Bone Good

The title of this film is Good because it questions what makes a good person. The main character is a good man to begin with but as the movie progresses the audience questions his moral character. John makes passive choices that are self serving. One can relate to why he has made these decisions. The first major passive choice he makes is when he chooses to not do anything about the books being burned. If he had said something negative he would have been fired. This is a monumental scene because it is the beginning of the end for John’s goodness. This is also when he first hears the voices singing that only exist in his mind. John starts to cheat on his wife, he stops personally taking care of his mother, and he stops being friends with his Jewish friend. All of these choices he makes influenced the viewer to think of John a not Good.

This film was not distributed in the U.S. because it sympathizes with a person who by accident ended up as a Nazi. All along John was just an honorary member of the Nazi party. At the end of the film he is working at a concentration camp. The U.S. does not want to see the Nazi’s as people but an enemy that we defeated in WWII. Our society is proud of our victory over this face-less evil force which is the Nazis. Good gives the Nazi’s a face and a name. It shows the viewer that they were people with families and Jewish friends. This would not have been popular in the U.S.

The picture posted shows the first time John is confronted with his girlfriend. John is very non-confrontational, and he does not know how to handle the situation. He cannot rationalize his decision to leave his wife, and he runs away from his wife’s father. This is symbolic of how he handles other confrontational times in his life especially with the Nazis.