Hanna Arendt, Directed by Margarethe von Trotta. 2012.
Starring Barbara Sukova and Adolph Eichmann. Viewed at the Miskolc Film festival, Hungary, Oct. 13, 2013.
Hanna Arendt, German Jewish philosopher and American academic, coined the phrase "the banality of evil" when she wrote her book on Eichmann in the early sixties. I was never sure what exactly she meant by this until yesterday when von Trotta's film finally cleared that issue up for me -- fifty one years later! The one indisputably positive thing I can say about the movie "Hannah Arendt" -- is that it makes the meaning of the famous historical catchphrase "The Banality of Evil" patently clear -- once and for all -- in a dramatic framework. Whether you buy German actress Barbara Sukowa's sexually attractive Arendt and the acting of the other actors around her who come on more like symbols than flesh and blood characters -- is so secondary it's almost beside the point. The point of this picture is to remind a whole new generation of the mind-blowing fact that genocide and other forms of mass murder are perpetrated by common ordinary average people, not by exceptional monsters!
The film focuses on Arendt's assignment in 1961 to cover the Eichman trial in Jerusalem for the New Yorker. This she does, but so objectively that it offends many Jewish sensibilities, to the point where some declare her to be anti-Semitic. in Arendt's view Eichman was not personally involved -- he wasn't even necessarily an Anti-Semite -- he was just a very good bureaucrat and was literally doing nothing but carrying out his Orders -- unquestioningly -- because in that system being a Good German meant Following orders -- However, considering what he was being required to do it also required him to relinquish any personal feelings he might have had! His crime was acceding to total depersonalization ~ dehumanization! In Arendt's view he was merely a neutral cog in an evil machine, not personally responsible for what the machine does -- and therefore in a philosophical sense, was not himself evil -- or responsible for the countless deaths involved. Part of the evilness of the murder machine is that it gobbles up and neutralizes personal feelings. So, in Arendt's view, Eichman was an ordinary man absolutely dedicated to doing his job, and doing it well! And this is what the "banality" of evil is all about -- that there is nothing special about it! You don't have to be a sadist or a psychopath to become part of a mass murder machine. You just need to have a strong desire to conform -- to be accepted by your peers -- and don't we all have that!
The special thing about the Nazi Evil was the massive scale on which it was carried out. Almost any ordinary person can fall into this trap -- of suspended personal feelings -- and become a cog in a gigantic death machine. That is the point strongly emphasized by this motion picture. Whether it is really a "good movie" in the sense of being a convincing drama -- (in my critical opinion it is not) -- is not the point. The purpose of the movie is to instruct -- not to entertain. It is a cogent movie Lesson -- in the philosophy of history --- but a dramatically convincing movie it is not. Sukowa is too entertaining and the rest of the cast are too much like a collection of speaking stick figures making didactic points at every turn. The movie Telegraphs all its punches -- to the point where the viewer starts getting punchy watching it. For it to have been a good movie into the bargain it would have needed Meryl Streep as Hannah -- or maybe a resurrected Bette Davis! Incidentally, Eichmann himself, shown in numerous clips from the trial defending his " just following orders" position and claiming innocence, becomes an almost sympathetic figure and, by rights, should gave received a supporting actor credit
Starring Barbara Sukova and Adolph Eichmann. Viewed at the Miskolc Film festival, Hungary, Oct. 13, 2013.
Hanna Arendt, German Jewish philosopher and American academic, coined the phrase "the banality of evil" when she wrote her book on Eichmann in the early sixties. I was never sure what exactly she meant by this until yesterday when von Trotta's film finally cleared that issue up for me -- fifty one years later! The one indisputably positive thing I can say about the movie "Hannah Arendt" -- is that it makes the meaning of the famous historical catchphrase "The Banality of Evil" patently clear -- once and for all -- in a dramatic framework. Whether you buy German actress Barbara Sukowa's sexually attractive Arendt and the acting of the other actors around her who come on more like symbols than flesh and blood characters -- is so secondary it's almost beside the point. The point of this picture is to remind a whole new generation of the mind-blowing fact that genocide and other forms of mass murder are perpetrated by common ordinary average people, not by exceptional monsters!
The film focuses on Arendt's assignment in 1961 to cover the Eichman trial in Jerusalem for the New Yorker. This she does, but so objectively that it offends many Jewish sensibilities, to the point where some declare her to be anti-Semitic. in Arendt's view Eichman was not personally involved -- he wasn't even necessarily an Anti-Semite -- he was just a very good bureaucrat and was literally doing nothing but carrying out his Orders -- unquestioningly -- because in that system being a Good German meant Following orders -- However, considering what he was being required to do it also required him to relinquish any personal feelings he might have had! His crime was acceding to total depersonalization ~ dehumanization! In Arendt's view he was merely a neutral cog in an evil machine, not personally responsible for what the machine does -- and therefore in a philosophical sense, was not himself evil -- or responsible for the countless deaths involved. Part of the evilness of the murder machine is that it gobbles up and neutralizes personal feelings. So, in Arendt's view, Eichman was an ordinary man absolutely dedicated to doing his job, and doing it well! And this is what the "banality" of evil is all about -- that there is nothing special about it! You don't have to be a sadist or a psychopath to become part of a mass murder machine. You just need to have a strong desire to conform -- to be accepted by your peers -- and don't we all have that!
The special thing about the Nazi Evil was the massive scale on which it was carried out. Almost any ordinary person can fall into this trap -- of suspended personal feelings -- and become a cog in a gigantic death machine. That is the point strongly emphasized by this motion picture. Whether it is really a "good movie" in the sense of being a convincing drama -- (in my critical opinion it is not) -- is not the point. The purpose of the movie is to instruct -- not to entertain. It is a cogent movie Lesson -- in the philosophy of history --- but a dramatically convincing movie it is not. Sukowa is too entertaining and the rest of the cast are too much like a collection of speaking stick figures making didactic points at every turn. The movie Telegraphs all its punches -- to the point where the viewer starts getting punchy watching it. For it to have been a good movie into the bargain it would have needed Meryl Streep as Hannah -- or maybe a resurrected Bette Davis! Incidentally, Eichmann himself, shown in numerous clips from the trial defending his " just following orders" position and claiming innocence, becomes an almost sympathetic figure and, by rights, should gave received a supporting actor credit