Saturday, February 06, 2010
Philosophical question #1...
So Das Boot is on Encore's rotation again. It's about 8,000 hours long, so even under normal conditions it would be impossible to watch straight through, but it's probably the tensest movie I've ever seen. If you haven't seen it (and I'm sure the four people who read this shitty blog haven't), it's the story of a German U-boat during World War II. It's tense for me in two ways:
- It's on a submarine, so you've got 40+ dudes packed tightly into this leaky, tiny boat under water. There's no personal space, no real shower or anything, which freaks me out considerably.
- The nature of submarine warfare itself. The U-boat is hunting convoys, which have large destroyers waiting for U-boats to attack (or at least show itself) so it can go after it with depth charges and guns. There's very little the sub can do except wait and hope the destroyers don't find it.
It's a war film. You want the people to follow to succeed; in this case, the U-boat to get to a safe port. But here's the thing: you're rooting for Germans during World War II. They're not Nazis, but still...thinking about it is an uncomfortable feeling. But, these men are in a near-impossible situation, under hellish conditions and you sympathize with them and root for them. And conversely, for the Allies to fail and, since this is war, to die. Obviously, I wouldn't have these feelings if the nations were reversed.
So my question is this: can one fight honorably for an evil cause? Look, when you're a German in World War II fighting on the offensive, even if you aren't a Nazi directly involved in the systematic genocide of Jews, you're fighting an offensive war that enables that genocide. Is it possible to remain politically neutral while serving an evil regime?
Labels: movies, philosophical questions, Pointless reflection
