Your last line, "I could have simply watched the footage and came away as knowledgeable about it as this film left me," proves your ignorance.
Although you are correct in saying that they never "solved the mystery" of the intent of the film, it was mentioned within the first 20 minutes of this newer film that the reasons were never uncovered.
So if that type of unhinged-structure upsets you so much, why did you finish the movie?
If you didn't have the interviews then you couldn't have gotten an idea of the impression left upon the individuals involved with the making of the film or a great deal of the processes used. Also you are given a glimpse of the details by the survivors that recall being there.
For a specific example, there was a woman carrying a baby and yelling or singing. Since there is no sound, how could you have found out that it was her child and that she's asking for bread?
It may be a trivial detail, but those "trivial details" are the reason that this second film was made as there are some people who would like to know them. Your inability to understand that has no bearing on whether or not they attempted to convey anything more other than what is contained on the original filmstock, so, yeah that last statement really points you out to be some kind of ignorant.
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TheSummer2012
13 years ago
I think it was pretty clear why the film was made. It was a propaganda film to show that the Jews were basically responsible for their own fate. There were scenes showing people having lavish meals washed down with champagne, living in huge flats, going to the theatre to enjoy themselves while others around them were dying and they didn't care. The rich Jews got a splendid burial while the poorer ones just died on the streets and were dumped in mass graves. It was the Nazis saying: "Look, it's not us. There's enough food to go around but the rich Jews don't care for their own kind. That shows their character"-kind of thing. It also went to great lengths to show that it was the Jews themselves who were responsible for this because they were in charge (the "Jewish Council" (Judenrat), the Jewish police men and so on).
From the diaries, outtakes and interviews we know that many scenes were staged (although there were families who had it better than others in the ghetto). What makes this documentary so powerful is that it gives us an insight in the horrific conditions the vast majority of these people had to live in. Truly harrowing.
I didn't feel this film was "unfinished", it was a great piece of documentary filmmaking.
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mark-4825
12 years ago
Your completely unwarranted attack on the OP shows that you are the truly ignorant one.
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smjensen312-158-669840
12 years ago
I had seen some of the footage before (it's painful to watch) and I suspected the scenes were often staged. This film actually demonstrated that the Nazis not only staged scenes, they forced the "actors" to do "retakes" until their "performances" satisfied the Nazis. I can imagine the cruelty and terror involved. In the scenes in the mikva (ritual bath) they forced men and women to bathe together even though that would never be done ordinarily. In the scene at a theater, they ordered the stage performers to overact wildly and the corralled audience was held in the theater most of the day (and forbidden to go to the toilet). They forced starving children to stare longingly into shop windows where meat was hung (creating an outrageously false impression of an abundance of food).
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