I went to see Downfall last night, and I have to insist that everyone go out and see it right away. It is some seriously chilling stuff.



It is, as you shoud all know, the story of the last days of the Third Reich - has a fantastic lineup of history's greatest villains - and has come under fire for 'humanising' Hitler. In this review, the actor portraying Hitler makes the comment that, while he was making the film, he had come under fire for talking about Hitler without "the proper, politically correct distance." (Does anyone else see shades of He Who Must Not Be Named?) German director Wim Wenders claims that the audience walks away from the film with a "benevolent understanding" of the Nazis and of Hitler (find the quote here).

I think Wenders is wrong, but I think it's really true that the film humanises Hitler. Furthermore, I think it's a damn good thing.

Hands up who's been told Hitler was an inhuman monster? Yeah, me too. I've also been told that about Stalin, Pol Pot and Chairman Mao, as well as other characters from history whose names elude me for the moment.

Bullshit. What bullshit. Of course they're fucking human. What else might they be? (If anyone says monsters, I will organise to have you hunted for sport. Just so we're clear.)

I find this one of the most worrisome things about the history of atrocity - in fact, about the overwhelming majority of depictions of any kind of violence. Perpetrators of violence are often tagged as 'inhuman' - or, in milder cases, 'mad' or 'irrational' - and I can't help but feel that it's a cheap way of dodging the issue. By saying that the perpetrators of these actions are inhuman/irrational/whatever, what we're really saying is that these events are a complete anomaly. That the perpetrators are anomalies. That they're not US, and that they don't have anything in common with us, and we don't have anything in common with them.

In short, it's an easy way of refusing to engage with the scary issue that there's not that much difference between us ("humans") and them ("monsters").

Everyone's familiar with the work of Stanley Milgram, right? I shouldn't even have to tell you which experiment I'm talking about. It gets cited a lot when trying to explain why the rank-and-file members of the Nazi party acted as they did - and why 'we were ordered to do it' is such a completely acceptable reason. According to Milgram, between 61 and 66% of participants will administer (what they believe to be) fatal shocks to a stranger when instructed to by a mild-mannered scientist with a clipboard. Not without considerable emotional stress, but they will do it. I'm sure I don't need to point out that a guy with a gun has a little more authority than a guy with a clipboard.

Over the years, we've mostly come to terms with the fact that most of the Nazi party were just folks like you and me, doing what they were told to do. I think it does us a lot of good to come to terms with the fact that, most of the time, Hitler was just another guy. Good with kids. Likes dogs. Surely that's what's so terrifying about it all? That he was just another guy?

The film was a considerable achievement.

That said, though, it did fall into that cliched trap of diving the Nazis into two groups. Himmler? Bad Nazi. Speer? Good Nazi.

And Magda Goebbels? Freaked me way the fuck out. Do y'all realise that woman poisoned her six children rather than see them live in a world without National Socialism? The actress did an incredible job.


In other news, today I learnt something completely counter-intuitive, which is that fishnets can get holes in them. Crazy, I know, but true.

People who point out that fishermen have to mend their nets all the time can refer to to the earlier comment about what will happen to people who say things like "monster". I've read the stories about fishermen. I choose to ignore them.

And now I'm going to take the odd pain in my head off to bed. It's nose to the grindstone this weekend - I thought I had an essay to do for next Monday, but it turns out I have one to do for next Tuesday as well. Ouch.