's plenty to discuss about it. I don't have to do mental gymnastics to justify that.

Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..

Ratios and Tendency posted:

It's intended to be a family film. The most important audience is young people who are going to have to start navigating alt-right/Nazi poo poo online.

e/people seem really determined to misunderstand this movie, it's weird.

This doesn't resolve the mismatch between the Rosie's/the film's purported message - "don't look away" - and the dearth of what we see. The climactic scene where Jojo finally sees the Reich for what it is - a shambolic, inglorious mess - doesn't do well to match Rose's earlier words since her point is that we cannot look away from the brutality. (And it's a good point, for Rosie and the movie, since it acts as a counterpoint to the fun at the camp.)

I agree that we see from Jojo's perspective, and that this is what his juvenile mind focuses on, but this makes for a thematically shaky movie.

Ratios and Tendency
Apr 23, 2010

:swoon: MURALI :swoon:


Hand Knit posted:

This doesn't resolve the mismatch between the Rosie's/the film's purported message - "don't look away" - and the dearth of what we see. The climactic scene where Jojo finally sees the Reich for what it is - a shambolic, inglorious mess - doesn't do well to match Rose's earlier words since her point is that we cannot look away from the brutality. (And it's a good point, for Rosie and the movie, since it acts as a counterpoint to the fun at the camp.)

I agree that we see from Jojo's perspective, and that this is what his juvenile mind focuses on, but this makes for a thematically shaky movie.

This all hinges on "don't look away" being "the film's purported message", which I don't agree with at all.

TheOmegaWalrus
Feb 3, 2007

by Hand Knit
If the film absolutely needs to be summed up in a few words, those words are "Nazis were silly, silly human beings".

I feel that had Waititi gone full Mel Brooks absurdity-mode with the film, there would be less SJW's harping on about the various micro-offenses every little joke affords.

When a film is so far-out, so fantastically absurd it's almost impossible to be offended. Who in their right minds were offended at Blazing Saddles? History of the World? Spaceballs?

Mel Brooks flat out used hate-speech in those films and it's therapeutic.

Like I said before, he should have gone all-in.

SimonCat
Aug 12, 2016

by Nyc_Tattoo
College Slice

TheOmegaWalrus posted:

I feel that had Waititi gone full Mel Brooks absurdity-mode with the film, there would be less SJW's harping on about the various micro-offenses every little joke affords.

Did you just use SJWs unironically?

Darko
Dec 23, 2004

I think people are overlooking that the "message" of the movie was to paint Nazis as complete jokes to deflate the power from them. Nazis can look at Schindler's List and cheer for Amon, even if hes clearly painted as a sloppy sociopath that desperately wants to fit in. Its impossible to cheer for Nazis in JoJo because they are made out to be pathetic idiots, which they are. Idiots that did horrible things, but still jokes, and should be seen as the jokes that they are.

Horizon Burning
Oct 23, 2019
:discourse:
The Nazis killed twelve million people. There's a difference between removing their power and doing 'Wacky Hitler Imaginary Friend XDDD: The Movie.'

Captain Jesus
Feb 26, 2009

What's wrong with you? You don't even have your beer goggles on!!

Guy A. Person posted:

Also I would have preferred if he didn't "save" Jojo, because that's too close to the honorable death he desired; the American soldiers could have just sent Jojo away since he's like 10 or whatever.


I'm pretty sure it was russian soldiers who were executing the german soldiers. History nerds will probably correct me, but I don't think american and russian soldiers were liberating any cities together. The filmmakers probably didn't want to/weren't allowed to show american soldiers executing prisoners so they had to shoehorn in russian soldiers to have that scene.

Ratios and Tendency
Apr 23, 2010

:swoon: MURALI :swoon:


Horizon Burning posted:

The Nazis killed twelve million people. There's a difference between removing their power and doing 'Wacky Hitler Imaginary Friend XDDD: The Movie.'

That's a gross misrepresentation of the film.

Ogmius815
Aug 25, 2005
centrism is a hell of a drug

Captain Jesus posted:

I'm pretty sure it was russian soldiers who were executing the german soldiers. History nerds will probably correct me, but I don't think american and russian soldiers were liberating any cities together. The filmmakers probably didn't want to/weren't allowed to show american soldiers executing prisoners so they had to shoehorn in russian soldiers to have that scene.

They were all American. There weren’t any actual Russian soldiers in the movie, although the characters do repeatedly talk about Russians.

TrixRabbi
Aug 20, 2010

Time for a little robot chauvinism!

SimonCat posted:

Ah yes, the myth of the "Clean Wermacht."

Also, Nazi ideology was so pervasive in German society that nearly 30 years after the war was over it was still possible to play "gotcha" and find out how many Old Comrades were in the audience.

Just in case people don't know what this is referring to here's a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_clean_Wehrmacht

Klenzendorf is 100% the Clean Wehrmacht and that's the perfect way to describe the character.

Ratios and Tendency posted:

It's intended to be a family film. The most important audience is young people who are going to have to start navigating alt-right/Nazi poo poo online.

e/people seem really determined to misunderstand this movie, it's weird.

I really hate this bullshit "determined to misunderstand" characterization. We're laying out legitimate criticisms of how this movie handles the material and I understand its intentions perfectly fine. Ok, maybe the movie can do some good for kids who see it young enough and are warned away from online racism because of it, I'll give you that. But then again, it's barely a step above The Boy with the Striped Pajamas. There are far better, more honest ways of tackling the Holocaust and the point is that it is ultimately dishonest in how touchy feely it seeks to be, and by how benign it ultimately makes racism appear. Racism here is seeing Jews as literal monsters with horns and fangs, it does nothing to actually explore anti-Semitic tropes or why they're spread.

SolarFire2
Oct 16, 2001

"You're awefully cute, but unfortunately for you, you're made of meat." - Meat And Sarcasm Guy!

Ogmius815 posted:

They were all American. There weren’t any actual Russian soldiers in the movie, although the characters do repeatedly talk about Russians.

The soldiers who take Jojo prisoner at the end are absolutely Russian. You can tell by their uniforms and weapons.

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zer0spunk
Nov 6, 2000

devil never even lived
I thought it was a solid C to B- type of flick. Sam Rockwell stands out for sure...even scarjo who I really dislike as an actor was alright here and used sparingly thankfully. It wasn't as good as I thought it would be based on taikas other stuff, but it's still not a bad film or anything. Just kinda eh.
It kinda feels like the last scene was thought of early on and the rest of the flick then became a blueprint to get there in a semi-realistic fashion.

I didn't hate it, but I wouldn't go out of my way to rewatch it. The message it had wasn't really anything poignant or new, but kudos for making a nazi film that has heart I guess?

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