Thoughts on/Review of "Look Who's Back"

Look Who's Back is a 2015 German satirical comedy film directed by David Wnendt and based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Timur Vermes. It stars German actor Oliver Masucci as Adolf Hitler, mysteriously teleported from the site of his death in April 1945 to 2014 Berlin. Disillusioned, Hitler wanders around modern Berlin, confused at numerous people ogling him and taking pictures and videos with strange-looking devices that he later figures out to be telephones. He stumbles upon a newspaper stand, where he catches himself up to speed with the history of Germany after World War II, and determines it to be a complete disgrace. With the help of a filmmaker desperate for striking footage, he goes around the country (in unscripted scenes) asking people about politics to find out how they feel about the state of the country, finding that most people have been feeling a shift away from Germany's greatness that he says is analogous to the anger felt in 1930. Mistaken for a brilliant method-acting comedian on TV, Hitler soon gains a large following, with some believing they are playing along with a joke and others genuinely infused by his political rhetoric. But Hitler has not evolved with the times he finds himself in, and his aims have not changed at all.

What follows is essentially Borat for Germany, as it is set up in a similar way (unscripted in-character interviews matched with scripted storyline sequences) and has similar goals (using brash comedy about touchy subjects with real-life people to reveal the issues with society). Now, this film's one huge downfall to me is that it is much less subtle than Borat (which is saying something), which definitely had its own sociopolitical points to make, but seemed to always put comedy first. Look Who's Back, on the other hand, seems pointedly made for the purpose of pushing an agenda (ironic in a film that consistently decries television and film as merely a means of propaganda). Especially in its third act, the film becomes pretty squarely devoted to criticizing right-wing German nationalists who are accused of Islamophobia in response to the increasing immigration from the Arab world to Europe and calls for multiculturalism. Now, to me, whether or not you agree with this movie's politics is neither here nor there, because I think this film has even more important and intelligent things to say that it does much more subtly. But as a warning, if you can't really stomach films with a very obvious political stance, especially one you disagree with, then maybe turn this movie off around 90 minutes in. But I'd like to talk about some other things it touches on - and by the way, spoiler alert.

To me, Look Who's Back's greatest strength, outside of Masucci's committed performance and its penchant for pitch-black humor, beyond being forwardly an indictment of the far-right movement against immigration, is that it is a more subtle indictment of essentially any democratic populace with access to a free press. In this case, of course, it focuses its satiric crosshairs on modern Germany, but I see many parallels to phenomena going on in the UK and America as well. Especially during this American election cycle with the rise of Donald Trump (not to be the millionth person to compare him to Hitler, by the way, just stating that the nature of his popularity is pretty similar to Hitler's in this movie), this film is a pretty brilliant satire of how our relationship with the media influences our politics, and what it says about us.

During the film's penultimate scene where, on the edge of a roof at gunpoint, Hitler gives a speech regarding the fact that the reason people supported him in the past and now is because to some degree they agreed with him. And the film makes a point to mention that Hitler is for fixing some pretty noble issues, like helping the environment and improving wages for the middle class. And while modern Germans (or anyone) might think it impossible that they'd be able to be duped into voting for a second Hitler, he embodies and lets out unfiltered the anger at the current state of politics that they feel deep down inside them, and it becomes attractive to them. Hitler isn't a monster - he's a guy who was angry at the wrong things, and persuaded a nation that was angry too.

Again, not to be another person drawing this parallel, but I see the same thing with Trump in America. Even people who aren't traditionally Republican or even conservative voters will say he "tells it like it is" and "talks about what everyone's thinking" and "says what no one else will say" (pretty much exact phrases that some of the right-wing German interviewees use when talking to Hitler). He's tapped into a fear and hatred people have, and to these people it's such a relief. So where are Hitler's other supporters? Many of them are either intrigued by the few legitimate points he at least claims to have, while others tune in to his shows, buy his book (a sequel to Mein Kampf, naturally), and even support him and cheer for him simply because they think it's funny how ridiculous, xenophobic, or whatever you want to call him he is. Sound like anybody else we know?

The film really takes a nosedive into heavy-handedness in its final act regarding anti-immigration politics. On the surface, I agree with its message, but it's one that I think requires more nuance than this film allows for. I know that apparently the source novel didn't include such political statements, at least not so blatantly, and was more about the sociological thought experiment of people not only voting for someone who acts like Hitler, but, in the words of thousands of Tumblr users, is literally Hitler. And in that regard, I believe the film does great work comedically and satirically.

Regardless of how you feel about its political conclusion, I think this movie is near-essential viewing for any modern Western audience. The film's incarnation of Hitler returns, stirs up some brief controversy, and then garners a surprisingly large following out of a collection of irony, legitimate points, help from the media (who are only doing it because it translates to ratings), and actual support for his more radical ideas. The only time at which anyone believes he's gone too far is when images surface of Hitler shooting a dog, with one character correctly stating that you can get away with pretty much anything on TV except killing a puppy, but Hitler is soon back up on top when he secures sympathy from even the biggest celebrity names in Germany after being viciously attacked by no one else but neo-Nazis that believe him to be a fraud. It's a pretty essential scene, I think, as it separates neo-Nazis and those who actively support Hitler's ideology from those who have a lot of parallels in their political leanings to Hitler perhaps, but are not consciously bigoted or radical. As Hitler says at the end of the film, there's a little bit of Hitler in every German. Insert the horrible once-revered public figure relevant to your home country here.

Look Who's Back reveals our hypocritical denouncement of those leaders and figures we believe to be bad people while sometimes succumbing to aspects of those people's very principles, some of us more unabashedly than others (by far the most jaw-dropping unscripted event in the film is when a minor German political figure, believing the camera is off, admits that he would endorse the real Hitler today). It also reveals the illogical nature of societal taboos, as shown in a scene where a comedian says that jokes about Jews and the Holocaust are racist and tasteless while applying blackface to himself. Between their fascination with Hitler either as a joke or as a real hero that will make Germany great again (I swear to God those exact words are said by numerous people in the movie), the fickle nature of their support for him, as well as their general attitude about potentially having Hitler back in modern Germany, the audience in the film is a pretty great representation of basically any modern Western audience I can think of. If nothing else, Look Who's Back does a great job at showing us that, sometimes due to justifiable anger, to some degree, we're all assholes. We all have a little Hitler in us.

The film is on Netflix, at least in the US, and I really recommend it, even if you're not up for a pretty vehement pro-immigration message (the "movies" subreddit was so excited for this film when it was announced it and quickly dropped all discussion of it once its political positions became clear). I'm not really treating this as a formal review, but if it were, I'd probably give this film a B+.

Sorry in advance for a probable lack of actual reviews of new movies in the coming weeks. This summer's movies are pretty dry and uninteresting to me and I'm currently tight on money and don't get to make trips to the theater for anything I'm not already pretty sure I'd like. Hopefully both of those things will change.