skull_bearer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
skull_bearer) wrote2012-11-22 01:03 am
skull_bearer) wrote2012-11-22 01:03 am
THIS FILM IS AWESOME!
Seriouly, Escape from Sobibor is in the running to be my favourite (non documentary) Holocaust film ever. It finally gets it right. Everything about that film is right. The characters are right, the setting is right, the Nazis are right (in that they fit the setting, not that- oh never mind). It all just works, and after watching one film after another that trips into the same pratfalls of Holocaust representation, it's a joy to see one that just does it right.
This isn't just an issue of films, books have the same problem. I call it the Narrative Space Problem. It come into effect because due to setting constraints, if you make your main characters Jews, it makes it really hard to have a working, satisfying story. The characters just don't have the Narrative Space and freedom necessary to be able to act and react ina way that makes them valid protagonists. They're too busy trying to stay alive, instead of having the time to do stuff to keep the plot going. The result is that either you have no plot per say (see Village of a Million Spirits and The Grey Zone for examples. Warning, incredibly depressing and ungodly boring is not a good combination), or, like most, they just steer clear of having Jewish main characters at all, with bring it's own metric ton of issues.
Escape From Sobibor somehow manages to avoid these pits and pulls out a really good, intruiging, heartwrenching, heartwarming story. It doesn't pull it's shots, one of the reasons it's got such a huge cast of characters was so some of them might be alive by the end! It has a great plot structure, with a slow and steady build up leading to one of the best fist-pumping YES! climaxes of any film I've seen for a long while. There was this great last shot of the acting-kommandant's face at the end, when you can see it's just sinking in that he's just so fucked up and Berlin is going to have his arse on a platter for this, and although half the cast just died in front of you you're just laughing because that basterd deserves it so. Damn. Much.
Also, apparently, this film was very concerned about historical accuracy, and had asked a survivor of Sobibor to work with them to tell them if they were getting it right. When they were filming the breakout scene, the poor sod suddenly had a flashback and went tearing off into the woods, thinking he was back forty years ago. They found him in the ditch the next morning having lost his glasses and not being too sure where (or when) he was.
This isn't just an issue of films, books have the same problem. I call it the Narrative Space Problem. It come into effect because due to setting constraints, if you make your main characters Jews, it makes it really hard to have a working, satisfying story. The characters just don't have the Narrative Space and freedom necessary to be able to act and react ina way that makes them valid protagonists. They're too busy trying to stay alive, instead of having the time to do stuff to keep the plot going. The result is that either you have no plot per say (see Village of a Million Spirits and The Grey Zone for examples. Warning, incredibly depressing and ungodly boring is not a good combination), or, like most, they just steer clear of having Jewish main characters at all, with bring it's own metric ton of issues.
Escape From Sobibor somehow manages to avoid these pits and pulls out a really good, intruiging, heartwrenching, heartwarming story. It doesn't pull it's shots, one of the reasons it's got such a huge cast of characters was so some of them might be alive by the end! It has a great plot structure, with a slow and steady build up leading to one of the best fist-pumping YES! climaxes of any film I've seen for a long while. There was this great last shot of the acting-kommandant's face at the end, when you can see it's just sinking in that he's just so fucked up and Berlin is going to have his arse on a platter for this, and although half the cast just died in front of you you're just laughing because that basterd deserves it so. Damn. Much.
Also, apparently, this film was very concerned about historical accuracy, and had asked a survivor of Sobibor to work with them to tell them if they were getting it right. When they were filming the breakout scene, the poor sod suddenly had a flashback and went tearing off into the woods, thinking he was back forty years ago. They found him in the ditch the next morning having lost his glasses and not being too sure where (or when) he was.
no subject
I'm hoping to visit Riga next year- an Estonian friend on here is willing to act as guide to the bits the tourists don't see.