Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by mr grits (A) on May 10, 2009 at 12:03:19

1942 Nazi Germany. A German high schooler has excelled as a boxer and is noticed by a party official from a nearby Napola (school for indoctrinating party leadership). Friedrich sees it as the opportunity of a lifetime to be accepted to such a school yet his father forbids it as he hates the Nazi party and the war. The young man defies his father's demands to join him at the factory and forges his name to entrance documents.

He arrives at the Napola and is immediately graded: Class Nordic 1B. He beams with pride. He is far above most students there with his Arian qualities.

We see the regimentation of the school, the training, and the expectations put on all the students who a led to believe that people such as them will be the leaders and governors needed around the world: London, New York, Cape Town.

Friedrich's acceptance was based on his boxing skills and he has to develop a "killer instinct" that he did not have before joining the Napola. (Matches were fought to knock out, not TKO.) These lessons in brutality soon wash over to daily life and other incidents that forced dramatic reckonings for both Friedrich and his privileged friend.

The film had a former Napola student/historian as an adviser for it's authenticity and shows how irresistible the seduction of regimentation and elitism can be.

This film is not apologetic but shows how a nation can produce a military society that can carry out orders no sane man would follow.

Recommended.