I am the last one who can cast blame on any of these men who are just trying to survive. The men understandably fail to understand how anything short of taking up arms counts as rebellion, but it’s Saul’s quest that seems truly revolutionary. Both efforts seemed doomed to do anything other than prove to themselves they weren’t truly complicit, to clean their hands of Jewish blood and ash by either dirt or Aryan blood. Leaving the theater I couldn’t stop thinking of their tension, their perpendicular means of seeking a parallel goal. Even when Saul’s not undermining their efforts, they want everybody focused and ready to charge with the signal, not off hunting for spades and Rabbis to bury one body among thousands. His antics don’t only put his life on the line but sometimes directly harm their plans. These men are occasionally actively hostile to Saul’s quest.
Even if they couldn’t stop the Final Solution, someone would know they tried. I’m not sure how successful they expected to be, but at the same time they were taking illicit pictures and burying them with journals for whoever finally defeated the Nazis to know the truth, that they weren’t the same as their captors. The whole of Saul’s interactions with them are tense and terse, with a low hum of anticipation in the background. Bit by bit they are stockpiling weapons, trading for a bit of gunpowder, and waiting for the perfect moment. While Saul is resisting his role and executioners through this boy, his fellow workers are plotting an armed revolt. As he pursues his quest, taking bigger and bigger risks, getting closer and closer to dying himself, you realize this dead boy is his lifeline, his potential redemption from the indelible stain of his sins of survival. Ultimately he discovers a purpose in caring about this boy, to make him more than a body, and give him a proper Jewish burial whether it kills him or not. Saul too is somewhere between life and death, fenced in by forced apathy to protect himself from his conscience. After their screams stop and the cleanup begins he finds a boy, gasping for breath, hanging between life and death. Early on we see Saul performing his function, reassuring the newcomers, assisting as they strip and hang up their clothes, gently but firmly guiding the men and women into the showers. First and foremost this is a film about Saul the Sonderkommando, Saul the father, Saul the man.Īs a Sonderkommando Saul’s job is to assist the Nazis in gassing his fellow Jews and then cleaning up and disposing of the bodies. In fact, like Saul, I quickly became numb to it all. Son of Saul is not primarily about the horrors of the holocaust. Almost all of the excessive or mundane horrors of the camp are blurred into the edges of the screen. The screen is almost perpetually on his face or from his perspective. Between Life and DeathĪs I alluded to above, Son of Saul is primarily the story of Saul. Son of Saul is the story of an ordinary man’s strength to remain a man in the face of the some of the strongest force of dehumanization the world has seen. In fact it was intentionally made to be different than most films of its kind. This is more than just another holocaust film. It has recently racked up an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, four awards at the Cannes film festival, as well as thirty-eight others.
SON OF SAUL BLURAY MOVIE
Son of Saul is a movie unlike any other I’ve seen.