I had the recent pleasure of viewing The Reader (USCCB rating: L) and Defiance (USCCB rating: L) starring the newest James Bond, Daniel Craig. These films join other recent films like Valkyrie (USCCB rating: A-II), portraying events in and around World War II. Before going too far, I should probably note that I’m surprised The Reader didn’t receive an O rating. I do believe it is a very good film. However, it does portray a sexual relationship between an older female and a 15-year-old boy/man. This portrayal is not sporadic, but is maintained for a solid 15 minutes of the film, going through countless sex scenes, although showing no act from start to finish.
The Reader portrays the life of the fictional Hanna Schmitz. The aforementioned affair happens at the beginning of the film. She is working on a street car when she is offered a position with the SS. She leaves her flat, breaking Michael’s heart. Later we meet her while Michael is in law school, and she is on trial for her work at Auschwitz. As the law professor notes to Michael, she was one of 15,000 workers at Auschwitz. While clearly having guilt in the Holocaust, there is an eerie disproportion that is felt by attempting to pin the Holocaust on her and some others. In certain respects she (and by implication several tens of others) are made into a Christ-like figures to atone for the sins of Germany in the war. This is made all the more difficult upon recognizing that she could hardly be considered a leading intellectual for she couldn’t even read. In the end she is condemned by orders she couldn’t have written, but was too proud to have denied.
Defiance is based on the true story of the Bielski family. Based in the Poland-Russia region, a number of Jews took cover in thick forests during World War II. Eventually the Bielski group managed to be over 1000. One of the better things about the movie is that it isn’t overly romantic. One of the sadder characters is the rabbi that at one point asks God to remove his blessing from the Jewish race and find another people to bless. The group also almost starves to death and seems at one point to be playing a game of attrition. As one of the Bielski brothers tells another, “We resist by staying alive,” when he is challenged for why they don’t focus their efforts on sabotage and leave the elderly and frail to fend for themselves. The movie also portrays the absence of lost love between the Jews and communists, even though one brother does end up working with the communists against the Nazis.
As far as take home lessons, not that all films need this, it is the idea that men that aren’t good are capable of good and even redemption. The Bielskis were considered little more than common criminals in the Jewish community. The reason they knew the forest so well is that they had experience hiding from the police there. The movie strongly implies that the women in the camp were expected to service the sexual desires of the men at the camp. Tuvia Bielski does not use his power as leader to demand that though. So profound is Tuvia’s example and stewardship that the rabbi on his death bed credits Tuvia for showing him the existence of God.
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