I watched the movie The Reader on itunes the other day with a Bulgarian friend, a Romanian friend, a Spanish friend, and a German friend. I have Itunes on my computer which allows me to download movies even though they haven't come out in theaters here in France yet. The movie is about a German woman who was a Nazi gaurd during WWII, she is put on trial for her war crimes and eventually imprisoned for life. The movie is seen through the eyes of a man who had an affair with her when he was a teenager and is a law student observing her trial and eventually sends her tapes of books while she is in prison.
Kate Winslet won best actress for the movie. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, yes she convningly played the part, there was a certain feeling of sympathy for her but part of me was just like...yeah so what she killed people and now she suffers the consequences. I understand that my reaction to it is a bit crass because who knows what anyone would have done in that situation, in that day and age, we like to think we would have done the right thing but it is easy for us to judge when we are completely removed from the situation.
Anyway I thought the film was interesting but not one I would particularly recommend HOWEVER all of the other girls watching it thought it was fantastic, they were able to sympathized with the protagonist. Perhaps it's just me or maybe it's a deeper cultural difference between Europe and the US. I am not sure. I just found it surprising that I was the only one at the end of the film who was still thinking....well justice has come full cycle
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Hey Joy... I am catching up on your blog today. I haven't read it in forever becase I have been so busy. Vicki and I saw this movie a while ago. I am a little rusty on the details, but I remember liking it. As for Kate Winslet's character, I'm not sure she is meant to evoke sympahthy so much as pity. At least, I do not feel any sympathy for her, since it implies being able to put myself in her shoes and understand how she did what she did and I don't. However, I do pity her. She was illiterate. Uneducated. Not that that is an excuse, but I think it was stressed for a reason. Didn't you get the feeling that it was more than that? It was like she really didn't understand that what she did was wrong. She didn't know. It wasn't as if she knew and did it anyway. That is why I pity her. Because maybe if she had understood that it was wrong, she wouldn't have done it. Nevertheless, I do think she deserved to be punished.
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