Hanna was Victimizer and Victim

Rating: 9/10 (19 January 2009)

The German psyche is complicated, and so is this movie. There are no easy answers as to what motivates the characters. There are hints of shame, pedagogy, and nationalism.
The German psyche was ripe for Adolph Hitler and his hatred of the Jews. Out of this hatred was born National Socalism which expressed with some pride an answer to the shame that was felt by a people who had to create a superior race to overcome losing World War I.
Hanna, who to me is the most interesting of the characters, is whether by genetics or upbringing not capable of abstract thinking. To her there is right and wrong and nothing in between. She cannot see of what she has no awareness.
Filled with her own personal shame for being illiterate, she lands in a job where to follow orders is equated with rightfulness. She is young like many who wind up in the military and do not have the benefit of self awareness to differentiate herself from her pedagogy. She admits to horrible things because she did not herself see them as horrible but as her duty. She feels no guilt using and sending prisoners to die who's only value is to read to her.
She is amoral, not capable of empathy.
Her final shame comes when she learns to read and write and is shamed for her lack of intellectual empathy. She cannot face this final shaming and kills herself.
Michal, her young lover, is only important to the story because of his contrasts to Hanna.
This is a well made movie, one that over time I predict will become a classic.