I'm quite disappointed that Axel terminates the life of his grandfather. Now he has blood on his hands too.
Wouldn't it have been better if he had confronted his grandfather? Like 'Hey gramps, I am a fag*ot. Isn't it a pity that the war is over, otherwise you could have sent me to the gas chamber as well.' Probably would have finished the old bastard off as well.
I don't know, I liked it. It showed a different side to him than the outgoing, happy go lucky guy, who I loved. Also, the grandfather was so old that I'm not sure it would have made a difference to him. It didn't bother me.
"Also, I can kill you with my brain."
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Aha?
It never occured to me that Axel and Ayal might get fysical after the consoling part. Am I being naive or is your thought an example of wishful thinking?
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I am compelled to disagree with this analysis. First, Axel did care for Eyal, but this is not why he would kill his own grandfather. He killed his own grandfather because of what he represented and what he did. Don't forget that his own sister would not return to Germany once she found out about her grandfather. This would have a much more profound impact on Axel than some tour guide that treated him like crap while in Israel.
On a completely different topic, one thing that was dissappointing to me was this theme about getting the grandfather before God did. Well, the way I see it, God did get him in the end. He died of natural causes. What Axel did was merely accelerate the process God had put in place.
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I think Eyal is a complex, multi-layered character experiencing a profound period in his life. His Sexuality is in focus, but no more than any other area of his development.
Thanx for the link tomtrueman- but, I must say that I think you dismiss his feelings toward Pia too readily. As much as I enjoyed watching him stumble towards deepening feelings for Axel, I was no less enjoying his inablilty to restrain himself from asking after Axels sister. He seems to have a palpable interest in both.
This display is quite common in the realms of bisexuality, and the way in which male to male versus male to female pursuit is enacted... especially considering EYAL's (not the director or the actors) machismo.
You could argue that Eyal is restrained by his cultural/social/emotional hang-ups, but I prefer to think that we were lucky enough to be presented with a character that was ambiguity personified- and all the more REAL because of it.
I was maybe surprised by the murder of Axel's grandfather by his grandson, however, I feel it was understandable from the viewpoint of his family burden.
I have also the feeling that the picture is positioning Axel into a role of resembling Jesus / God. It is not only the walking on water. For me, it was mostly the scene with his sleeping grandpa. His peaceful sleep, while a "hand" is carressing his face. To me, this hand does not belong to Axel but it is the hand of God... and in that movement, he forgives... even that Axel does not.
Just my 2 cents.
Axel hated the Nazis. Remember when he said Eyan "should have killed him" meaning the neo_nazi skinhead, and his comments about them. He felt the same way about his grandfather, whom he had never seen, therefore was distanced from him. I think also, he cared for Eyan and did it for him, maybe?
shareAxel's family was horrible (only his sister seems to be quite 'normal'). I still remember when he sayed to Eyal that he isn't interested in a German lover/boyfriend… sounds very self-hating to me.
share(This is a reply to Tomtrueman's of 11 may)
I am still not convinced that Axel and Ayel had sex together. And if they have I was for the need of attention and comfort and not out of love.
The way Ayel behaved is not because he had fallen in love with Axel, but because he hadn't anticipated that Axel might be gay. Ayel is genuinly shocked to find out, but tries to keep his neutral posture -and fails doing that.
I don't buy the gay fantasy that straight guys might have some hidden gay part inside. This would imply that gay men have a straight part inside them, but gay men rarely fall for a woman.
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Did you read the linked article where the director himself says the two men fell in love? It's a bit hard to argue with that.
I don't see anywhere in the article where they specifically say that the 2 characters in the movie had a homosexual relationship. Maybe I missed it? The guy that the movie was based on had an affair with someone at a University or something, but this movie isn't necessarily a carbon copy of the actual events around the real person. The whole "Gay German with Nazi Grandpa" is totally fabricated as far as I can tell. So I don't know how you can say without a doubt that the characters had a sexual affair. The movie certainly shows them reaching an emotional connection of some kind but it didn't strike me as anything sexual. He was there to do a mission and that was the sole reason he went to Berlin, not because he had some sort of sexual awakening.
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"Lior Ashkenazi, who played said tough Mossad agent, has himself talked on Israeli TV about the affair that he had with another man before he married Shira Farber."
i saw the interview with Lior Ashkenazi, and he never said he had an "affair". he said that when he was in his early 20's or something like that, he fooled around with a friend this one time when they were both drunk. it wasn't a relationship, love or anything like that. just a little experimenting, a one-time thing.
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Axel is a German he is born with blood on his hands.
The Nightrider!!! That is his name...the Nightrider. Remember him when you look at the night sky!
I think Eyal is a complex, multi-layered character experiencing a profound period in his life. His Sexuality is in focus, but no more than any other area of his development.
Thanx for the link tomtrueman- but, I must say that I think you dismiss his feelings toward Pia too readily. As much as I enjoyed watching him stumble towards deepening feelings for Axel, I was no less enjoying his inablilty to restrain himself from asking after Axels sister. He seems to have a palpable interest in both.
This display is quite common in the realms of bisexuality, and the way in which male to male versus male to female pursuit is enacted... especially considering EYAL's (not the director or the actors) machismo.
You could argue that Eyal is restrained by his cultural/social/emotional hang-ups, but I prefer to think that we were lucky enough to be presented with a character that was ambiguity personified- and all the more REAL because of it.
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When he was leaving to take Axel to the airport, she says, "Well, you have my number. If you're ever in the area..." (Hint, hint.) And what does Eyal do? He glumly replies, "Okay. Thanks" and looks away. That certainly looked like indifference to me.
Well by that logic, when Axel gives him HIS number and address at the airport, Eyal couldn't have looked more disinterested. It seemed pretty clear that he was glad to wash his hands of both of them and get on with his life. Which makes the ending all the more ridiculous. It wasn't until the Grandfather surfaced that he showed any signs of wanting to go to Germany.
As a straight man, I probably would have acted the same way if someone took me to a loud disco, gay club where there were a bunch of sweaty shirtless men dirty dancing and glaring at me. It's just not my scene, and it obviously wasn't his. As for any jealousy there, I don't know. As someone stated above, I think you could argue that Eyal's reactions as he discovers Axel is gay are disgust as much as you could say they are jealously. That's how I saw the club scene, not as jealousy, but as him wanting to get the F out of there and a bit creeped out by Axel, this guy who he had a naked shower on the beach with, was a gay man. I think that would be a typical homophobic reaction.
Frankly, I found it hard to believe that Eyal had feelings for either person. I thought the hug on the bed at the end was kind of silly, but I could see that he was having a bit of a mental breakdown and that he probably would have grabbed onto anyone who walked into the room at that point. Although I thought Eyal went back to his own room, I don't rememeber it being Axel's room. In either case, it didn't strike me as a particularly romantic gesture. His speech was about not wanting to kill anymore, there wasn't any sort of hint that he was having a change of sexual identity. And the very ending with Pia, like you said, was even more ridiculous.
Amen, brother!
shareI quite agree with you robinhendrix, "ambiguity" being the operative word here.
As an answer to all the previous comments expressing disappointement since apparently a lot of wiewers felt shortchanged by the seemingly conservative closure, I'd just like to add that even though I can understand your frustration one shouldn't necesseraly equate the refrain from the portrayal of a sexual relationship between the two main characters with a homophobia induced, commercial cop out (and believe me it has nothing to do with denial, at least on my part).
I, for one, didn't feel there was any pernicious political angle in the handling of the two leads' relationship...although more often than not it doesn't take much to tick me off in films specially regarding the treatment of gender and genre .
It's true that seemingly straight men can have a very passionate love affair with another man while still loving sex with women .. (i've seen it around me actually, it's not that common but it happened to some of my closest friends who are happily "settled" in a long-lasting, open bisexual arrangement) That's precisely because, -in my opinion and in my own personal experience- sexuality, if anything, is fluid and can't be neatly labelled despite what we're commonly led to believe (and not just by the straight majority)Nothing is certain...and that also goes the other way; why is it so appalling that eyal should be portrayed as still straight in the end? It's only his sexual
orientation, it doesn't make his personal journey and self-realisation any less real just as it doesn't make his relationship with axel any less meaningful.
A few of the posters have put forward the sexuality of the makers of the film and the true story as undeniable proof of their original intent concerning the relationship of the characters.If you have seen Eytan Fox's previous films do you really think he would have refrained from showing a controvertial sexual affair between his male protagonists? He has done it before and he has done it since in his latest film "the bubble" , so for me It was obviously their choice not to go there.
Fortunately gay filmakers don't only deal with gay relationships and why should that be a problem?( especially now that the lack of representation of gay male characters in films is less urgent than it used to be?
I guess my point is that human relations are too complex for romantic attachment to be the only interesting outcome between two fictional characters. It's a shame that passionate frienships which can be just as intense as romantic love even though they're not sexually connoted are seldom explored on screen and are usually supplanted by the need to fulfill our romantic expectations in fiction.
And surely a friendship between a straight and a gay man is unique and compelling in its own right isn't it?
Anyway it's always a good sign if a movie leaves a lot to the interpretation of the viewer don't you think? I'm not even sure that Axel was really romantically interested in Eyal beyong a generic physical attraction.
The end was a bit hurried and too neat I agree , but mainly for narrative inconsistancy .
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>'Hey gramps, I am a fag*ot. Isn't it a pity that the war is over, otherwise you >could have sent me to the gas chamber as well.'
It really would be nice if you people READ history before commenting. One of the higher-ranking officials in the Nazi party was a homosexual.
And by the racial purity standards of the Nazi regime, Hitler should have been labeled a Jew. What's your point?
The FACT remains that gay men were persecuted by the Nazis, imprisioned, many sent to concentration camps. If you want to pretend otherwise, be my guest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_homosexual_people_in_Nazi_Germany_and_the_Holocaust
I think Axel killed his grandfather for two reasons:
1. As has been said, he was doing it for Eyal. He understands Eyal can't do it (and Axel probably knows subconciously that Eyal is Mossad since the subway scene) and so he does it on Eyal's behalf, the ultimate favor, which leads to Eyal's final redeption
2. As Axel rubs off on Eyal (no pun intended) and Eyal sheds his hard, macho Israeli shell for a softer, more emotional one, Eyal rubs of on Axel, who understands the drive for violence and vengeance. I think the scene in the subway, where Axel says "You should have killed him" shows that transformation.
"Axel probably knows subconciously that Eyal is Mossad since the subway scene"
True. And since he opened the dossier that Eyal had on him and his family, Eyal knows by this point CONSCIOUSLY that Eyal is Mossad.
What I found fascinating about the death-of-grandfather scene is that Axel just stood there waiting to see what Eyal would do, and saw that he could no longer kill. Axel doesn't exactly kill his grandfather, he just lets him (probably) die. We are never told for sure that grandfather is dead. And if he is dead can you imagine the recriminations the next morning? Who did it?
I agree with Axel's mother. The family shouldn't be responsible for whatever his Grandfather dead. Let the old man die in peace.
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Why isn't the world concerned with hunting down every Japanese soldier who was allegedly ever a guard at any POW camp or involved in any massacre in China? Why does the US DOJ have an "Office of Special Investigations" just to find old Nazis, and not Japanese or Russian war ciminals? Think about it. The Jewish lobby has done a very good job. Other people suffered as well.
People all over the world committed war crimes in WWII. And I'm sorry, there is no way that feeble old man is the same person he was when he was a young person brough up in Nazi Germany. If had protested then he would have been shot.
Just leave them alone.
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Unfortunately, "just following orders" is a valid defense sometimes. Believe me, if you had been a soldier and had been ordered by the Nazi regime to stand watch outside a concentration camp, who would you have put first--your life and probably that of your family (imprisoned or shot) or the lives of people you didn't even know.
That is why it is unfair to go after every single person "associated with" some Nazi atrocity, particulary when several members of the Japanese military who committed war crimes (beheading Allied prisoners, eating livers, raping China) served openly in the Japanese Diet and/or became successful businessmen without "Nazi hunters" running around the country looking for them.
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Depends on your definition of 'going after' war criminals. Are you condemning only extra-judicial, vigilante-type killings (like in the movie), or are you also against having them go to trial in the legal system? At least in the US, there is no statute of limitations for murder (how much more so, mass-murder) - should there be?
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