Speaking of Germany, people will immediately think of well-known brands such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz, and then there is the rigorous and meticulous style of the Germanic people, and at the same time it is a country rich in philosophical sages.
Of course, World War II and the Nazis are also topics that cannot be bypassed.
The Germans' reflection on that period of history and its profundity are as famous as their Mercedes-Benz cars, with the collective alienation of fascism in "The Wave" and the gradually magnified evil of the little people in the war under the realistic approach of "Our Fathers".
The birth of "Captain Fake" is not only comparable to the above two works, but it is no longer described by the word "profound", but more solemn, blacker, and even more terrifying.
The film is based on real events in history, and the story takes place on the eve of Germany's defeat, when the defeat of the German army is a foregone conclusion, the morale of the army is scattered, and the deserters are overflowing.
One of the soldiers, Willie Herold, who was only 19 years old, was transformed into an "officer" of the Third Reich by picking up a set of captain's uniforms during the process of escape, thus adding yellow robes and gorgeous transformations, all the way to the peak of his short life.
Junior Willie Herold
The benevolent brother in the photo above is the historical Willie Herold, handsome and beautiful face, even a little childish, but don't be fooled by his appearance.
Let's take a look at his short life history:
In 1943, Willie Herold enlisted in the German Airborne Forces and fought in the Battle of Monte Cassino.
In 1945, he returned to Germany with his unit and became a deserter.
During this time, he discovered a set of Air Force captain uniforms, disguised as air force captains and fuehrer envoys, and mixed into the Emsland Correctional Camp, where he carried out a ruthless massacre of prisoners who were inhumane.
After the truth was discovered, he was arrested and imprisoned, but because of the end of World War II, he was judged by the court to be an excellent soldier with great leadership ability and resistance to defeatism, and escaped punishment and went unpunished.
In May of the same year, he was captured by the Royal Navy in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, and executed in 1946 at the age of 21.
Known as the "Emsland Executioner"!
How, is not enough legendary for a lifetime.
Behind this so-called "legend" is the chilling white bones and the obliteration of human nature under totalitarianism.
Private Willie Herold
Based on the true story of Willie Herold's history, the film "Captain Counterfeit" takes the story deep into Germany, using a "uniform" as a symbol of power to explore a kind of national nature that runs through German society, and then shows the fundamental reasons why the Shearer regime can develop in Germany.
The overall use of black and white tones in the film, the World War II scene, so that the film has a natural atmosphere of slaughter, but the story of the film can be separated from the background of the war and the framework of the war film, and become a passage through time, can ask history, can also point to the future of the proverb.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the disillusionment of "God" and "faith."</h1>
At the beginning of the film, Herold, played by Max Kubacher, is chased and hunted like a wild animal by the gendarmerie.
But his miraculous great difficulty did not die, escaped the disaster, otherwise there would be an extra rotting corpse in the wilderness, and there would be no executioner career like the power glory and human nature of the "Chincha Minister" behind him.
Leaving aside humanity under power, how could Herold, a teenager with the rank of a private, deceive the senior officers of the gendarmerie and the correctional battalion?
The captain's uniform and beautiful acting skills are important, but it is not difficult to understand if this individual event is placed in the context of the historical stage of the time and the collapse of the overall faith and will of the German army.
From 1933, when Hitler, the "Austrian corporal", became the head of the German Fuehrer and entered the stage of history, to the invasion of Poland in 1939, which opened the prelude to World War II, the German army was invincible and indestructible.
The long-term destruction of the war made Hitler the "god" of the German people, and "invincible" became the "faith" on which the German soldiers relied.
When the war situation took a sharp turn, all the victories that had been won were in vain, the omnipotent "god" became helpless, and the faith was loosened.
And Herold's youthful recklessness and wonderful acting skills have made some confused senior officers feel the "god" in their hearts again, and strengthened the "faith" that has been loosened and gradually lost.
Therefore, when Herold was afraid to say that he was personally appointed by the Fuehrer, the gendarmerie captain, in addition to raising his hand and shouting long live, in his heart Herold seemed to have become the embodiment of the Fuehrer.
It is like being in a raging flood, even if a piece of decaying wood floats out of nowhere, it becomes the hope of life, and it must be firmly grasped.
Unable to face failure and with nowhere to pray for the existence of "God", Herold appeared at the right time, like a messenger of God, filling the eyes of senior officers with a halo of faith and hope.
As for Herold's modest-looking uniform, or his overly green face as a captain officer, it didn't matter anymore.
Even the slightest skepticism was eliminated by Herold's repeated assertion of the Fuehrer's personal authorization and the full admiration and maintenance of other officers.
(Look at the small adoration and awe of Herod's adoration and awe in the picture above, the stormtrooper captain Schutt standing behind)
The rout of the German army caused the fuehrer's aura as the "god" of the German army to begin to be shattered, the senior officers' faith was lacking, and they were confused and confused about the future situation, and they were trapped in the beast, and these factors intertwined, contributing to the absurd, black, but not humorous but brutal and bloody farce after the appearance of Herod.
Throughout, none of the senior officers of the gendarmerie, the correctional battalion, or the SA insisted that Herold show the relevant documents and documents, which was inconceivable but reasonable.
Because if we focus only on the point of human nature as an individual, and forget the general environment of the entire historical process at that time, it is difficult to understand how such a bizarre thing can really happen to the Germans, who are known for their rigor.
The disillusionment of "God" and "faith" made Herold the last hope of the group.
So in Emsland, Herold became a god.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the numbness and speculation of the public</h1>
Herold was not alone, he also recruited many deserters along the way, and set up the "Herold Action Team", which can also be called a first-level organization.
Many of the deserters in this "action team" are veterans who have experienced hundreds of battles, have never eaten pork and have seen pigs go, and many years of military career have given them a certain ability to identify.
Some of them were not unaware, but they were also unsent for questioning and willing to be adopted by Herold as accomplices in the Holocaust.
And this is also an important reason for the achievement of the "Herold Myth".
So why?
Let's start with Herold's first "subordinate", Flegta.
Flegta was the first soldier Herod met after becoming a "captain", exhausted and struggling.
Even such a dying veteran made Herold frightened and overwhelmed by the fear of wearing gangs.
The acting skills after the strong calm, and the aura of the captain's uniform, let Herold quickly grasp the temperament and start the performance.
Flegta, on the other hand, had completely lost the sense of smell of a veteran, the war had bored him, fatigue had slowed his mind, and the march of a lonely man had made him long for his fellow human beings, and he was numb.
He didn't notice Herold's loose military pants, much less how such a green senior officer and a broken car could appear in this desolate wilderness.
He did not even have the slightest doubt about Herold's initial expression and incoherence.
Numb and alive, the first choice he made was to ask to be included in the captain's command, and flattered to help the captain out of the predicament.
His confession was exchanged for an apple that could be fed and a driver qualification that no longer had to walk.
Along the way, he was dutiful and loyal to Herold, truly treating him as his superior, even his master.
In essence, he is not really Mune, and his numb heart has also had a ripple.
On the way to escape, he witnesses Herold shooting and killing deserters, but Herold explains that he had to do it in order to gain the trust of the villagers, and he accepts.
But in the correctional camp, when Herod was stunned when he indulged in Kibinsky's brutal abuse of prisoners, he tried to persuade or even plead with Herold, but failed.
By the time Herold began to shell and execute a large number of prisoners, he was silent, just quietly watching the scene.
Flegta is only a representative of the "Herold Action Team", who are physically and mentally exhausted, only the shell of the breathing of the walking dead, the trade-off between good and evil and personal speculation, which is consumed in years of fighting.
They are like a spectator to all bloody, violent and inhuman practices, and powerlessness is the best excuse.
As for who Herold really was and what he did, it didn't matter.
Numbness is the first magic weapon for their survival.
If Flegta's numbness is just an inadvertent accomplice, then Kimpinski is blatantly playing for the tiger.
Kimpinski is one of the most certain characters in the entire film to see through Herod, and from their first encounter in the villager's house, Herod's long, loose pants cuffs have made Kimpinski smile evilly.
But he did not point it out, let alone question it, but like Flegta, he requested to be included in the captain's command.
Kimpinski's request differs from Flegta's in that he is not numb, but has a clear purpose — the opportunist.
When Herold pretended to interrogate prisoners in the camp, Kimpinski was the first to step forward to help with the execution.
In the back, he shot prisoners, beat prisoners, shelled prisoners, and he was involved in everything as the main force.
His reasons for doing so are fundamentally different from those of Fregta, who is meant to survive and Spinski is meant to get.
He did not break Herold, but wanted to attach himself to this false "Chincha", so that he could get more catharsis and pleasure, so that the empty psychology and the shell could be double satisfied.
In fact, he never put Herold in his eyes, but just made a show in front of people, and he was full of ridicule in his heart.
The satisfaction of his appetites allowed him to maintain reason and respect for Herold, and when confronted with physical and sensory stimulation, he revealed his unbridled nature.
So, finally, because of a big woman, angering Herold, she was stripped naked and shot.
Spinski is a different kind of person in the "Herold Action Team", who have lost hope in the future, and their defeat has made them disdainful of their own efforts, which have developed into contempt for power, but ironically, speculators who want to cling to power and enjoy themselves in time.
Whether numb or opportunistic, if Herold is a dragon, then these two kinds of people are the wings of this dragon.
Objectively, instead of poking Herold, they played a protective role for the "Air Force Captain".
Like the senior officers, they contributed to Herold's "myth."
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > human nature creeping under totalitarianism</h1>
At this point, the analysis of Herold himself in the film should be the simplest.
He was not complicated, a young soldier who had experienced the flames of war, and it was precisely because of his youth that he was ignorant enough to dare to pretend to be a senior officer.
That military uniform was like a pair of magical armor to him, and after putting it on, he could transform gorgeously, the sword and gun could not be penetrated, the wonderful acting skills were combined with all kinds of time and place, so an executioner was born.
When power is given to a small person who has been oppressed and bullied, and is not subject to restraint and supervision, it often has a huge and terrible reaction to society and the public, and can even shape a devil.
Through the film, we can watch Herod step by step change from a small soldier who is hunted to an executioner who kills without blinking an eye and even plays a game of killing.
Outlaws when hunted.
Panic cramped when he first put on the captain's uniform.
After calming down, he glanced back, and his eyes already revealed the lingering of war and power.
Shooting compatriots for the first time.
Tie the prisoners together, let them escape, and then enjoy the thrill of the killing game yourself.
Enjoy the thrill of power on top.
Anti-aircraft guns were used to shell prisoners and scatter lime to destroy the corpses.
At this time, Herold has become a murderous demon, his straight military uniform is more fit, heroic, and he has really regarded himself as "Captain Herold".
Even when he was tried in a military court, he said that what he did was to resist the growing defeatism (it turned out that he had been promoting positive energy).
As mentioned earlier, unchecked power can produce great repercussions and even hallucinate itself.
Herold did it, so did Hitler.
And the Easter egg at the end of the film can be called a stroke of Genius. In the picture, Herold and other Nazis travel through time and space to the streets of modern time and space in Germany.
Still dressed in Nazi uniforms, they flirt with women in the streets, violate their personal rights, rob and commit the same atrocities they did more than seventy years ago.
Ironically, no one dared to resist, and no one fled.
Modern people, who pride themselves on civilization, know only meek cooperation under the power and obscenity of the slaughter machines in these wars.
This is the deepest reflection of the whole film.
"Captain Herold" could have chosen to be good with this uniform, but he chose to fall, but more ironically, it was a large group of ordinary people with clear and confused clothes.
Human beings themselves have the instinct to obey and worship authoritarianism, while the soldiers in the film obey more thoroughly, and they obey only the symbolic appendage of authoritarianism: the Nazi uniform, and easily give up their "human" attributes for this purpose.
Those who remain silent when they understand the darkness of human nature are eventually swallowed up by this dark silence and become an inseparable part of totalitarianism, which is the most terrifying chapter of the film.
As stated in The Origins of Totalitarianism: "The real horror of totalitarianism lies in the fact that it rules over a group of completely silent inhabitants." "This is the evil of mediocrity.
The solemnity brought by the black and white tones and the sense of calm created by the language of the lens make the viewer become another part of the silence.
The carnival at the end, the judgment, and the walk on the dry bones make the story drag into a deeper black, and the absurdity of "Captain Fake" makes this black magical and unreal, but this is adapted from real historical facts, and the gap between the virtual and the real can only be described as horror.
The change of human nature and the reshaping of personality are probably far more absurd and tortuous than the dramatic story, and the best way may be to never give people the opportunity to degenerate sexually.