Amen
by Costa-Gavras
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Ion Caramitru, Mathieu Kassovitz, Michel Duchaussoy, Ulrich Mühe, Ulrich TukurDirector: Costa-Gavras
Brand: Kino International
Writer: Costa-Gavras
Producer: Andrei Boncea
Producer: Claude Berri
Producer: Dieter Meyer
Producer: Michèle Ray-Gavras
Writer: Jean-Claude Grumberg
Writer: Rolf Hochhuth
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 132 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-08-12
Audience Rating: Unrated
Model: 3052
Studio: Kino International
Product features:
- AMEN (DVD MOVIE)
Movie Reviews of Amen
Movie Review: The price of dissidence
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the story of SS Officer Kurt Gerstein, the "good Nazi" who was good at his job and believed in his work until he realized what it was. This is my first experience with the concept of the "good Nazi," especially one that operates in the ranks of the SS - but the story claims to be true. While the Gerstein character is real, the Catholic Priest who tries to help him is a fictional character, a composite of others. Still, I've done a lot of reading on the holocaust, and I have yet to find a Catholic Priest who actually worked the ovens. Please. The Nazis made the Jews do that, and they made them do it for a reason. Because the Nazis were very, very "good" at what they did, and the mental torture made the physical torture exquisite.
Gerstein's area of expertise was "disinfection," but he had no idea, apparently, what the "final solution" was all about. Most Germans did not, or if they did, were in complete denial about it. Denial is not that hard to believe. We are living in it now.
It isn't until Gerstin actually gets to look through the peephole each gas chamber contained that he could see the naked bodies climbing all over each other, the weakest at the bottom, in order to get to what air was left at the top. Apparently, the other Nazis weren't bothered. He was.
"I must be the eyes of God in that hell!" cries the Priest. A great line. I'm sure God had lots of eyes in that hell.
With each attempt to work within the system, as many of us continue to do in our own corrupt systems, the protests are familiar:
"We are at war!" (When at war, all bets are off)
"Germans are incapable of such attrocities!" (How often have I heard that bureaucracies couldn't organize a conspiracy to wipe their own noses!)
Protestations were dismissed as "rumors" and "conspiracy theories." (sigh) The more things change...
"The Jews left for America long ago."
"There is no proof." (Just because there is no proof doesn't mean it isn't happening.)
The scene of the Germans celebrating Christmas with their fancy dinner and fancy liquor singing "Silent Night" when you just know ashes of the dead are falling, mixed with snow is probably the creepiest scene.
The Pope never even pronounced the word "Jew" or "Concentration Camp." Just like so many Presidents who never pronounced the word "AIDS".
"We refuse to negotiate with the Nazis." ("We don't negotiate with terrorists)
"Jews are being sent to labor camps!" (Certainly not being tortured and killed!)
One line - "It is out of the question for an SS who is betraying his country to appear at the Vatican!" What kind of a Catch 22 is that???
I refuse to take the hard line that Gerstein was a coward who did nothing. It is easy for armchair quarterbacks who weren't there to presume that it would have been easy to stop the machine that was Fascism. Many people tried. Apparently, Gerstein was one of them. Many Germans tried to work within the system, and console themselves with the lives they were able to save - even Mengele, who actually patted himself on the back for the "experiments" that saved Jews from the gas chamber, and the people he directed out of the death line. Germans who had access to food, clothing, shelter, blankets were able to share them if they were inclined to. Germans who had access to nothing had nothing to share.
Another powerful scene was the scene where the Zyklon-B had become diluted thanks to Gerstein's attempt to make it unusable. The Camp officials decided to use it anyway. Kapos who were working the ovens complained that they were throwing living bodies into the ovens who had not yet died. For their complaints, they were immediately shot.
People in Hitler's Germany knew that was the price to be paid for dissidence. You obeyed authority or you died. Don't forget that the Prussians were a people who invented the public school system that created a people incapable of questioning authority. The very system all public schools are based upon today.
Gerstein was in a no-win situation. The movie raises the question, but gives us no answers. It is important that we all consider the question, and where each of us would draw the line. We may confront that decision sooner than we think.Scapegoat: The Jews, Israel, and Women's Liberation
Summary of Amen
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