Yesterday I saw the new Scorsese/DiCaprio collaboration Shutter Island.
The film is based on the novel by the same name written by Dennis Lehane, a 44 yo American author who has written some fantastic books, incl Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone and has also worked as a writer on The Wire.
Shutter Island was written in 2003 and was turned into a film by Scorsese and was released this year.
It starts out on a ferry with the main character U.S Marshal Edward Daniels feeling sick in his room before going up on deck to meet his new partner Chuck. The ferry goes to Shutter Island where the Ashecliffe Hospital is situated, a hospital/penitentiary for the criminally insane. And the reason we are given is that they are to investigate the disappearance of a patient out of a locked cell. Inside the cell Edward finds a note written by the escapee that points to a patient 67 (there being 66 official patients in the prison) which Edward then investigate while also (which is revealed later) seeking revenge on one of the patients that's guilty of burning his house down effectively killing his wife.
The movie is a Scorsese masterpiece in many ways. There are some fantastically beautiful scenes that pictures Edwards dreams that will take your breath away. The cinematography is always aptly done in Scorsese movies but I feel it has been lifted a notch in this film.
DiCaprio does a steady job portraying the troubled Edward Daniels, a WWII veteran that liberated Dachau and had his wife killed. Ben Kinglsey is a little bit on autopilot, but he has that persona (Like Anthony Hopkins) who can get away with it. I also like most of the music, especially Mahler is used very effectively.
All is not well though, There are also some continuity mistakes, hands that switches places between angels, papers that are ripped and the next second is whole again. The Auswitch sign over the Dachau camp. There are probably more that I didn't immediately recognize, but what I don't know doesn't bother be of course.
All in all, a good popcorn movie with a lot of talent involved.
Parollen "Arbeit macht frei" placerades vid ingångarna till flera av Nazitysklands koncentrationsläger som en sorts mystisk deklaration att självuppoffring i form av ändlöst arbete i sig självt innebär en sorts andlig befrielse.[1]
ReplyDeleteÄven om det var normal praxis i Tyskland att sätta upp inskriptioner av detta slag vid entréer till institutionella och andra större egendomar, beordrades användandet av parollen vid koncentrationslägren av SS-Obergruppenführer Theodor Eicke, den förste kommendanten vid koncentrationslägret i Dachau och senare inspektör för Tysklands samtliga koncentrationsläger.
Parollen kan fortfarande ses på ett antal platser, bland annat över íngången till Auschwitz I. I boken Auschwitz: a New History, av historikern Laurence Rees vid BBC, påstås det att parollen vid denna plats placerades på order av kommendanten Rudolf Höß, som trodde att simpelt arbete under hans egen fångenskap under Weimmarrepubliken hjälpte honom igenom denna upplevelse. I Auschwitz tycks bokstaven "B" i "ARBEIT" vara vänd upp- och ner. Vissa typsnitt från 1920-talet experimenterade dock med denna typ av bokstaven B.
Parollen kan också ses vid koncentrationslägren i Dachau, Gross-Rosen, Sachsenhausen och getto-lägret Theresienstadt.
Koncentrationslägret Buchenwald använde dock i stället parollen "Jedem das Seine" ("Till alla sitt eget").
Problemet är inte att det är en Arbeit Macht Frei skylt, utan att det är fel skylt. Den ser helt annorlunda ut över Dachau, antagligen valde de medvetet Auswitch skylten för den är så känd så människor hade trott att det var fel om de använt den rätta.
ReplyDelete