This is a German film that reflects World War II. It is also a real historical event.
After the end of World War II, unlike Japan, Germany has been reflecting on what it had done at that time with a repentant attitude, and was deeply exploring the ugly side of human nature. From this film, we can also see a side of German reflection.
Looking at the title, I thought it was a comedy like Gori's "The Imperial Commissioner", but after reading it, I realized that it was not the case. Closer to a documentary, a friend on the Internet simply said it was a horror film. It is about the end of World War II, when Germany's defeat was decided. During the escape process, the deserter Herold accidentally found a German captain's uniform. Temporary courts were also formed and dozens of prisoners in the camp were killed. Of course, in the end, there is still no escape from justice.
The evil of human nature can only spread and grow in a specific environment. At that time, the defeat of Germany was a foregone conclusion, and although it was lingering on, it was also the end of the battle. Doomsday sentiments pervade all over Germany. In the hearts of the people, the myth of "Germany is invincible" is like a high-rise building on the beach, which suddenly collapsed. As a result, social chaos abounded, giving Herold and his like a lot of room to do evil.
From the beginning, Herold's goal was only to escape and find something to eat, but once he put on the skin of a captain, everyone was afraid and had support in fear. People caught the robber and let him deal with it. He hesitated for a long time, and in order to avoid revealing his identity, he had to reluctantly pull out a gun and kill the guy. With this first time, he gradually became unscrupulous and shot and killed the mayor who welcomed the Allies in the name of justice.
There is such a scene, when he killed dozens of prisoners, he asked his orderly Freitag to take action. At this time, Freitag still had a little conscience, and he knew that these prisoners were just deserters and soldiers like him in the past. It was just a thief. He hesitated and refused to go. Under Schroeder's repeated threats, he slowly stepped forward and heard the pained moans of the dying person in the murder pit. His eyes were full of unease, confusion, fear, self-blame and helplessness. , After suffering and struggling in his heart, he had to shoot again.
There is one more scene. Herold tied the wrists of the four prisoners with ropes, told them to run, and shot the escaped prisoners with guns. Not only that, but he made two prisoners who had just been recruited into his ranks also participate in this murder. Just a few days ago, these two prisoners were being held here with others, on the same charges, in the same life, in the same identity. And now he is forced to attack his own kind. Seeing the running companions in front, some of the four were shot, and the rest dragged the fallen body of their companions and continued to run forward clumsily. All that's left is the survival instinct. One of the two forced to commit suicide on the spot, the other had to shoot frantically with the others to participate in the murder hunt.
In later episodes, we see, including Freitag and the remaining prisoner, destroying and robbing others with peace of mind.
In just a few days, the abused becomes the abuser. The way they were treated translates into the way they treat others now. From a psychological point of view, battered people hope to pass on the helplessness and loneliness after battering to others through abuse, and long for their understanding. From a sociological point of view, the reasons are more complex. An unscrupulous society, a society that has lost its basic moral standards, awakens evil thoughts in people's hearts, not just one person, but the whole society has become a breeding ground for evil. Once a man becomes a beast, he is worse than a beast.
Germany was originally a society with a speculative tradition, and once produced great philosophers and speculators such as Hegel Feuerbach, Marx and Engels. However, under Hitler's rule, this tradition was abandoned, and the best characteristics of human beings were lost. People were not encouraged to think, only obedience was emphasized, and they tried to replace the thinking of the whole people with the will of the leader. The catastrophe caused by this lack of thinking is more terrible than all the sins inherent in human beings combined. Due to the lack of thinking ability, Herrods regarded evil as normal, which made the German people treat the Nazi Holocaust indifferently. Makes people unscrupulous to destroy all conscience. We can call this kind of evil reflected in the film "banal evil", which is characterized by no thought and no belief.
At the end of the film, Herold is tried in court after a doomsday bash. His defender put it this way: "He was a high-spirited little soldier who proved amazing combat leadership to us, a man I admire so much. I recommend conditional release, as a suspended sentence, to send Herold to the front. Herold said: "All I have done is to resist the growing defeatism at the last moment of the war, and let us continue to fight in Germany." This is how society condones the spread of evil and develop. It can be said that the German society at that time was the source of evil. Like the Nazi Holocaust, it is also using "evil" to kill people's kindness and strangle people's souls.
The film is almost always presented in black and white. and in line with the context of the war at the time. The editors paid special attention to the description of the details. In the restaurant, after the boss made the roast, Freitag and the boss competed to serve it to the fake captain in person, fighting each other for plates. In the latter shot, the boss is watching Herold eat barbecue while shaking his fingers that hurt when he grabbed the plate. At that time, Herold had not eaten for a few days. When he saw the fragrant barbecue served, he was about to devour it, and suddenly remembered his identity as a captain. He immediately became gentle, and his manner was much more elegant, sipping the barbecue. The scene where the prisoner is shot is also very real. Dozens of prisoners, knowing they were about to be killed, still marched in neat steps toward the killing pit, singing loudly until the gunshots rang out. Such a scene gave the audience a strong shock and a sense of incomparable fear.
My rating: 7.0.
View more about The Captain reviews
