Nothing To Learn?
THE FOLLOWING WAS POSTED ON THE MESSAGE BOARD FOR "THE READER." I FELT IT SHOULD BE POSTED HERE TOO.
I was astounded to hear Lena Olin's character -- playing a concentration camp survivor -- telling Ralph Fiennes' character something along the lines of: "The camp's were not universities. There was nothing to learn from being in them or from visiting them."
I've known many concentration camp survivors; my mother and my father and most of my family were survivors of the Holocaust. I have never, ever heard a Holocaust survivor say anything even remotely like this. It's a statement one would expect from the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but not from a camp survivor.
It's too late now, but it's unfortunate that the makers of this film did not have the opportunity to watch "Inheritance," which was aired on PBS just last week. It's a documentary that brings together the daughter of Amon Goeth (made infamous via "Schindler's List") with a survivor of the camp that Goeth was commandant of. Both women are brought to tears when they visit the actual camp and meet one another, and both of them most definitely learn something from the visit.
Anyone who's thinking about seeing "The Reader" should take the opportunity to watch this powerful documentary first, before they allow their sympathies and emotions to be confused and twisted by this beatifully made, but painfully flawed and misguided feature film.