"Dancing is for people who are free." - Rosie, Jojo Rabbit
Who would have ever thought you could actually make Adolf Hitler somewhat likeable? Now let's get something straight: I'm NOT praising Hitler. No, I'm praising Taika Waititi's writing and playing of the fictional character Imaginary Friend Adolf Hitler in his 2019 film, Jojo Rabbit, directed by Polynesian Director/Actor Taika Waititi, who is perhaps best known as the director of Marvel's 2017 film Thor: Ragnarok, as well as playing the rock creature Korg in the film and once again in Avengers: Endgame. Jojo Rabbit won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Scarlett Johansson, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, and Best Picture. Based on a 2008 novel Caging Skies by New Zealander-Belgian novelist Christine Leunens, he film is about Jojo Betzler, a young boy who has been indoctrinated quite deeply into Nazi ideology growing and learning to see the truth through his interactions with a Jewish girl living in his house. Jojo is supported by his mother Rosie, his best friend Yorkie, his "mentor" figure Captain Klenzendorf, and most of all, his imaginary friend Adolf Hitler, who is a more buffoonish but likeable version of Hitler that Jojo uses as a support system.
I really liked this film overall because of how satirical, yet still quite historical. Taika Waititi captured pretty well what it must've been like in Nazi Germany towards the end of World War II; people were brainwashed into believing that the Nazis were still winning, despite there being people who knew they had basically lost the war. This brainwashed aspect of Nazi Germany is shown very well in the film as most people are almost blissfully unaware that the Nazis are horribly losing the war; the only people who do know this (such as Capt. Klenzendorf) are forced to pretend as if everything's going great, even though when we know it isn't. The Nazi hatred of Jewish people and the propaganda they use to make young children think that the Jews are some demonic, monstrous creatures are also well done, especially the part about them "hypnotizing" you into believing that they weren't evil, which I believe was an actual propaganda tool.
I really liked the fact that not everyone in the film was a devoted Nazi and that there were other people (apart from Jojo) who were questioning the war and even Nazi ideologies. Captain Klenzendorf (AKA Captain K) says in his first scene "And even though it would appear our country’s on the back foot and that there really isn’t much hope us of winning this war, apparently we’re doing just fine.". Jojo's mother Rosie is also definitely aware of the war situation and her line "Things are changing. The Allies have taken Italy. France will be next and the war will soon be over... It’s war I hate. It’s pointless and stupid and the sooner we have peace the better." shows that she also has not been indoctrinated by the Nazi propaganda. Having characters that are not 100% devoted Nazis make the movie more realistic in my opinion because I'm sure that there were many Germans who simply never agreed with Hitler's ideologies.
Finally, Jojo's best friend Yorkie is also someone who is questioning the Nazi antisemitic ideologies. During a conversation with Jojo, Yorkie talks about a group of Jewish people he saw captured, and he says of them "Personally I didn’t see what all the fuss was about. They weren’t at all scary and seemed kind of normal. But don’t tell anyone I said that." It was interesting to see the contrast between the "die-hard" Nazis and the skeptical Nazis. Yorkie does fall for some of the Nazi propaganda, but at the same time he also seems to be a regular person. I think that Yorkie probably would've represented a lot of the German population at the time; they were regular people who were questioning some of the things that the Nazis were telling them, but didn't DARE speak out against them because of their devotion to war. War bring together the citizens of a country in a frightening unity. As George Orwell best put it in 1984, "War is Peace".
The ending battle was really well done and it seriously showed how desperate the Nazis were getting and how devastating the war really was. A large amount of the Germans fighting against the Americans were civilians, and there were even many children involved, with many used as suicide bombers. Although the entire movie did a great job showing the bleak reality of Nazi Germany, it was the ending battle that highlighted the real dark side of reality well. It was the part where the kids were just blindly running into fight that hit the hardest because they were very likely heavily brainwashed to just become soldier and that was really dark for me and I think that the scene was filmed and directed superbly.
Of course, I can't review Jojo Rabbit without talking about Jojo's imaginary friend Adolf Hitler played by Taika Waititi (for convenience sake I'm going to refer to him as HitlerWaititi). I just want to point out how AMAZING Taika was in this movie. He made the character he played a very likeable one (at least at the start) and worked really well as a parallel character to Jojo's growth as a character. Taika plays a very buffoonish and friendly version of Hitler, who has essentially been over-glorified in Jojo's mind.
At the beginning of the movie, Jojo is a pretty insecure boy who really lack confidence about a lot of things. So HitlerWaititi is there as a father figure (as Jojo's father is absent) and friend to Jojo. This Hitler is very likeable; he is nothing but supportive to Jojo and constantly encourages him to be more brave, but also lets him know that there's nothing really wrong him being himself, telling Jojo "Be the rabbit. The humble bunny can outwit all his enemies and that is why he is a hero." These early scenes are really interesting because this is the point where Jojo is pretty much fully brainwashed. meaning that his views of Hitler is a very much a fantastical one. This Hitler showers Jojo with essentially unconditional love and acceptance, something that the insecure Jojo desperately needs, which is why he is on screen very often.
Throughout the course of the movie, as Jojo meets Elsa (his sister's childhood friend and a Jew) and gets to interact with her and even fall for her, Hitler's presence becomes more and more scarce. As Jojo gains Elsa as someone new to trust even more, Hitler's presence is no longer needed as much. When Hitler DOES appear, it is in the moments where Jojo's faith to the Nazis are questioned, and HitlerWaititi is there to "keep him in line". As Jojo learns more about the reality of the Nazi party, Hitler's antisemitism takes more centre stage and his conversations with Jojo turns more into "You need to kill her" type conversations rather then encouraging pep talks like before.
By the end of the movie, Hitler has become a full-on monster. Jojo has recently learnt of Hitler's suicide and has broken free of the Nazi brainwashing, even admitting to Elsa that he's in love with her. Hitler now is openly spewing slurs against Elsa, referring to her as "that thing" and a "disgusting Jewy cow". He also amusingly has a bullet wound on his head and directly belittles Jojo into trusting him. Jojo has now also become a very confident, independent boy who has grown through his experiences, meaning that he no longer needs to have Hitler around as a support system. HitlerWaititi in contrast therefore has become an snivelling coward who is desperately trying to seem powerful and is begging for Jojo's admiration and attention. Jojo permanently banishes Hitler with a beautiful "Fuck off" (This is a real quote from the film).
It was really clever idea to use Hitler as a parallel to Jojo's growth as a character. You can really see how Hitler changes as a support system as Jojo grows as a character. Hitler's on-screen presence noticeably begins to decrease as Jojo learns more and is eventually phased out of Jojo's life forever. You can really tell Taika had a lot of fun with the character (clearly satirizing the crap out of Hitler to mock him as best as possible) and I honestly think he deserved an Oscar nomination for the role. You can really see the REAL Hitler's dark sides poke out here and there in the middle of the light-hearted ones and it was simply fantastically acted.
Of course, while Jojo and HitlerWaititi are really the "central" characters of the film, the thing that made this film even more great are the supporting cast, namely Jojo's mother Rosie, Jojo's best friend Yorkie, the Jewish girl Elsa, and Jojo's mentor-like figure Captain Klenzendorf (Captain K) and Captain K's "friend" Freddy Finkel. I love each of these character because they each represent different aspects of people living in and fighting against Nazi Germany in their own clear ways. While I'd love to go into them in detail, I don't want to spoil any of the major plot developments (which I'll probably end up doing if I go too far into this) so I'll leave it to you to figure it out yourself since it's honestly not the most subtle thing in the universe. For example, Elsa clearly represents the repressed Jewish people hidden by a non-brainwashed German, Jojo's mother Rosie, and later Jojo. Overall, all of the supporting characters (although Rosie and Elsa technically are main characters) really embellished the movie in their own little ways and made the experience more realistic for me.
Jojo Rabbit was probably one of my favourite films of 2019 and maybe ever. It portrayed Nazi Germany and the people inside very well. The film had all the diverse types of people in Nazi Germany; the repressed hidden minorities, the rebellious people, the Nazi fanatics, the questioning citizens, and even the brainwashed child soldiers. It was an emotional ride as well. It was no doubt a comedy, but there were some REALLY dark and depressing moments that could make someone tear up. I don't understand how Scarlett Johansson didn't get the Oscar as much as I won't ever understand how Taron Egerton wasn't even nominated for Best Actor or Rocketman nominated for Best Picture. The acting was overall pretty flawless. Everybody performed well, most impressively 11 or 12-year-old Roman Griffin Davis, who played Jojo and Archie Yates who played Yorkie. Those two kids were honestly REALLY great; Roman was really good at portraying deep emotions that I never could've achieved NOW, much less at TEN and Archie had really hilarious line delivery. So overall, if you like comedies that satirize historical events and characters, Jojo Rabbit is THE movie for you: I can't really think of faults to it and the movie was seriously great, and if it had won Best Picture, it would've 100% deserved it.
So for my next review, since I've reviewed a pretty recent film, I'm going to go a little back in time to the 1930s (1933 to be exact) to a film based on a novel by the sci-fi writer and eugenics supporter Herbert George Wells. As always, thank you for reading my blog, and I always will enjoy hearing from all of you, so if you have any comments, feedbacks, opinions, suggestions, etc., please feel free to comment, and I WILL respond to ALL comments!
