I was taught European History by a former Hitler Youth. Yes, I know exactly how that sounds. And Hans Crome proved to me that every child deserves a chance to escape the evil they were born into. Sure, being taught by somebody who spent his formative years soaking up Nazisms meant you had to take some of what you heard with a grain of salt … or a pillar as the case may be. And often I had to endure the favorite mannerism of Mr. Crome: he would ponder your idea, pause, and slowly respond, “Vellllll, no.” But damned if I didn’t learn a bunch from that man … and not a single word of it described Jews as anything other than normal human beings.
Johannes Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis) puts the Hitler in Hitler Youth. So indoctrinated is “Jojo” that he has an imaginary friend in Adolf Hitler himself. Writer/Director/Nazi-mocker Taika Waititi cast himself as sort-of a happy-go-lucky Hitler: on the outside, he’s all uniform and “HEIL ME!” But on the inside, Adolf is Jojo’s pal, supportive and attentive at all times. Jojo is excited for Hitler Youth training camp; it won’t be long before the ten-year-old boy is out fighting side-by-side with his father, right?
Camp doesn’t exactly go Jojo’s way. Led by a scarred and mildly disgraced Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell; geez, Sam, you’re just running the gamut of 20th century villains, aren’t you? Is this what being a middle aged white male actor in 2019 is all about?), the camp is a combination of hyperbolic Nazi rhetoric and irresponsible supervision. Jojo is not unlike the Hitler he’s created; his brain is full of nastiness, but his heart is full of love. When Jojo refuses to strangle a hare in front of his peers, the camp counselors mock him “Jojo Rabbit” and the name sticks. In the next scene, Jojo –out of frustration- grabs a hand grenade and fails to use it properly; he has scars for the rest of the film.
This is how Jojo Rabbit progresses – Jojo is kind-hearted Nazi stooge larva having adventures that range from comic to tragic. When he returns home from camp, the film shows off a feminine side, giving us more of his secretly subversive mother Rosie (Scarlett Johansson) and letting Jojo discover the Jewish girl Rosie is hiding in the crawl space (Thomasin McKenzie).
And, oh boy, does the film ever have fun matching Jojo’s closed-minded idiotic Nazi rhetoric with reality. Elsa (McKenzie) constantly toys with Jojo, allowing him to believe that Jews have horns, read minds, and lay eggs among several other nonhuman traits. The film is about Jojo’s growth; he has to figure out for himself that he’s been fed a steady stream of bullshit. The only shame in this exploration is that its real-life parallel doesn’t seem to be taking place; Trump supporters don’t seem to be latching on to the part where they realize they’ve been played; perhaps they just need more time.
If you’d asked me a decade ago where I thought movie villains were evolving, I’d have guessed that Nazis were on their way out. After all, don’t we all know by now that Nazis were bad news? Boy, was I ever wrong. It seems not only does the world need a refresher course on who the Nazis were, what the Holocaust was, and WHY THIS IS BAD, but it seems several million people in this country do accept that Nazis were bad, yet somehow equate them with the left, not the right (?!) Oh? Geez, the levels of education among Americans … use your brains, people: Demonizing foreigners, identifying and belittling people you hate, showing intolerance for dissent of any kind, militaristic paranoia, isolating children, do these sound more like things the left does, or like things the people who are currently in charge of the country do? As far as I’m concerned, right now I can’t get enough of Nazi satire.
Taika Waititi has been among my favorites for a few years now and this film solidifies his place among great directors, thus justifying my love. Woo! On paper, there’s no way Jojo Rabbit should work – it’s the story of a Jew-hating Nazi propagandist child and his imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler – does that sound like it ought to work? Yet, Jojo Rabbit is brilliant satire, punctuating sarcasm and wit with shocking brutality and constant reminders that the Nazis were awful and we as humans should know exactly where the rhetoric of evil leads. We are all Jojo Rabbit; do we let ourselves be defined by the whispers of hate or do we know in heart what is the right path to take? This could well be my choice for #1 film of 2019.
When Hitler lives inside your head
There’s conflict of paths just and misled
You might suggest lotto
Or play Grand Theft Auto
But he wants to invade Poland instead
Rated PG-13, 108 Minutes
Director: Taika Waititi
Writer: Taika Waititi
Genre: Hitler fun!
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Historians, film fans
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: I imagine real life holocaust survivors might have problems finding the funny here
