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I don't usually do film reviews but came across this one through a web sight called "Maxim Institute". I found it extremely profound and challenging, the writers critique on modern society is so close to the mark. I have read the book "The Reader" and would totally concur with the review although, I haven't seen the film and probably wont as I found the book really disturbing and enough of a challenge. I must say that I do enjoy seeing films that don't always try to 'smooth' the story out with a tidy ending and doesn't indulge in the violence or the sex as an end in itself.
I am also really interested in the many paradoxes within the Christian faith, many people of faith feel they need to resolve them instead of letting them remain rough and and messy; acknowledging that God knows more than us!
So I have copied the article as the condensed version and if you like it there is a link at the end to read the complete article.
"Ambushed by the grotesque"
Tom Stoppard once wrote, "All your life you live so close to truth, it becomes a permanent blur in the corner of your eye, and when something nudges it into outline it is like being ambushed by a grotesque."
Our history is conflicted with stories of great achievements sitting beside horror and tragedy. We live after the Jewish holocaust and in the midst of Darfur. Often we are numb to these horrors, unsure what to do when they confront us. One of the major films of the year, The Reader, explores the questions that come from the "grotesque" parts of our history.
The Reader is set in post-World War 2 Germany. It begins when a 15-year-old school student named Michael meets a much older woman, a bus conductor named Hanna. They have a brief affair before Hanna disappears. Michael turns up to her house one day and finds it completely deserted. A few years later, Michael is studying law, and he attends the trials of Nazi war criminals as part of his study. He is shocked to find that Hanna is one of the defendants. Before their affair, she was a guard who chose prisoners to be taken to gas chambers. The court case centres around one incident in which she and other guards watched 300 women die in a burning church. The film then follows the next thirty years or so of Hanna's legacy, as we see the various ways that people try to go on living, despite being irreparably scarred by her.
Overwhelmingly the sense that you get when watching The Reader is one of shock at the world's contradictions. Germany was an astute country with respect for democracy, yet it went insane in the space of ten years. Hanna, a woman who loves beauty, who cries at the sound of a choir singing in a church, was also somehow able to watch 300 people in a church burn to death.
We are often tempted to rush to explanations of these contradictions; to try and contain our understanding of horrific events, in the hope of reaching understanding. One common explanation has been that our unresolved childhood issues and our natural desires shape who we are and dictate how we behave. While there have been valuable lessons that have come along with psychoanalysis, this idea often leaves us puzzled about how much responsibility to ascribe to people. Was Hanna responsible for her choices or was she a victim of her circumstances?
While we struggle with questions like these, and rightly try to understand what leads someone to behave as they do, this cannot lead us to believe that tomorrow is already determined. While some of us have to wrestle with extraordinary difficulties and injustice, it is still our responsibility to face our circumstances and make the best of them that we can, difficult as it may be. The Jewish holocaust and the genocide in Darfur are exercises in dehumanising masses of people. The way we reject them is to hold onto humanity—to heal, to choose well, to tell the truth. This is a summarised version of an article that appears on our website.
Read the full review, "When we are ambushed by the grotesque."
I am also really interested in the many paradoxes within the Christian faith, many people of faith feel they need to resolve them instead of letting them remain rough and and messy; acknowledging that God knows more than us!
So I have copied the article as the condensed version and if you like it there is a link at the end to read the complete article.
"Ambushed by the grotesque"
Tom Stoppard once wrote, "All your life you live so close to truth, it becomes a permanent blur in the corner of your eye, and when something nudges it into outline it is like being ambushed by a grotesque."
Our history is conflicted with stories of great achievements sitting beside horror and tragedy. We live after the Jewish holocaust and in the midst of Darfur. Often we are numb to these horrors, unsure what to do when they confront us. One of the major films of the year, The Reader, explores the questions that come from the "grotesque" parts of our history.
The Reader is set in post-World War 2 Germany. It begins when a 15-year-old school student named Michael meets a much older woman, a bus conductor named Hanna. They have a brief affair before Hanna disappears. Michael turns up to her house one day and finds it completely deserted. A few years later, Michael is studying law, and he attends the trials of Nazi war criminals as part of his study. He is shocked to find that Hanna is one of the defendants. Before their affair, she was a guard who chose prisoners to be taken to gas chambers. The court case centres around one incident in which she and other guards watched 300 women die in a burning church. The film then follows the next thirty years or so of Hanna's legacy, as we see the various ways that people try to go on living, despite being irreparably scarred by her.
Overwhelmingly the sense that you get when watching The Reader is one of shock at the world's contradictions. Germany was an astute country with respect for democracy, yet it went insane in the space of ten years. Hanna, a woman who loves beauty, who cries at the sound of a choir singing in a church, was also somehow able to watch 300 people in a church burn to death.
We are often tempted to rush to explanations of these contradictions; to try and contain our understanding of horrific events, in the hope of reaching understanding. One common explanation has been that our unresolved childhood issues and our natural desires shape who we are and dictate how we behave. While there have been valuable lessons that have come along with psychoanalysis, this idea often leaves us puzzled about how much responsibility to ascribe to people. Was Hanna responsible for her choices or was she a victim of her circumstances?
While we struggle with questions like these, and rightly try to understand what leads someone to behave as they do, this cannot lead us to believe that tomorrow is already determined. While some of us have to wrestle with extraordinary difficulties and injustice, it is still our responsibility to face our circumstances and make the best of them that we can, difficult as it may be. The Jewish holocaust and the genocide in Darfur are exercises in dehumanising masses of people. The way we reject them is to hold onto humanity—to heal, to choose well, to tell the truth. This is a summarised version of an article that appears on our website.
Read the full review, "When we are ambushed by the grotesque."
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