In Reply to: SPOILER ALERT ALERT ALERT posted by tinear on January 26, 2009 at 15:02:50:
But for one thing I'm probably generally more willing to go the route of a willing suspension of disbelief than are you. I'm not typically looking for hardcore reality when I watch a film, even in a case like this where the presentation overall is pretty naturalistic. I try to accept it on it's own terms. The fact is that there are exponentially more things you DON'T like than is true for me.
How do I know if such an internal justification or motivation would work? If the Holocaust hadn't happened it would be hard for me to imagine that it could. Although I've not read it, there's a book that caused a ruckus in Germany a few years back that was called "Hitler's Willing Executioners." It examined the tendency of the German populace to go along with and even endorse the prevailing treatment of Jews. Among such an array of "willing executioners" I can see that one or two could manifest the combination of the stupidity and craving for higher things that Hannah Schmitz embodied. Her story begins, for me, as a portrait of a person who was *never whole.* Even though she proved smart enough to eventually learn to read there are ways in which she either blinded herself to the truth because of realizing on some level how horrific the truth was, or she had gaps in her basic intelligence that made it impossible for her to figure it all out. I am also able to "see" her illiteracy as a metaphor for a deeper brand of moral and cultural illiteracy. Both literature and film often work in that kind of metaphorical way that complicates the question of whether something is "realistic" or not.
As I've said before about music, I prefer to try and find the things in a piece of music or a story that *do* work and give me something to grab hold of so I can have the maximum experience possible from these varied opportunities. I prefer to be an absorbing sponge than a sponge that's squeezing out its own liquid.
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Follow Ups
- I'm not sure I know how to answer your questions - EBerlin 17:08:48 01/26/09 (5)
- I thoroughly enjoy many films which have no pretensions to - tinear 17:35:28 01/26/09 (4)
- How could it offer answers and be "real"? - sjb 20:01:01 01/26/09 (1)
- You bring up a very good point. You are left to - tinear 07:43:07 01/29/09 (0)
- I register and accept your opinion...but I still disagree * - EBerlin 18:24:02 01/26/09 (1)
- But..... but.... - tinear 19:33:10 01/26/09 (0)