I've seen many films from the 1940's through the 1960's with subtle and not-so subtle anti-black racism, but this was the first I saw of outright hostility and anti-German racial stereotyping in film. I know from stories my German-born mother told me that there was hatred directed towards German immigrants after WW II, that some saw all Germans as inhuman nazis. This is on display in The Seventh Cross. I couldn't finish it.
shareWell, when you krauts stop starting wars and attempting genocide and to rule the world we'll ease off the sterotyping. In the meanwhile...vee ask zee questions here!
Any German Nazi (or Nazi sympathizer from any other country, for that matter)who is still living should be hunted down like a dog and killed, just like the filthy German butchers murdered my relatives in Poland and Italy.
shareFilms like this and the Killing Fields never show the human side behind genocidal regimes. Seriously, "Anti-German bigotry"? What is next, Adolph Hitler, the misunderstood fundlmentalist? The O.P. needs serious help.
shareI can see how someone could see the film as being bigottedly anti-German -- not criticizing the Nazi regime, but being biased against the entire country, German citizenry in general -- but, only if they pay attention to only certain parts of the film. In particular, some of the narration earlier in the film kinda shocked me in the way it blatantly condemned all German people.
But, then the film actually does an interesting and affecting thing with this "attack" on the German people. After Leo has told us how bad all of Germany is, after we see how "they" have broken George's spirit, we see Germans practically coming out of the woodwork to help George, given the scale and running time of the film. Some of them fearfully, some even having to be shamed into action, but a bunch of these supposedly evil, Nazi-loving krauts work together, taking great risks, to help one person survive the Nazi threat. George freakin' McCready, of all actors, turns out to be a good guy, in the end!
Our narrator claims that George's faith in humanity can be restored if he can just *manage* to find ONE single soul who will have the decency to come to his aid... and then shows us a truckload of German souls doing just that. The film cleverly and movingly undercuts its own narrator, its own thesis, even.
I agree the romance near the end is hokey. Romances tended to develop with remarkable rapidity in Golden Age Hollywood films, but these two seem to fall in love in an hour or two. Still, if you have to have such a romance, yes, have it between these two actors. And there was more to Toni than just being a love interest. She was one of those helpful, good Germans who make the story so extraordinary, and she plays a critical role in George's escape.
And the character of Toni was a means by which to bring Signe Hasso into the film. You have to go much farther than a hokey romance like this to make me regret the presence of Signe Hasso in a film. Signe Hasso could've read a phone book to me in a film, I don't care.
I love Signe Hasso.
Matthew
I am a German-American and had family on both sides of WW1 and WW2. It is hard for people to trust a country that put millions of innocent people to death. The same can be said for the Japanese, the savageness of beheading pow's who fell during the Bataan death march. No matter how bad you fell about German racial bigotry you have to understand how people suffered and still suffer.
shareThat, I think, is you unfortunate mistake. Without seeing the entire movie you missed the whole point, that the germans weren't all horible stereotypes and that George's faith in humanity was restored.
shareI don't actually think you even started watching this movie, especially since you claim you've seen so many films from the 1940s through the 1960s, and this is the first movie you've seen with anti-German sentiment. So, I also don't believe that you've seen many 1940s movies.
Anti-German sentiment was throughout World War II in the movies. Call it propaganda.
I was shocked that this movie, made during WWII, actually showed that not all Germans were Nazis. Which is a surprising point of view for a movie at this time. Every character (except maybe Toni) were supposed to be Germans. George Hessler was a good guy. Paul and Liesl Roeder were good people. Peter was a good guy. A lot of people contributed to George's changed outlook on life, even the little girl who trusted George helped him.
Many of the ones who were cruel aren't evil either, but scared. Like that former girlfriend of George's.
So, no, the "All Germans as inhuman Nazis" isn't on display in this movie.
I thought the film was surprisingly lenient on the citizens of Hitler's Germany. In the film almost everyone Spencer Tracy bumped into just happened to be so anti-Hitler as to risk their lives to help him -- including the love of his life, when virtually any self-respecting German madchen would have turned him in in the blink of an eye, for the good of the Fatherland. The director was certainly German and, I assume, the writer too (admittedly, without doing the least bit of research into this).
shareI thought the portrayal of Germans in Hitler's Germsny was totally fair. Fred Zinneman showed great restraint, considering the film was made during the war.
Can't believe the OP is complaining about it. Ridiculous.
Things may be different now, and I hope that today's Germany is a kind and benevolent nation. Forgive me if I sleep a bit better at night knowing they aren't a military power.
The replies to the OP must have worked well. Or else he achieved his life's great desire. He has remained a member, but has not posted since.
The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.
The movie is not anti German, but you have to watch the entire movie. All the persons that helped George were also Germans, and did a great job. One might have been Jew, still German at that time. This is a wonderful movie about hope, and the rediscovery of human spirit. One character says a story about ants getting all the sugar, and the fact that they can't kill everyone. The ant story itself is slightly defeatist. The underground was small, but not all peoples were bad.
WWII was a great tragedy, and at least Europe was into turned to ruins by both Germany and Soviet Union. Japan were the counter part on the Eastern front. The Allies were not an army of angels either, but by comparison they pale. Only Germany was able to built and sustain the concentration camps. Maltreating the POWs must have been quite general, with a few extra bad exceptions.
We should have learned by now that wars and killing are awful things, but it does not seem to work.