Comments on: No More Nazis for Me http://beautifulfutility.com/index.php/2008/12/31/no-more-nazis-for-me/ Cynicism is humor in ill health. H.G. Wells Thu, 08 Jul 2010 09:57:55 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: KevDog http://beautifulfutility.com/index.php/2008/12/31/no-more-nazis-for-me/comment-page-1/#comment-88 KevDog Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:38:53 +0000 http://beautifulfutility.com/?p=163#comment-88 Interesting point, Guy. I'm trying to come up with a clever way of what the difference is between Holocaust movies with a false sense of seriousness because of their setting and those with compelling characters that happen to be in the Holocaust. But honestly, I can't come with anything better than grief porn. Interesting point, Guy. I’m trying to come up with a clever way of what the difference is between Holocaust movies with a false sense of seriousness because of their setting and those with compelling characters that happen to be in the Holocaust.

But honestly, I can’t come with anything better than grief porn.

]]> By: Guy Yedwab http://beautifulfutility.com/index.php/2008/12/31/no-more-nazis-for-me/comment-page-1/#comment-87 Guy Yedwab Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:22:39 +0000 http://beautifulfutility.com/?p=163#comment-87 I agree wholeheartedly with your point, but I would like to put the Czech movie "Divided We Fall" alongside "Schindler's List" and "Life Is Beautiful." The reason is because "Divided We Fall" is decidedly not grief-porn--in fact, none of the main characters die and the actual fact of massive deaths is not in any way central to the plot. I also like it because it is largely /funny/--not in a way that trivializes the Holocaust, but funny in a way that is a /result/ of Nazi occupation. What I like about studying totalitarian periods and seeing art/movies (that are well done) about them is because sometimes the human character is far more interesting when it is pushed to the extreme. And as a lot of people discovered, when life is pushed to the extreme, it often becomes simply absurd. Schindler's List (and, although to a lesser extent, Life is Beautiful) disarms the audience's ability to laugh--constantly holding up the message "This was a horrible event." But "Divided We Fall" says, "Look at what people are actually like! Isn't that weird? Isn't that funny? Isn't that sad?" It's a much more well-rounded picture of what life under Nazis might have actually been like for a bunch of average people, rather than cruel insane dictators and innocent saintly victims. But yes. I'm sick of holocaust (and, to a certain extent, cancer) grief porn. I agree wholeheartedly with your point, but I would like to put the Czech movie “Divided We Fall” alongside “Schindler’s List” and “Life Is Beautiful.” The reason is because “Divided We Fall” is decidedly not grief-porn–in fact, none of the main characters die and the actual fact of massive deaths is not in any way central to the plot. I also like it because it is largely /funny/–not in a way that trivializes the Holocaust, but funny in a way that is a /result/ of Nazi occupation.

What I like about studying totalitarian periods and seeing art/movies (that are well done) about them is because sometimes the human character is far more interesting when it is pushed to the extreme. And as a lot of people discovered, when life is pushed to the extreme, it often becomes simply absurd.

Schindler’s List (and, although to a lesser extent, Life is Beautiful) disarms the audience’s ability to laugh–constantly holding up the message “This was a horrible event.” But “Divided We Fall” says, “Look at what people are actually like! Isn’t that weird? Isn’t that funny? Isn’t that sad?” It’s a much more well-rounded picture of what life under Nazis might have actually been like for a bunch of average people, rather than cruel insane dictators and innocent saintly victims.

But yes. I’m sick of holocaust (and, to a certain extent, cancer) grief porn.

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