uncomfortable to watch/in questionable taste

Rating: 6/10 (7 March 2003)

I can certainly see why this movie was controversial and had a poor box office turnout when it came out. For the US to have just entered the war, and reconciling the unfolding events with a comedy making light of the situation is extremely questionable.
Even now, with the distance of time, having not lived through the horrific events myself, I was still uncomfortable watching this film.
Not that it doesn't have funny moments ("Heil myself"), or that you can't make a comedy using serious historical events. But there are just moments where you're a little disgusted at the sheer refusal to really take the situation seriously. For example, People shot are used in the film as jokes or props to a joke. The most eggregious example is when millions of people dying horrifically in the camps is reduced to a joke by a German officer, "We do the concentrating, they do the camping". That's just not funny, it's completely tasteless!!

The filim is worth watching, it is funny and has lots of snappy dialogue and plot twists - but I think it is important to think about the implications of making and releasing such a film in '42, much less at all.