The White Ribbon

This is Nidhi

Photo courtesy of http://truthisfree.baywords.com/category/culture/page/2/

After watching the conclusion of The White Ribbon, I was a little surprised. The movie left the audience guessing and wondering which individuals in the town committed the violent crimes. Since the movie did not have definitive conclusions, it allowed viewers to interpret the movie in various ways. I actually read an article that was published in The New York Times about the release of The White Ribbon and how many directors like Darren Aronofsky were left stupefied after watching the film last year. Many directors from around the world watched a viewing of the film at Lincoln Center and Michael Haneke was present at the event. He did not reveal any secrets to the audience and said the purpose of the film was to keep viewers wondering.

I read one interesting perspective from a German scholar from the City University of New York. Dagmar Herzog wrote “Sex After Fascism: Memory and Mortality in Twentieth-Century Germany,” and he wrote about the Nazis restrictive policies when dealing with sex. According to Herzog, the Nazis were actually interested in sexual pleasure and encouraged heterosexual Aryans to find pleasure both with their spouses and mistresses. He adds that sexual pleasure was supposed to be “for the sheer sake of fun,” and had nothing to do with procreation. Even though the Nazis were sexually suppressing the rest of Germany, they believed that they had the right to engage in sexual activity that was frowned upon.

I tried to think about this explanation in terms of the film. The Pastor’s oldest son is reprimanded by his father for inappropriately touching himself and is tied to his bed as a form of punishment. The Pastor tells him that another young boy actually died from engaging in the same behavior. In the film, sex is considered such a sin and to think of it as pleasurable instead of just a means for reproduction is unholy. The child may not completely understand what he is doing because he is still a young boy. He is punished so severely, yet he is involved in the various violent crimes that took place in the town. Even though the boy is hurting other people, the Pastor is offended when the schoolteacher suggests that his children might be involved in the horrific acts.

Ironically, he is punished for something less severe and does not even get in trouble for hurting other people. The Nazis were irrationally punishing the rest of the German population, and more specifically the Jewish population. Like the children in the town, the Nazis were harming and and killing innocent people for no reason and their crimes were left unpunished. Additionally, the Nazis wished to suppress sexuality and even discriminated against homosexuals. However, as Herzog states, the Nazis believed they had the right to be sexually free and seek pleasure despite the restrictions they placed on the rest of society. In the film, the powerful individuals prey on the innocent and want the meek in society of be “pure and innocent,” yet they are the ones who are engaging in sex even though want to restrict others from doing so.