Friday, September 17, 2010

Whitlock Good


I believe that this film was entitled good because the main character, John Halder, was always just trying to be a good person. He resisted joining the Nazi party because he didn't believe that it was right, he stayed with his wife when it was clear that he was tired of their marriage not being an equal partnership, and he was always trying to be a good friend to Maurice. It's about his struggle to be true to himself, which is a good person, or be who the Nazis want him to be.

I believe that this film was not distributed in the United States because it sort of shed a light on the Nazi party. This film made it seem like they were just normal people who had families and children and that they were just sort of going through their everyday lives. In some ways that is true, but most of the film did not describe how evil and vindictive the Nazis were. I think that maybe the United States did not want to release this film because they want American people to not see this other side of the Nazi party.

This image from the movie tells a lot about the characters. It is very tightly framed, the characters do not have room to move around, like they are trapped or cornered into being with the Nazi party. Ann is wearing a light colored dress, like she is pure and good, the "perfect Aryan." The shot is pretty personal and it is because we really get a close look into their lives and see what they are like, they really don't have anything to hide from the viewer. The lighting on Ann's face is half light and half dark, which maybe describes her struggle between being good and evil. In the end, she did not help out Maurice and he was sent to a concentration camp. This image is just very telling about two of the main characters in the movie.

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