We went to see this film last night and all three of us agreed it's the best film we've seen in years and after recently seeing Slumdog none of us can understand how Slumdog can be so well considered. It's just not in the same league in terms of depth, complexity, story, acting...even all the technical filming stuff as far as I'm concerned.
There are many things to discuss and think about in this film and I can understand why Monique was so keen to discuss it after she had seen it a few months ago and when I told her I had read the book. Well, of course, I had read the book around 10 years ago and I can barely remember what I read last week.
I think a key idea for me was when the survivor's daughter said to Michael when he visited her in NYC was "Let's at least BEGIN with the truth." Certainly there's been a lot of untruthfulness around the Holocaust...in terms of people saying they didn't know what was going on, the Catholic church not taking responsibility until very recently etc. I believe Hanna tried to tell the truth in the trial but of course it seemed absurd in the new context that she was in. "We were guards and it was our job to guard them not let them escape" "We had to get rid of the women because we had to make room for all the new ones."
I don't believe Hanna's behaviour was justified but I think it is understandable because humans are very adaptable to their surroundings. Adaptibility is often our greatest strength and in cases like allowing atrocities to occur our greatest weakness. And there is the parallel irony that those who survived the camps were the most adaptable in many cases.
Most sensitive good people seem to have adapted quite well to accepting local homelessness and poverty and distant famine and collateral damage(i.e. innocent people being killed in current wars) And perhaps we will be in a court one day and our weak pleadings of "What could we do? We weren't directly involved. We were trying to help these countries achieve freedom and democracy." "We were fighting the war on terror." will seem equally absurd in the new context.
The law professor is trying to teach his students to think like lawyers and this means that "It doesn't matter what you think or feel about it. It's not about morality. It's not about what is right or wrong. It's what is legal." But is the law such an ass? It appears that "rule of law" is the best way we have developed to get justice. A flawed system for a flawed species.
I think the film did end with a bit of hopefulness in humanity understanding itself. Michael begins the healing process and I think "healing" is the correct word. Healing does not mean justice has been served or forgiveness even. But I believe we have a human need to heal our emotional wounds just as our body heals our physical wounds. Perhaps the survivor's daughter began a healing journey herself in keeping the Hanna's tin for personal treasures.
