Well just wanted to comment on this since I just saw the movie and was wondering whether I was the only one who was disapointed about it.
One and a half week ago I went to Poland and walked around at Auschwitz myself. I was very moved, even though we were rushed through the camps in quite a high speed with lots and lots of other visitors behind me and in front of me. It didn't give me the chance to reflect on where I actually was, but the exhibition and the tour guide (and the internet) luckily did give lots of information. So after processing all of it, it actually was a very moving and impressive experience for me.
So basically I did 'recognise' a lot in the scenes, I knew what the dreadful task of the Sondernkommando was, that there were Capo's, the way people were gassed, how they disposed of the ashes etc. But still...I just couldn't get moved by this movie!
I do have to say I had some really bad subtitles which made the conversations and some scenes quite hard to follow as well, but that wasn't the only reason.
First of all I get that Saul might have lost his mind somehow, but if he really thought this was his son, I would have at least expected to see some emotion in his face and his behaviour. I didn't see any of that. Actually, even if he just tried to make himself believe this was his son I would have expected to see more emotion than this!
Secondly I found his way of getting around the campsite thát easily (and in the last couple of scenes even with a dead body on his shoulder!) just too implausible. I think in reality he would have been shot a 100 times already before the end of the movie. Also the fact that he totally screwed up multiple times and those other Sondernkommando members kept on sort of forgiving him and helping him was quite implausible for me as well.
And then thirdly the close-up way of filming, which led to a vague and chaotic exterior view so you could hardly see what was actually going on, annoyed me as well. Maybe it works for other people, but not for me. It totally distracted me and I couldn't really get "sucked into the film" as I would probably have if it was filmed from a 'normal' point of view. But maybe that's because my mind just works in a very graphic way, I don't know..
If only Saul would have showed some emotion on that constantly close-up filmed face it might have worked a bit better, but now I just felt I was watching a person who numbingly let himself be pushed from one place to another while acting erratically every now again..
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