Reviewing Movies

Take one hormonal 17-year-old who rises to the occasion at even the thought of a naked female and a lonely young woman stuck in a dead-end job by her illiteracy and put them together by chance and an illicit relationship develops. Hanna’s world comes crashing down when she is promoted to a desk job and her inability to read and write become known. A great deal is omitted in this movie and the audience is left to infer a great deal of the missing plot; indeed, for once the omitted scenes in the supplemental section of this DVD add a great deal of background material.

Hanna is a matter of fact, utterly pragmatic, individual who can distinguish pleasure from pain but seems devoid of any ability to emotionally express it. It is her illiteracy and the pride which prevents her from admitting it that haunts her for life. Again stuck in another dead-end job she jumps at the chance to join the SS and become a woman’s prison guard. Jump years into the future and her paramour, Michael as a law student is taken to witness a Nuremburg like trial at which Hanna is one of six defendants. The moral crux arrives when Hanna’s pride refuses to allow her to admit in open court her illiteracy and this circumstance allows her fellow defendants to jump on the bandwagon and load her with the full blame. Hanna would rather go to prison for life than admit her shame. Michael, who knows better fails to come forward knowing the scorn his supposed betrayal would bring upon him from Hanna.

Left untold are the circumstances that led to an otherwise intelligent young woman’s illiteracy. Michael’s difficult home life is only hinted at and his own experience during the war is not mentioned. We learn of his marriage and meet his daughter who it would seem followed him into law. It is only in the deleted scenes that Michael’s illustrious career as a lawyer is hinted at.

Throughout most of this tale Hanna appears to be absent even from her own life. Her relationship with Michael, even in their sex scenes seems to be utterly impersonal and during her incarceration their only contact is through the recorded tapes he sends her—they meet only once just before she is about to be released. Her case worker who contacts Michael suspects a great deal and expresses her scorn at what she perceives as his moral failings but falls short of openly accusing him. What is most apparent here is that life cannot be painted in black and white or simple terms of right and wrong. Sometimes there are no right answers, only shades of grey.

[Spoiler Alert]

Paul Gross wrote, directed, produced, and starred in this one-man tour-de-force. There are times one could wish that Paul Gross, the actor, had left the directing to someone else. Particularly when one begins wondering whether the love story at the heart of this film is going to win out over the war epic. Shot on the Canadian prairies during what must have been a protracted period of rainy weather this evocation of Vimy Ridge shows soldiers up to their waists in mud holes while shells burst all around them and the sky is lit up with star shells. Whether intentional or not the movie pillories the recruitment efforts of rear echelon majors and pokes fun at a British recruiter who questions the immigrant status of a second generation German family. Only generals die asleep at home in their beds. The Canadian running the battle at Passchedaele appears to be one of the few people who actually knows what he’s doing here. The battalion that pulls out when a relief column of 60 pull in are made to look like cowards abandoning their comrades to certain annihilation. The battle scenes take the cliché that ‘war is hell’ to an entirely new level. One is given the impression that it was a miracle that anyone survived this conflagration. At least the hospital scenes are free of the usual buckets of gore directors often order up. Directing one’s own death must be an odd experience in anyone’s book. Taking nothing away from Paul Gross’s considerable abilities one can wish he had a few less irons in the fire. A director less married to the script might have been able to give this movie a bit more focus. An independent director could probably have gotten a better performance from his star.