I finally watched The Reader. I got hung up on the idea of making time for a movie many would shelve in the "Holocaust Oscar Bait" section of the couple video stores left in existence. On top of that, I couldn't bring myself to argue in favor of watching "Nazi Softcore Porn," as my wife referred to it. It turned out to not be that bad, but Winslet won that Oscar for her body of work and Revolutionary Road (Blu-ray review coming soon), not this.
The way people talked about Hanna Schmitz, the former concentration camp guard Winslet plays, during award season makes me laugh now. People went on about her "bravery" and how her story "had to be told" like she was Madame Curie. None of her personal resolve or actions absolve her of what she openly admitted to having done. Should she have gone to prison for as long as she did? No, but I don't have any pity for her pride. Sorry.
Bruno Ganz's law professor character has it right that cases in German courts of the time were not about justice, but German guilt. Moreover, that contrast is exactly the motivation behind the movie's protagonist, promising student Michael Berg. Michael Berg's compulsion to help Hanna in his early and later life (as played by David Kross and Ralph Fiennes) comes from a strain of Stockholm Syndrome. Things start to slide downhill for Michael once he feels like he wants to help her after his older woman lover is exposed as complicit in genocide.
Plenty of my online film writer colleagues (the male ones at least) have ignored the narrative and hailed it for the nudity. I feel rather alone in finding it sociologically disturbing none of them see this as a case of sexual trauma. Yes, the fifteen year old loved getting it on with a woman in her 30's who was gladly obliging. Thing is, it obviously stunted his interpersonal communication ability with members of the opposite sex his own age through to later life, forcing him into a rather solitary existence.
It's well-made and well-acted, to be sure, but I can't help but feel rather indifferent after watching it. I felt sorry for those the movie concerns, but it was pretty miserable hanging with them for any length of time, particularly 124 minutes. The Weinstein Company released the DVD a few weeks before the Blu-ray at the end of last month. Extras include a ton of Deleted Scenes [42:08] (mostly just extended versions of existing scenes) as well as some featurettes. Adapting a Timeless Masterpiece: Making The Reader [23:02] has a title and content that are batter-dipped and fried in hyperbole. Among the other featurettes, I most enjoyed Kate Winslet On the Art of Aging Hanna Schmitz [12:49] because you get to see Winslet be herself, and Coming To Grips With the Past: Production Designer Brigitte Broch [7:21], which has an equally long title. A Conversation with David Kross & Stephen Daldry [9:46] was fine and all, as was A New Voice: A Look at Composer Nico Muhly [4:07].