Many movies have been made about the Holocaust over the last few decades. Director Vincente Amorim’s Good gives us a different take on the topic than films like Schindler’s List (1993). Rather than showing us the atrocities that the Nazis perpetrated, it deals with the years leading up to those horrific events and how seemingly good, moral people were willing to turn a blind eye to the dark side of the Nazi party and allow then to ascend to absolute power. As in Cabaret (1972), the story illustrates how the young party weaved its way into the lives of everyday Germans and how the population rationalized it as necessary. The country was not populated entirely by genocidal madmen but by people whose sin was to put self interest above morality.
Based on the play by C. P. Taylor, the story follows the journey of a man who begins with no particular political convictions, but through circumstances becomes a big honcho in the Nazi party. John Halder (Viggo Mortensen from The Lord of the Rings films) is a literature professor who is a bit of a square peg. His superiors don’t like some of the things he says and he objects to the burning of certain books. Halder’s home life is a mess. His neurotic wife Helen (Anastasia Hille) is overwhelmed by taking care of the kids and Halder’s invalid mother who lives with them. Halder is a quietly sad man but essentially moral man. He resists when a pretty student named Anne (Jodie Whitaker) basically throws herself at him, despite his temptation. He tries to be a good.
Halder’s life changes when he is summoned to the office of an influential Nazi named Bouhler (Mark Strong). Halder nervously arrives at Bouhler’s office, expecting the worst, but to his surprise, he is welcomed with praise. We learn that Halder had previously written a book about the virtue of euthanasia, because of his mother’s illness. The Nazis are very happy with the position Halder has taken on the issue and therefore want him to write an academic paper which will be used to support the Reich’s belief that killing is sometimes necessary for the greater good. Halder gladly writes the paper, naively oblivious to the fact that it will be utilized as justification for their ‘Final Solution’.
Suddenly, Halder’s star is on the rise. He starts to get special perks and is invited to high society parties where he rubs elbows with the Nazi elite. The trade off is that he must cast off his political neutrality and join the party. He reluctantly does so. His new status emboldens him and he gets the courage to leave his wife. He takes up with pretty, young Anna, a very loyal Nazi supporter.
The moral dilemma starts to unfold in the form of Halder’s best friend Maurice Gluckman, (Jason Isaacs, best known as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films) a Jewish psychiatrist. As the Nazi’s anti-Hebrew proclivities become more obvious, tension grows between the two friends. Halder finds himself divided between loyalty to his old friend and his sense of self-preservation.
An interesting reversal happens in the relationship between Halder and Maurice. At the beginning, Maurice is the Alpha-friend in the relationship and the sad Halder envies Maurice’s hedonistic lifestyle. As time goes on and Halder gains notoriety, Maurice is stripped of everything he has and ends up begging his friend for help. Halder, however, is afraid to act on Maurice’s behalf because it may mean his own ruination.
One unique element of Good is that Halder begins to hallucinate in times of stress, imagining that he hears Mahler music being played or sung by nearby people, a symbolic expression of the doubts Halder has but doesn’t listen to.
The title Good refers to the ethical questions of the film. Halder clearly starts off as a good man. Do his actions during the film mark a moral decline or was his self-preservation necessary? Could he have done anything else? How could a man of such convictions end up the poster boy for the Final Solution? The film asks this and other ethical questions, such as in the case of euthanasia. Where does clear-cut "right" become a gray area? Does survival trump our duty to our fellow human beings?
DVD Bonus Features
The DVD features include interviews with Viggo Mortensen, Jason Isaacs, Jodie Whitiker and Mark Strong, as well as director Vincente Amorim and writer John Wrathall. There is also some Behind-the-Scenes footage and a theatrical trailer.
"Good" is on sale September 29, 2010 and is rated R. Drama. Directed by Vincente Amorim. Written by John Wrathall and C.P. Taylor. Starring Jason Isaacs, Jodie Whitiker, Mark Strong, Viggo Mortensen.
