Knight at the Movies ARCHIVES
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Hitler Hunks with a Conscience:
Before the Fall
2-22-06 Knight at the Movies/Windy City Times Column
by Richard Knight, Jr.
Before the Fall
2-22-06 Knight at the Movies/Windy City Times Column
by Richard Knight, Jr.
A thought provoking, compelling drama framed by a double dose of gay subtext
There have been many films about resistance fighters battling the Nazis during World War II. But German writer-director Dennis
Gansel’s provocative drama Before the Fall focuses on something that I hadn’t thought about before seeing it: resistance fighters
(of a sort) WITHIN the Nazi party. Gansel’s film is about the son of a high ranking Nazi official who just also happens to be a
conscience objector and his friendship with a young man so eager for the seductive advantages the Nazis offer that he jumps at the
chance to immerse himself in the group. Like Das Boot, Before the Fall dares to present sympathetic characters within the structure
of the Nazi war machine but it goes further by showing fervent devotees to the Fatherland’s twisted goals fleshed out as characters
with distinct personalities. With few exceptions, even the most avid Nazi characters in the film are humanized and yet, the film is not
an apology for the group (far from it), but more of a cautionary tale. It’s also an exceptional drama beautifully crafted and acted by
its two young leads.
The film, set in Berlin in 1942, shows the outward appeal of the Third Reich at its height to impressionable German teenage boys –
beginning with the advantages presented by acceptance into the country’s ruling political power. These young men naturally also
loved the luxurious perks, the undeniably fashionable uniforms, the excessive vanity and emphasis on physicality and beauty, and
of course, the seductive elitism. The film is almost a metaphorical tale of addiction, with the high so preferable to real life that one
quickly throws everything – character, principles, loved ones – out the window in order to repeat it.
These enticing advantages are what tantalize Friedrich (Max Riemelt) after he receives an invitation to join the Napola – a Nazi elite
school that trained future leaders the Third Reich planned on having govern London, New York, Moscow – and Chicago. Friedrich is a
high school graduate with a gift for boxing who’s also the son of impoverished parents and facing a dead end job in a factory
alongside his father. When he’s spotted during an exhibition and offered an invitation to join the Napola, his father, who apparently
discerns the insidiousness of the Nazis, refuses to allow him to go. But the determined Friedrich forges his signature to the
permission slip and is impressed by the strong welcome he receives at the luxurious castle where the Napola’s live and train.
Quickly, however, he learns that he’s enrolled himself in an elite finishing school that emphasizes cruelty and discipline over
kindness and decency.
This truly dawns with the arrival of the quiet, bookish Albrecht (Tom Schilling), the son of the governor of the province who helps
Friedrich slowly begin to understand what a horrendous future awaits him. Albrecht is given preferential treatment but soon his
preference for poetry and writing over brute force becomes “suspect.” The rough hewn, buff blond Friedrich is drawn to the dark,
contemplative Albrecht and though the mutual attraction is merely implied, it’s easy to fill in the blanks.
This homoerotic subtext is a running undercurrent throughout the film. The movie frankly acknowledges the sexiness of fascism –
with its emphasis on muscular physical perfection – an uneasy link with gay, and increasingly, straight culture. It’s not hard to see
why Picture This! Entertainment, a premiere distributor of gay films, has picked up the movie. It’s filled to the brim with beautiful
teenage boys and many times throughout it seems the subtext will move to the forefront.
First Friedrich’s coach seems just seconds away from taking him in the boxing ring, then one of his roommates begs to see illicit
photos (which turn out to be of another cadets sisters), next one of Friedrich’s sadistic classmates seems about to accept sexual
favors in return for silence about another student’s constant bed wetting. There is a moment where the bed wetter is order to strip
and pee on his mattress in front of the entire class. And so on. I kept waiting for the clandestine midnight circle jerk – perhaps
hoping this might veer off into a gay version of The Night Porter or an updating of The Damned.
But Gansel keeps the lid on – even with all those Come Hither looks between Albrecht and Friedrich. These continue to escalate as
does the conflict between Albrecht and his disapproving father. Finally, when the students are rousted one night to help hunt down
and shoot what they are told are escaped Russian prisoners in the nearby forest, pacifist Albrecht can take no more and stands up to
his father in front of the others. Tragic consequences then intercede.
In interviews, the 33 year-old Gansel has said that he wrote the film after witnessing years of arguments between his rigid, right wing
grandfather who was himself an instructor in a Napola like school and his father and uncles who were pacifists. Out of that he has
managed to make a very human drama within one of the most inhuman regimes in recorded history – with a distinctly gay subtext
to boot. Subtitled in German. Opens Friday at Chicago's Landmark Century Centre Cinema. www.landmarktheatres.com
Gansel’s provocative drama Before the Fall focuses on something that I hadn’t thought about before seeing it: resistance fighters
(of a sort) WITHIN the Nazi party. Gansel’s film is about the son of a high ranking Nazi official who just also happens to be a
conscience objector and his friendship with a young man so eager for the seductive advantages the Nazis offer that he jumps at the
chance to immerse himself in the group. Like Das Boot, Before the Fall dares to present sympathetic characters within the structure
of the Nazi war machine but it goes further by showing fervent devotees to the Fatherland’s twisted goals fleshed out as characters
with distinct personalities. With few exceptions, even the most avid Nazi characters in the film are humanized and yet, the film is not
an apology for the group (far from it), but more of a cautionary tale. It’s also an exceptional drama beautifully crafted and acted by
its two young leads.
The film, set in Berlin in 1942, shows the outward appeal of the Third Reich at its height to impressionable German teenage boys –
beginning with the advantages presented by acceptance into the country’s ruling political power. These young men naturally also
loved the luxurious perks, the undeniably fashionable uniforms, the excessive vanity and emphasis on physicality and beauty, and
of course, the seductive elitism. The film is almost a metaphorical tale of addiction, with the high so preferable to real life that one
quickly throws everything – character, principles, loved ones – out the window in order to repeat it.
These enticing advantages are what tantalize Friedrich (Max Riemelt) after he receives an invitation to join the Napola – a Nazi elite
school that trained future leaders the Third Reich planned on having govern London, New York, Moscow – and Chicago. Friedrich is a
high school graduate with a gift for boxing who’s also the son of impoverished parents and facing a dead end job in a factory
alongside his father. When he’s spotted during an exhibition and offered an invitation to join the Napola, his father, who apparently
discerns the insidiousness of the Nazis, refuses to allow him to go. But the determined Friedrich forges his signature to the
permission slip and is impressed by the strong welcome he receives at the luxurious castle where the Napola’s live and train.
Quickly, however, he learns that he’s enrolled himself in an elite finishing school that emphasizes cruelty and discipline over
kindness and decency.
This truly dawns with the arrival of the quiet, bookish Albrecht (Tom Schilling), the son of the governor of the province who helps
Friedrich slowly begin to understand what a horrendous future awaits him. Albrecht is given preferential treatment but soon his
preference for poetry and writing over brute force becomes “suspect.” The rough hewn, buff blond Friedrich is drawn to the dark,
contemplative Albrecht and though the mutual attraction is merely implied, it’s easy to fill in the blanks.
This homoerotic subtext is a running undercurrent throughout the film. The movie frankly acknowledges the sexiness of fascism –
with its emphasis on muscular physical perfection – an uneasy link with gay, and increasingly, straight culture. It’s not hard to see
why Picture This! Entertainment, a premiere distributor of gay films, has picked up the movie. It’s filled to the brim with beautiful
teenage boys and many times throughout it seems the subtext will move to the forefront.
First Friedrich’s coach seems just seconds away from taking him in the boxing ring, then one of his roommates begs to see illicit
photos (which turn out to be of another cadets sisters), next one of Friedrich’s sadistic classmates seems about to accept sexual
favors in return for silence about another student’s constant bed wetting. There is a moment where the bed wetter is order to strip
and pee on his mattress in front of the entire class. And so on. I kept waiting for the clandestine midnight circle jerk – perhaps
hoping this might veer off into a gay version of The Night Porter or an updating of The Damned.
But Gansel keeps the lid on – even with all those Come Hither looks between Albrecht and Friedrich. These continue to escalate as
does the conflict between Albrecht and his disapproving father. Finally, when the students are rousted one night to help hunt down
and shoot what they are told are escaped Russian prisoners in the nearby forest, pacifist Albrecht can take no more and stands up to
his father in front of the others. Tragic consequences then intercede.
In interviews, the 33 year-old Gansel has said that he wrote the film after witnessing years of arguments between his rigid, right wing
grandfather who was himself an instructor in a Napola like school and his father and uncles who were pacifists. Out of that he has
managed to make a very human drama within one of the most inhuman regimes in recorded history – with a distinctly gay subtext
to boot. Subtitled in German. Opens Friday at Chicago's Landmark Century Centre Cinema. www.landmarktheatres.com