MovieChat Forums > Zwartboek (2007) Discussion > She didn't learn anything...

She didn't learn anything...

posted 16 years ago by Unitedite
44 replies | jump to latest

Spoilers.

Towards the end of the film, Ellis suffers unjustified treatment at the hands of the barbaric victors who accuse her of being a collaborator. She's beaten, sexually assaulted, covered in excrement. After she escapes this, she's almost murdered by Gerben* for the death of his son, when the fact is she risked her life to save him. Ellis knows better than anyone everything that's wrong about the notion of revenge.

And yet, when she gets the chance to murder someone in revenge she takes it eagerly. I was surprised - I thought the film would end with her opening the coffin, handing Hans over. Sadly, she hasn't learnt from her experiences. She's just as bad as everybody else.

*OK he never gets close, but he would have killed her given the chance

[–] imperceptus_veritas 11 years ago

Unitedite is obviously not a very realistic person. What do you think would happen if she let him go? It is called self defense by the way.

[–] PsychiatricPezDispenser 9 years ago

Then you picked up exactly the wrong theme of the film. The theme, plain and simple, was: don't assume that one is good or evil based on who they are... or that one is entirely good or entirely evil. Not: revenge is bad.

[–] dr-kandimba-1 9 years ago

I thought this comment was spot-on. I wouldn't put things this way, though, as I find it hard to judge people who survived the immense suffering inherent to nazism and WWII. Rather, I think the movie (as I interpreted it) shows how violence generates violence, how revenge merely perpetuates the cycle of violence and how the victims of today can be the aggressors of tomorrow. Notice also what Ellis does with the money that Hans stole: she donates it to israeli colonists, that were occupying palestinian land. And so the story repeats itself, now in the Middle East. The final scene was very clear about this, I think. So, in the end, the message of the movie is quite a pessimistic one, although realistic.

[–] CoSMiGoNoN 9 years ago

He killed her family and tried to kill her. I'd say she's within her God given right to kill him.

[–] Squeeth2 9 years ago

The most disgusting thing she did was turn zionist and do to Palestinians what the nazis had been doing to disabled people, Roma and Jews. I tried to give Verhoeven the benefit of the doubt the first time. I read it as an ironic statement that suffering doesn't make a person enlightened. The second viewing just looked shallow, a pot-boiler with the usual Hollywood apologetics for European fascists creating an apartheid colony in the Middle East. Not like the excellent Starship Troopers at all.

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