MovieChat Forums > Saul fia (2015) Discussion > Saul's Behaviour

Saul's Behaviour

posted 9 years ago by sunbatt50
23 replies | jump to latest

The style of close-up filming worked for a few minutes in the beginning, then just became annoying.

Saul may have been insane, but I found most of hs actions so reckless, so self-centred and so ridiculous that it ruined the film.

He wandered into areas that were off limits, grabbed people or clothing with guards around, lost the "package" that was supposedly integral to their plan, hid the body, dug a grave, argued with others, and generally was so unreliable and risked eveyone's life so often it was implausible any other prisoner would even care about him, let alone help him, rely on him or try to help him.

In the situation they were in - he was a total liability.

[–] Vdcnsrg 9 years ago

My thoughts exactly.

[–] dauntless-1 9 years ago

I could not agree more. This movie is highly overrated. The constant use of close-ups destroyed it for me, in addition to "Saul's behavior."

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Kazak23 9 years ago

My take is, Saul cracked, and is not behaving rationally.

[–] throwntosafety 9 years ago

I think it's pretty obvious that Saul has lost it, but can you blame him? He's in a concentration camp and the only way he survives is by working FOR the Nazis by cleaning up the blood and vomit of their victims and looting their belongings, and he's just found his son's body among the people they've just murdered. He doesn't want his son burned but given a religious burial. Can you really blame him that he's lost his mind? How many corpses would you carry before you lost it a little bit?

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[–] Kazak23 9 years ago

I don't think it's his son though, that's one of the tip offs that he's off the deep end.

[–] MoviemanCin 9 years ago

He knew he was a dead man walking. Giving the boy a decent burial was his desperate attempt to salvage some dignity from the horror of his situation.

Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar, and / or doesn't.

[–] Fisherman82 9 years ago

That was not his son. He knew they were all dead so he wanted to do one "good" thing.

Raylan Givens: I'm going to need an ambulance, and a coroner.

[–] fowler-16 8 years ago

I agree as to it not being his son or at least not being *his* in a realistic sense. His delusion serves as a poetic alignment of his enormous feelings of the pain of his own victimization and the guilt he must take on as a pawn of the camp's overseers. Out of this comes a craving for hope, a need he cannot express any other way than to fasten on the kid as one pure thing that represents him, his people, and his humanity.
The child at the end intrigues me. The sight of this young Polish peasant brings a smile to our anti-hero's face. It is as if any young boy represents for him the hope he had placed in his "son," now a chance for a better future. But director Nemes is actually divesting "boyhood" of such symbolism, as he treats this kid ironically, as an innocent who's simply frightened by the shed filled with desperate looking men. His alarm serves to direct the German gunners to the fugitives, but he is too frightened to be part of anyone's story. He continues running, abandoning a role in the following action.

[–] thomas975 9 years ago

I always wonder about people who always comment on movies and say things like "why is he acting so weird?".Yea he doesnt act like you. He is in a concentration camp. Even the guards were insane. Just try to be in his shoes for a min, if it was me...I wouldnt give a damn about anything...screw it.

[–] Bluesir 9 years ago

It's very easy for us as the audience to criticise Saul's actions and see him as a selfish person. Life, however, is not that easy.

Saul, just like everyone else, is a man with his humanity stripped away from him. He is a dead man walking who happens across, as he sees it, an opportunity to fight for something moral and decent: giving a dead child a proper burial.

He is indeed risking the lives of the other prisoners by undertaking this task, but anyone who simply sees Saul as a bad person for this is simply missing the point.

It's far from black and white. It's a very nuanced film about highly complex subject matters.

The practice of gluing the performances of two different actors together needs to come to an end.

[–] uhriaheap69 8 years ago

Bluesir, you make some good points. The director was most likely on the same page as you. However, it did not work for me. I did not have any sympathy or empathy for him. I forgot about the Nazies being the villains and really felt strongly against Saul. I can assure you that is not my normal feeling when I watch a holocaust movie. There is no way I could watch this again. I am still not sure of what the point to the movie was, or worst yet not sure about my feelings, right, wrong I don't know.
Very strange movie indeed !

[–] vistula-579-906545 9 years ago

Indeed. In that kind of environment, everyone was being watched. Often the Sonderkommando were more brutal than the Germans. Saul couldn't have wandered off because he had 'something to do' without being observed and subsequently shot.

[–] at7000 9 years ago

Errr...I wish I could transport you back to Auschwitz, make you a sonderkommando, force you to feed people into gas chambers all day, and dispose of the bodies, inform you that you have about three months to live and then you yourself will be gassed to death, and lets see how your mental condition holds up.

You sir, are an idiot.

[–] Nightrider2 9 years ago

Absolutely agree. Posters and trailers make the film appear as if something heroic is going to happen. In reality the film is about a man who throws away his and other's lives just to complete illogical and suicidal task. He is not a hero.
http://www.youtube.com/user/viclis11?feature=mhee

[–] Nightrider2 9 years ago