Please note that the opinions of this review only reflect the views of the author, and do not represent FCS or the Phoenix Enquirer as a whole.
It may be hard to believe, but it’s true. They pulled off a comedy about the tragic events of WW2, when Hitler vowed to destroy everyone who was different from him. The movie was directed by Taika Waititi, the director of Thor: Ragnarok, so I promise you this movie is better than you expect. And even though this is a comedy, it manages to keep it honest and depressing at the same time.
In the movie, we follow a 10 year old boy who dreams of being like Hitler. He attends a training camp for Hitler Youth in hopes of being the best patriot he can be. Unfortunately, he gets scars from a grenade incident after a failed revenge attempt. After that, he goes home only to find a Jewish girl living in his house. For the rest of the movie, he finds out that Jews aren’t so bad, and that maybe he can relate to Jews one way or another. But even with the comedy and him actually becoming friends with the Jewish girl, there are lots of devastating things too.
This movie, even though it was a movie about a disastrous event, made me laugh. It’s a touching story, believe me, and when the movie was done, I’ll never look at WW2 the same way again. I used to think of it just through the eyes of the Jews, as a horrific event where ALL the Germans were all wanting to wipe out the Jews. But now I have seen it through the eyes of a German, a young German boy who never wanted any part in this bloodshed. I now see not all Germans were bad, and that even though they may seem like they all hate Jews and people who were different, sometimes deep down they all just wanted to escape, like the Jews. They ALL wanted a new start and a new life, they ALL wanted freedom, they ALL wanted peace, love, and trust. But it was hard to get it when you might die trying to do so.
I would recommend this movie to people who want both a happy movie and a depressing one, and to people who want to remind themself about how life was back then, and to people who never looked through the eyes of a German. Don’t think of this movie just as a WW2 movie, because it is so much more.
By Emi Travalia ‘26