I can emphatically say that the Nazis worked for me one hundred percent. Their filming was excellent, employing the thunder of tramping boots and the eeriness of fog-obscured visuals to give "The Scourge" the same terrifying effect that Hitler's legions possessed. The demon's uniforms also play the part perfectly, simulating Nazi dress almost to the letter. In fact, the exactness of the uniforms draws attention to to the demons' hideously malformed facial features, creating a contrast that certainly brings to mind the cruelty of many of the Nazi soldiers. The demons, just like the Nazis, wear perfectly polished uniforms. However, their intentions are barbarous, creating a juxtaposition that, in addition to working quite well for the show, bridges the time gap and points directly at the Nazis . Finally, the flashback that depicts Doyle's investigation of the Scourge's slaughter also came across as very well done. The viewer is exposed to various pairs of shoes, starting with a child's pair, immediately bringing to mind the masses slaughtered by the Nazis, and, for those of us who have visited the Holocaust Museum in D.C., the huge bins of shoes collected after the mass extermination of Jews. All this Nazi-ness is sobering stuff, but I think it melds well with "Hero"'s dark tones. No cop-outs here! ;)
Thursday, February 24, 2011
A Hero and the Nazis
Dang, that was a good episode! Doyle really took the hero prize for this one, pulling off his hero/ redemption moment with such aplomb that, in spite of the fact that I knew it was coming, I found quite convincing. However, I digress. What I really want to focus on in this post is the episode's hotly debated Nazi vibes and why I found them effective.
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8 comments:
I must admit until today's class the idea of the Nazis never really occur to me. While I did notice their uniforms, I like you said, was more focused on their terrible faces. The sounds of the boots and the marching lines reminded me of the military, but not necessarily the Nazi army. That being said, I now completely get it and am not really sure how I didn't pick up on the parallels.
I'm into it too. I think it works here, I'm not going to lie, it was good for me. The hero imagery as you said works well with the heeby-jeebies that nazi's give.
do you think there are any other easily recognized cliche's of scariness that work as well as Nazis do??
The nazi idea can be seen in a lot of places too. I'm pretty sure it was purposefully done in this episode, but something like Lord of the Rings uses the same idea in a sense. Sauron is a Hitler type figure, trying to rid the world of all the "good". And actually, that might be more relevant since Tolkien was writing it around WW2 times.
I also thought the Nazi representation worked. Their uniforms were styled similiar, they seemed to have one leader defining their purpose and hatred of anything that was a "half breed" and one thing that really stood out to me was their faces. Of course they were creepy, the things nightmares are made of, and dare I say more frightening than The Gentlemen, but what interested me was the use of human skin. If you notice, all the demons in the Scourge have sewn-together pieces of human flesh grossly stressed across their faces. Irony?
Jonathan, I love your idea about how their external features reflect their inner "barbarous intentions," so their polished uniforms are an intentional contrast to highlight their evilness. The Nazi-esque characters worked for me, too. For Whedon to both fully reveal Doyle's half demon/half human past and create the victims of the episode (the "hybrid" families), it seemed appropriate to incorporate the idea of Nazis. Nobody does the whole targeting-a-race thing better (or worse?) than them, right? I can't think of any other way I would have gone about it...or maybe I can't help but trust Whedon 99% of the time.
Also, the idea of the little pair of shoes works really well too--I totally remember that from the Holocaust museum, too! Great observation!
Although I like how you pointed out the interesting concepts like having disgusting faces but clean uniforms, and being very good at targeting a particular race, I really felt like the Nazis did not work for me; I didn't buy them because I felt like Angel or someone on the episode should be like, "hey these guys are a lot like Nazis...is this just a coincidence?"
I didn't notice the shoes, good call. I'm glad that I'm not the only one to be able to say that the Nazis looked damn good in those uniforms. The Uniforms that the Nazis were outfitted with were designed by Armani. The contrast that you pointed out in your post about the demons' faces and their spotless uniforms.
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