Review of The Reader (2008) by William M — 22 Sep 2010

As I think of this movie, I'm wondering what to rate it as the subject of the movie is a harrowing one. Although it does touch on the Holocaust, the movie is seen through the eyes of Michael, who is played by both David Kross in his younger years and Ralph Fiennes in his older years. And really, when he is in law school and watching over a trial of 6 women who are on trial for having some roles for the S.S. during the war, he's only personally involved because of a chance meeting when he was younger, as that chance meeting was with one of the women who was now on trial. Although too, the time frame of the movie takes place after the war in the 50's, 60's, 70's, and 90's. I can't recall if any of the movie took place in the 80's. :).

The character of Hannah, played by Kate Winslet, is one that is somewhat simple in her life and illiterate. At her trial when the judge asked her why she joined the S.S., she said cause they were having jobs. Although she is a good worker and it was said she was at Siemens, it sounds like she was already working at Siemens but likely because of her illiteracy, instead of getting promoted, she'd rather take the simple jobs where reading and writing weren't needed, as it was a point about her that caused her embarrassment if it ever came up. You can also see her reaction to being notified that she was being "promoted" to the office in her transit position as she was like a conductor on the tram. She wasn't happy about it. And even though Hannah agreed to writing a report and such at the trial, earning her more time in prison and also the perception that she was the leader, Michael put the pieces together and knew she couldn't have done it but was torn from what he was hearing about her during the war. He did try to visit her during the trial to talk to her about it, but didn't at the last moment, leaving her waiting in the cell. It was a potent scene I thought. Hannah was the type of person that kept to herself and lived by herself. As far as we know, she had no family since in the end, at the time of her release many years later, she only had the contact of Michael listed on her record, for which the warden or contact from the prison said to him.

I guess a question that arises is if Hannah was able to read, might she have made a different choice and not joined the S.S., since the choices she made were made with her knowing that she couldn't read and didn't want to deal with the repercussions of that. Also, there is a point in this movie where some students in Michael's law class are talking and they mention how the trial is more about their parents' generation and how they likely knew about what was going on but didn't do anything. And when you think of it, the whole movie and the book itself is about Germany dealing with what happened during the war, after the war itself is done and hostilities against the Jewish people cease, at least to the point of detaining them in camps. As they try to put things behind them, others can't forget and want them to be held accountable, thus the trials. And I guess it raises the question that if you were a german and you met someone like Hannah after the war, how would you react knowing what they did during the war? I guess on that note, it is an interesting movie indeed.