The White Ribbon

To what extent are the actions of an adult influenced by the events of their childhood? When an entire country goes bad, who is really to blame? Is it the evil does themselves, or does it go back further? Do you enjoy a movie that keeps you thinking long after leaving the theatre? If the answer to that last question is yes, then put The White Ribbon by director Michael Haneke on your Must watch list! Our story takes place as an admittedly unreliable flashback; our narrator states that he pieced together the story through rumor and assumptions. A small village in Germany in the early 1900's is the setting. Right away we are witness to a horrible riding accident: the village doctor is tripped up on his horse by a wire strung between two trees on his usual riding route. Several other violent incidents follow including the beating of a young boy, but there are no suspects for these brutal crimes. Even worse, the villagers don't seem terribly motivated to find the culprits. We then are introduced, on more intimate level, to the villagers themselves and then the horrible really starts to flow! The town Steward beats his son while in the grips of an explosive rage. The Preacher beats his children in the name of piousness. Don't get me started on the Doctor! The only island of human goodness in the film is in the form of the schoolteacher and his sweet courtship of the Baron's nanny. But the teacher is our narrator, so maybe he's just whitewashing his own role in this scenario. Darn unreliable narrators! On the upside, the movie is absolutely beautiful to look at, even when you can't quite look. The black and white cinematography not only fixes our story firmly in the past but also makes some of the horrors we witness a little easier to look at. The director does not rely on crazy camera angles or tricks to tell the story; Realism is the word of the day here. The scenes usually play out in only one or two different shots depending on the number of characters in the scene. There is no traditional background music; all sounds and music that we hear feel natural. The actors in the film look like "real people", they speak like "real people", they move like "real people"; amazing acting throughout this film. These elements come together to form a truly believable feeling when viewing, you lose yourself in the unfolding of events. The characterizations, especially of the leading citizens of the village were very interesting. The men in positions of power were never referred to by name, only by title; bestowing on them the mantle of archetype which allows them to be completely awful within the scope of their role. That being said, there are not many "bad guys" or "good guys" in this story. Most of our characters feel very human: conflicted, unsure, imperfect. Which brings me to the children: there is a great cinematic tradition of mobs of evil children in films. Don't think for a second that our director will make it that easy for you! It is interesting to ponder the narrator's assertion at the start of the film that the events of the film may "clarify things that happened in our country". One thinks of the rise of National Socialism in the form of Nazis, the wholesale slaughter of millions of innocent people, etc... I have watched this film several times and I think I come away with a different take on it every time; I will leave it up to you, prospective viewer, to come to your own conclusion. I know that there are many people who do not like movies with open- ended conclusions, and to them I say: This is NOT the film for you! This movie seems to raise many more questions than it answers but, if you don't mind some mental heavy lifting, the rewards are great.

This film magnificently captures the micro that led to the macro in Germany, the foundation laid in Prussia/Germany back in the early 1800s that led to the explosion we came to know as Nazi Germany. Child abuse, child killing and violations of children back in the 1800s was so bad that the French and English were appalled when they visited Bavaria. And remember it was not a great time to be a child in France and England in that time period so for the French and English to be appalled...well...it had to be really really bad.What happens in childhood doesn't stay in childhood, the festering secrets and festering wounds will manifest in some way. It is what spawned Adi (Adolf's nickname as a boy). We think it's all a great unsolvable mystery as to how a young Bavarian/Austrian boy could get everyone to simply obey him by being a raving lunatic but the answer lies in the secrets of this one German village, then multiply that by thousands of villages with similar parental authorities enthroned in simple households raging and torturing children and there you have it.Read Lloyd deMause's meticulous research or Alice Miller's work. What we can't talk about directly we can speak the truth in film making and this film does truth telling in stark black and white to tell a stark dreadful tale. How cold and calculating the abuse was to those children. The shaming, the humiliation, the degradation, the parental need for absolute control of children and use of children to fulfill the needs of the adults who also had the same childhood experiences.There is no resolution to the film because some elements of Germany still hold on to these same dynamics that fostered the violent explosion, still hold onto the denial, still hold onto the sickness, still hold onto the family secrets, the dirty laundry of Germany.A young German girl, Anna Rosmus from Passau, Bavaria innocently wrote a paper about Passau's history of helping the Jewish people only to find out in her research the people of Passau lied and covered up. They rabidly verbally attacked her, threatened her and she ended up moving away from Germany for her own and her family's safety. And this was in the 1980s not the 1930s. That film is called "Das schreckliche Mädchen", in English it is (very poor translation by the way) "The Nasty Girl". A better translation is "The Horrible Girl". Passau was where little Adi lived when he was very young.Das Wiesse Band is an excellent, excellent film. It's fascinating and important history for the world to know and understand.

In his monumental history of Germany and the Great War (Germany's Aims in the First World War), German historian Fritz Fischer shows clearly what Germany's historical problem was. A young nation, only recently politically united in the late 19th century, it was secure in knowing that its pre-eminent cultural status in Europe was understood and accepted. But it was politically marginal, a weak nation hardly noticed in the shadows of the Great Powers surrounding it. To the east Russia stretched all the way to the Pacific. To the west the empires of Britain and France were vast. Other empires in the west had flourished as well: those of Holland, Spain and Portugal. Even Italy and Belgium had had more influence abroad than Germany.Germany's ambitions were thwarted and blocked both by history and geography. The country was hemmed in. There was nowhere to expand. How could it take what it considered its rightful place on the world stage? War became the answer, first as policy, then as actuality. It had worked in 1870-71 during the Franco-Prussian War. Germany pried Alsace and Lorraine away from France in the aftermath of the Prussian victory. But two French provinces were nothing compared to the high seas and to potential continental possessions abroad. So the Kaiser began to build a navy that could rival that of Britain's while the architects of war in the German army were hard at work. The Schlieffen Plan to encircle Paris and bring France to its knees had been formulated by 1905, nine years before the outbreak of war. Germany was preparing for its liberation from the status of second-rank nation and war would be the way to obtain that liberation.This is the cultural backdrop — social, psychological, political — to The White Ribbon. The film does not deal overtly with politics. It doesn't have to, as the national seeds of it are embedded in the local culture of the village.It is not a happy village. No one smiles, laughs or plays in it, not even the children. Or they try to play, but this is not encouraged by the adults. Tradition, authority and rigid rules maintain discipline, ensuring order and preserving the hierarchy of power. Men of course are in charge, not women. Women never go to war. It's always the men who kill one another.On the surface: tidiness, order, routine, obedience, everything and everyone in its place, bringing stability. But appearances don't always match reality. Mysterious events begin to overtake the village: accidents, disappearances, deaths. Malign, unidentifiable forces are at work, afflicting the village. But we who live in the present, not then in 1913, know what they are and portend. The storm is coming and we can almost hear the artillery shells exploding on the Western Front.The white ribbon, tied round the upper arm of a child, marks out its wearer as sinful. Some violation has occurred and violations cannot be tolerated. They are forbidden, a concept the German mind absolutely loves. The white ribbon is like Hawthorne's scarlet letter or the yellow Star of David that Hitler so sentimentally adored. The malefactor, the outcast will be marked and noticed. There is no escape.The village, a small replica of Germany, is facing moral breakdown. Facing but not facing, as it were. Denial, justification, lies, hypocrisy. Though the war has not yet happened, we discern already the contours of its outcome. Devoid of humanity and humane values, the village is already defeated. The adults have failed their children — children who will grow up to fight another war, the second an even greater obscenity than the first.The film is a parable about the roots of evil (so said the film's director, Michael Haneke), so I have used that phrase as the subject heading of this review.Haneke must be applauded for his artistry and humanity. His film, a black-and-white masterpiece, will one day be hailed as a classic. If it hasn't yet, it's only because most great things take time.The film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes during the year of its release (2009), so the judges there understood what they were seeing. Anyone interested in fascism, the Great War, or both should feel thankful that this brilliant film has been made. It is dark and disturbing, but vital.

This movie has a moderately simple plot, that anyone with an average IQ can work out. It's hard to believe that there are those that buy a foreign language film and are disappointed that it has sub-titles. I don't hold much hope for them, I'm afraid. What possessed them to buy it in the first place? Michael Haneke states in his included interview the events could have taken place in any (European country) at that time, and it must be common knowledge that rural communities in the UK were still in service (my grandparents were) so keep that in mind. There is no connection between the white ribbon and nazi armbands, simply that on the eve of World War the world of our ancestors was about to change for ever.Brilliantly directed, cast and acted, I like Hanekes work.

A highly praised film by an acclaimed director - interesting, realistic, shows human relations in a negative light. But is you're looking for something entertaining, look elsewhere.

Sounds like a brilliant film unfortunately it's German subtitles

The White Ribbon with it's masterly direction holds the viewer's interest throughout, with an excellent cast and setting in days when people never moved far from their villages. the lives of this village community in northern Germany shown to us as it was before 1914.