Review of Son of Saul (2015) by Yosemite W — 05 Jul 2016

It's more than "The Pianist".

'Son of Saul' review =including a spoiler=.

There are many premier movies of World War 2, like "The Pianist", "The Downfall", and "Devil's on the Doorstep", in the same way as other war or terrorism-related movies, like "No Man's Land", "Hotel Rwanda" and "United 93" . "Son of Saul" is the most mind-blowing one among the masterpieces I've ever seen before. When I saw this movie at a theater, I was petrified with shock of the tragedy that happened in Auschwitz about 70 years ago. Human beings, I believe, should greatly appreciate the director Nemes Laszlo and the main actor Geza Roehrig, who precisely reproduced the facts that make us want to bury our heads in the sand.

In 1944, a large number of Jewish civilians from Hungary were sent to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, Poland. Some of them were unintentionally chosen for the special task force "Sonderkomando", whose job was to help the Germans' final solution to Jewish people in Europe; they had to commit fratricidal massacre while the German SS avoided doing this. One day, the protagonist Saul, who was one of the Hungarian Sonderkomandos, found his 'putative' son in the gas chamber after an execution. He made up his mind to bury his son with the authentic Jewish funeral service. Saul tried to find a Rabi among the prisoners in the camp or crowds who were going to be executed. It shows his hope to live even under the fear he may suddenly be killed or executed.

However, in my opinion, Saul's characteristics don't seem good. A Rabi whom he had asked to pray for his son was killed by the SS due to their suspicious activity while working. To make matters worse, a woman had given him a stick of dynamite for the upcoming uprising, but he lost it on his way back to the hideout because he spaced out. Although some prisoners got annoyed with his behavior, he seemed sulky and shrugged it off, and said with a sneer, "I'm just alive".

The director Laszlo and his staff tried to recreate the inside of the concentration camp there described in holocaust-related books and writings, like "Korczak" or "Sonderkomando". This attempt seems well done. Some survivors from the Treblinka camp commented about what was really done there in detail. Some prisoners left pieces of papers in secret places which detailed how obscene the camp was, so the audience feels like playing a horror video game, like Resident Evil. I guess that would be what Laszlo wants the audience to feel in this movie. These gruesome scenes remind me of the TV news about ISIS or North Korea.

At first when I saw this movie, I thought the Hungarian director can only use the old method for a 1 * 1.5 screen aspect ratio, but that was incorrect. He intended to shoot through the first-person perspective, and intentionally hid what Saul doesn't want to see from the screen. Moreover, what differentiates this movie from other ones, is that most of the characters speak their own language in Europe.?In general, American movies set in Central Europe are mostly casted to the English-speaking actors, but sometimes spoil the atmosphere by speaking only in English. For example, it's a mystery why a Polish pianist speaks not Polish but English and German in "The Pianist". In "Schindler's List", the German president Schindler talks to his Jewish staff in English!

I didn't know about Hungary very much before I saw this movie, but the effort in Laszlo and Roehrig's work has roused my interest in this country; its language sounds graceful, and its history and culture are full of the vicissitudes.