In the scene, there is no dialogue or voiceover. This allows the audience to not think about what is being said in the film, but more about what the film means and what point is being put across. There is, however, music playing in the background. It is very German and only fashion music. It is cheerful to match the mood of the crowd, and has a marching theme to it, which suggests the organisation and structure of the Nazis.
The message spelled out in light bulbs when Hitler is standing on the balcony shows that he is a some what of a celebrity and a show business type person. This suggests that he is well known among the people of the towns and favoured by them too. Over all, in this film, Hitler is presented as an all round good person and leader for the future.
Schindler's List (dir. Steven Spielberg, 1993) is a fictional alternative of the true story of Oskar Shindler. Schindler was a Nazi who made his money by employing Jews as cheap skilled labour, providing munitions for the German army during the Second World War. By the end of the war he was risking his life to save his workers from the death camp of Auschwitz. There are currently 6,000 Jews who were saved by Schindler, now known as Schindlerjüden. The scene we have studied is the cleansing of the Jewish ghetto in Krakow, which took place in March 1943. The film is in black and white. This monochrome effect lets the audience know that the events in the film must have taken place years ago.
The episode opens with Schindler on horseback looking down on the city, followed by a series of scenes in which the Krakow Jews try to save themselves. A family takes out its jewels, places them in slices of bread and each member swallows some. A man hides in a sewer but has to leave as the Germans have discovered this hiding place. A young boy runs from the soldiers and is shot, as is a man who tries to help him. We then see a doctor taking poison from a pharmacy to kill his patients before the Nazis can shoot them. A Jewish boy, working for the Nazis, risks his life to help a neighbour and her daughter into the "good line".
As Schindler looks down he notices a little girl, picked out by the camera in her red coat, who walks freely, as if the Germans cannot see her. The soundtrack mixes Jewish choral singing with faint gunfire. Later in the day, many Jews who think they have escaped discovery emerge - only to be found by the Germans and shot. One man is discovered as he steps onto a piano keyboard - while his soldiers kill more of the Jews, an officer sits at the piano, playing a piece of Mozart's music.
This scene undoubtedly contains many powerful and moving images. The first one that caught my eye was the family swallowing their jewels. They did this as an attempt to keep the last of their pride possessions and stop the Germans from taking them. We then see the doctors poisoning the patients. This however is what the patients wanted. By doing this, they will die a painless death rather than begin shot by the Nazis. One extremely moving factor in this scene is when we see families being split up. The director gets this across very well. The audience can almost feel themselves how unfair and heart-braking it must be for all citizens, parents and children to go through. We see people begging the Germans for their children back and crying out their eyes is sadness. We also see this is Schindler’s eyes, as he sits and watches innocent Jews being killed for no reason. The mother and daughter being put in the ‘‘good line’’ refers to a line in which Jews are not killed instantly, but instead are taken away to a concentration camp where they still have a chance to live.
In this film, repeated images of brutality are shown, but as an audience, we think, how come the killings as so random. We can see no reason why some Jews are being shot and others spared. It seems as if the Germans do not care who their killing – as long as their Jews. We also see a contrast between the destruction of the Jews and the German’s personalities. Towards the end of the scene, while people are begin horrifically shot to death, a Nazi seems to not mind sitting down at a piano and play a Mozart theme. It could be because they Nazis are actually quite bored of killing people day after day that they wouldn’t mind stopping for a while and relax in their own personal enjoyment. There is also more music and sound effects in this scene. As we see many Jews being slaughtered we hear a Jewish choir and a piano playing, mixed with the sounds of gunfire – the destruction of the Jews.
The most important detail in this episode is the girl in the red coat. For Schindler, she suggests the idea that escape is possible - it is as if, watching her, he sees what he must do for the Jews he employs.
We can contrast this scene with the scene in Triumph of the Will. We can see that Schindler watching the ghetto from above is similar to Hitler watching the medieval town from the aeroplane as Hitler’s watchful eye on the people in Germany. Schindler has his watchful eye on the ghetto.
This short episode from The Lion King (dir. Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, 1994) refers explicitly to Triumph of the Will. Walt Disney is believed to have been sympathetic to some of the aims and policies of Nazism, but once the USA declared war on the alliance (German, Japanese and Italian) powers in 1940, the Disney studios made propaganda cartoons which made fun of Hitler.
As the evil lion Scar plans to seize power from his brother, Mufusa, he tells his hyena followers, in a song, to Be Prepared. The animation of this song links itself with Triumph of the Will in a number of ways. It is appropriate to the theme of this episode, as we see a dictator coming to power. But it looks like Leni Riefenstahl's film, too.
Most people think of monochrome effect as being black and white. But the actual definition of monochrome is when a monitor displays one foreground colour and one background colour. This is used in this scene of the Lion King, as well as Triumph of the Will.
Camera angles are also similar to Triumph of the Will. In the Lion King, we see Scar in a higher position than all his followers, the hyenas. This shows his status as the leader and dictator – similar to Hitler standing on the balcony above the cheering crowd.
The animators in this film also use lighting effects to create shadows amongst the hyenas and Scar. This resembles Leni Riefenstahl's lighting of the night-time parades and speeches in Triumph of the Will.
Another aspect from the Lion King is the formation of the hyenas. They stand and move in an orderly fashion. We also notice that they use the Nazi ‘‘goose-step’’ march, which recalls the troops on the Nuremberg parade ground in Triumph of the Will.
The audience watching this film are clearly not intended to know about Triumph of the Will. I think maybe the animators of the film wanted to get there personal feelings about Hitler across to the audience, but it a way that young children can still enjoy it without knowing.
Cabaret is a musical drama released in 1972, and directed by Bob Fosse. The film is about a young English writer, Brian Roberts, who befriends an American artiste, Sally Bowles who performs at the Kit Kat nightclub in Berlin. The year is 1931, shortly before Triumph of the Will was made. They are joined by another friend, a wealthy aristocrat, Maximilian. A second strand of the plot concerns Fritz, a young gigolo, who is in love with Natalia Landauer, a beautiful Jewess.
This is the main idea of the plot, but there is one scene in particular which tells the audience an idea of what the director feels about the Nazis. In this scene, there are two contrasting images happening at the same time. We see an image of dancers imitating a traditional German dance, but we also see two members of the SA (Nazi thugs) beating up the owner of the Kit Kat club. This method is known as juxtaposition. The two images change suddenly from one to the other. This has quite a powerful effect on the audience. We find it quite shocking to see such different scenes showing together. It also shows us that maybe what the Nazis are shown out to be in other films such as Triumph of the Will is not true. This suggests that the Nazis maybe good on the outside but really they beat up club owners in the night of day.
The music that goes with this scene is also quite shocking. It is an up-beat, happy-tempo tune. This fits pretty well with the dancers, but when we see the image change to the club owner being beaten up, the music does not change. So we have this jolly music backing a crime scene.
After analysis of all three films we can make a conclusion of the three director’s attitudes towards Hitler’s Germany and Nazism. We can say that Leni Riefenstahl (Triumph des Willens) - a keen supporter of Hitler.
Bob Fosse (Cabaret) - critical, but also interested in how the Nazis came to power. We see the results of violence.
Steven Spielberg (Schindler's List) - a powerful sense of what it means to be a Jew today, and to recall the horrors of the Second World War and the Holocaust. Schindler's List is a more graphic account with repeated images of violence.
