Our Favorite Villains
In his book Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and sometimes Zeppo, Joe Adamson notes that the bad guys in A Night In Casablanca (1946) are Nazis. He goes on to say (and I'm paraphrasing), "The Nazis, though recently defeated, were about to embark on a long and eventful career as the most convenient villains in cinema, one that will probably stretch far into the next century."
Man, he wasn't kidding. It would be almost impossible to list all of the movies in which Nazis were either the main adversaries or a major part of the story, right up to present day. Films as diverse as the Indiana Jones series, The Blues Brothers ("I hate Illinois Nazis"), and The Boys From Brazil all mine the same territory when it comes to the bad guys.
The fact that so many talented actors/writers/directors/producers, from Irving Thalberg to Mel Brooks to Steven Spielberg, have been Jewish I'm sure has something to do with it. But I think the larger reason is that to most people with a sense of history, Hitler and his minions personify evil with no redeeming virtues. Once in a blue moon, there is a sympathetic portrayal of a Nazi character but such portrayals are few and far between.
Mel Brooks in particular seems to have a fixation on Nazis that borders on obsession. It almost seems to be some sort of ongoing therapy for him to mock and ridicule them, and at his best, he does so very successfully, as in The Producers, with its wonderfully warped Broadway show, 'Springtime For Hitler.'
On the serious side, there is an enduring storyline in thrillers and mysteries that the Nazis are still among us, still worshipping Hitler and still plotting to rule the world. Perhaps they, using the 'convenient' theory Adamson mentioned, are more allegorical than authentic, an easily recognizable embodiment of evil that is always there to threaten us.
I think it says something about cinema and human nature in general that Nazis have been able to fit into so many kinds of films, from the wildest comedies to the most serious and scary flicks. Maybe there's something cathartic in it for all of us, not just Mel Brooks.
Man, he wasn't kidding. It would be almost impossible to list all of the movies in which Nazis were either the main adversaries or a major part of the story, right up to present day. Films as diverse as the Indiana Jones series, The Blues Brothers ("I hate Illinois Nazis"), and The Boys From Brazil all mine the same territory when it comes to the bad guys.
The fact that so many talented actors/writers/directors/producers, from Irving Thalberg to Mel Brooks to Steven Spielberg, have been Jewish I'm sure has something to do with it. But I think the larger reason is that to most people with a sense of history, Hitler and his minions personify evil with no redeeming virtues. Once in a blue moon, there is a sympathetic portrayal of a Nazi character but such portrayals are few and far between.
Mel Brooks in particular seems to have a fixation on Nazis that borders on obsession. It almost seems to be some sort of ongoing therapy for him to mock and ridicule them, and at his best, he does so very successfully, as in The Producers, with its wonderfully warped Broadway show, 'Springtime For Hitler.'
On the serious side, there is an enduring storyline in thrillers and mysteries that the Nazis are still among us, still worshipping Hitler and still plotting to rule the world. Perhaps they, using the 'convenient' theory Adamson mentioned, are more allegorical than authentic, an easily recognizable embodiment of evil that is always there to threaten us.
I think it says something about cinema and human nature in general that Nazis have been able to fit into so many kinds of films, from the wildest comedies to the most serious and scary flicks. Maybe there's something cathartic in it for all of us, not just Mel Brooks.
posted by gbj at 4:13 PM
5 Comments:
Brooks has said he sometimes gets heat for making Hitler a figure of fun. He dismisses this criticism and says he earned the right, having fought in WWII, to make Der Fuhrer look as stupid as possible, which as you note he considers one type of victory over such evil. I can see that but I can also see how anyone with personal experience of the death camps might not feel like laughing.
2002's "Sum of All Fears" shows the USA and Russia in a showdown orchestrated by, guess who, neo-Nazis who hope the two superpowers will destroy one another so the Fourth Reich can take over the world. Originally the treachery was planned by middle easteners but the show's producers thought (it was made prior to 9/11) that no one in the middle east could pull off such a plot (a nuclear weapon goes off at the SuperBowl).
Yes,the Nazis are recognized by most people as the epitome of evil, but it still shocks the hell out of me to find people who support them, or Holocaust deniers.
Loved "The Producers," BTW. Brooks and Nathan Lane are an unbeatable combination, in my book.
Yeah, it amazes me when I hear people say, in effect, that Hitler wouldn't have been such a bad guy if only he hadn't (fill in the blank). It's like people who say the KKK would be fine if they didn't hate (and here they select the particular ethnic or religious group they belong to). Must be nice to have the ability to be so selective with your indignation! As long as the tyrants and hate-mongers leave THEM alone, everything's fine.
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
~~ a favorite of mine, by Pastor Martin Niemoller
I'd never read that, or if I did, I don't remember it. Too many people sat on their hands. Churchill kept trying to tell the Brits but for the longest time, no one would listen to him.
Fear is a big motivating factor to not do anything.
Yeah, Niemoller was sent to the camps but (obviously) survived. The lessons to be learned from WWII are legion.
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