Bent was a powerful movie. At first, I was a bit shocked. Within the first five minutes I saw a naked guy using the restroom. However, it was the truth. It was raw and nothing was hidden because it was on TV. This made it more realistic. Max, the main character was a promiscuous gay man in the 1930s. He gave the movie a lot of entertainment because he was so suave. When he brought home the Sturmabteilung man home, that is when you could see there would be trouble. This is when you could feel the terror strike. Hitler had just decided to get rid of homosexuals. The brutality of it all still shocks me. They killed the Sturmateilung man immediately. Even after this, Max refused to leave his boyfriend. When he turned down the papers, I knew that was where it was going to go downhill. I can understand why Max beats Rudy to death, even though I was furious, when they were being transferred to a concentration camp. It all comes down to the psychology of it. This does not mean he was a bad person. People all react different. When one is put in a life or death situation, you cannot determine what one will do until they are in it. It is a fight or flight deal. He even went as far to have sex with a dead girl to prove that he was not gay. He chose life instead of honor. He did what he had to do in order to survive and choosing to deny being a homosexual was his choice. People in the camp were all Jewish, but people in the camp who were gay had to wear a pink triangle and branded as different from even being a Jew. Plus, he would have been subject to torture and inhumane experiments. However, things change after Max falls in love and meets Horst. Horst was the opposite. He chose honor over death. How powerful is that? Horst owned up to being gay and did not deny it. He wore the pink triangle with honor and dignity. After he is shot by the guards, Max decides to die with honor and dignity for what he is. A proud homosexual who can love just as much as a heterosexual.
This movie touched me and once again exposes what happened during that terrible time. I was proud of him dying with honor instead of killing another person and denying who he really is. I am very idealistic so it pleased me. He died for his love and being what he truly was.
Good was a fantastic play. I grew up in theatre and reading plays, so sometimes it is easier for me to read plays. This play had the most interesting character, Halder. He went from being a professor to a Nazi. His best friend was even Jewish. It was 1933, and the pressure was intense, but it was a pure betrayal. Halder and Maurice, his friend, would debate about their dilemmas and Maurice turns out to be quite a complex character. He was Jewish, but had unresolved feelings about it. It is absurd how an intelligent, good man, such as Halder, became a coldblooded murderer. This book was great to explain my previous blog of how one man could possibly get perfectly good, moral people to become brutal, mass murderers. Halder like I said was a good man, he was preoccupied by his mother, a marriage without love, his children, and his love for one his students. Being that he is pro-euthanasia, it attracts the Nazis. He does not just join them, but becomes a fully active member. Halder was lured in by the fact that his membership of being a Nazi made him feel important and belong, that he did not believe that what he was doing was bad. The irony of the play is that while Halder loves Jews, Maurice, a Jew himself hates them. Halder becomes brainwashed and becomes a Nazi himself. When one takes a step back, Halder is just a product of his society. He is human and turns a blind eye to things that are too evil to fathom. This was a great, eye opening read from a new perspective.
This play also reminded me of the Westboro Baptist Church, or as many people know them as the "I Hate Fags" group. These people honestly believe in their religion what they say is true. So it is so hard to condemn people, though personally I would like to give those people a piece of my mind, who believe that they are helping society. Their membership is pure brainwash and they are passionate about what they believe in.
Great reading this week and definitely food for thought. Now to go back and answer the blog question originally asked after I wanted to share my thoughts on the reading and movie, a victimizer is actually the victim. A victim usually does not retaliate. A victimizer does. I look at it differently. In order for a person to be able to have the capacity to inflict pain on another, they have to feel pain. It is the wrong way to react, but when people are traumatized their pain comes out in different ways. In this reading and movie, both characters became the victimizer. For example, when Max killed his boyfriend, he took his pain and shame out on him. He was only for himself in his helpless situation. When people develop a learned helplessness, they either become strong or weak, in this case they became weak. When people talk themselves into believing what they are doing is right, then there is no stopping them.
Your picture of the little children holding the "God hates fags" signs is really telling. Those children are learning hate, just as children in schools in Germany and across Europe learned hate from their teachers, their priests, their preachers, and even their parents. Your point about learned helplessness is excellent. Halder also exhibited learned helplessness in the play. What parts of the play reveal that?
ReplyDeleteInstead of standing up for what is right, Halder just assumed that joining the Nazis was right and ended up being an active member and participating. He just gave in because "authority is always right." Therefore, he just learned to cooperate and to support the movement because it is easier to cope mentally. It is like that saying, "If you can't beat them, join them."
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