Paragraph 175 (Sub)
|
List Price: Our Price: $14.20 You Save: $0.75 (5%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $3.98 (click here) Category: VHS Video See more movie releases |
|---|
Buy this VHS video movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
VHS Movie Reviews of Paragraph 175 (Sub)
Movie Review: Excellent movie, minus the positive references to pedophilia
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie is a key testament to one largely unspoken aspect of the Holocaust: the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis on gay men, and to a lesser degree on lesbians. Many of the interviews are touching and tragic, though at times the movie fragments them a bit more than is necessary.
My main criticism of the movie is that it sometimes blurs the lines between homosexuality and pedophilia. Some of the interviewees state outright that sex between adult men and boys was a healthy and even wonderful part of homosexuality in pre-war Germany. One interviewee in particular waxes eloquent about having himself "seduced" an adult man when he was but a young boy - as if an adult who lets himself "be seduced" by a child is somehow not a pedophile! This is sick and needs to be labeled as such, which the movie fails to do. And more so, it does gay people a terrible injustice because it perpetuates some of the most vile stereotypes about homosexuality.
On the flip side, none of the men interviewed spoke of having themselves molested boys, but considering the positive attitude expressed toward pedophilia, I couldn't help but imagine what some, knowing the potential criminal consequences of such an admission, were leaving out of their tales...
Movie Review: An extremely important human rights document
Summary: 4 Stars
Documentarian Rob Epstein has captured as essential piece of human history, in the nick of time. The poorly documented terror aimed at gay men in Nazi-era Germany is examined in this very important and moving film.
Of those who survived, few were still living by the time Epstein made this document, and it represents a number of things - one of many eloquent reminders of human atrocities we should never be allowed to forget (and we should never allow the history to be forgotten), and a specific reminder to younger generations of gay and lesbian individuals around the globe of why we must always remain aware, attuned to our communities, and willing to fight when needed.
This is really an almost flawless film - I do have one small complaint. As with Michael Apted's MOVING THE MOUNTAIN (a reunion of the student leaders of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement), Epstein allows his camera to linger upon the tears of individuals who are reliving some extremel painful memories, a tactic I have some issues with, as I find it (at the very least) to be a little invasive, and in a film as strong (and valuable) as this one is, it's a tactical misstep.
This minor gripe aside, this is one of the more historically important documentaries to appear in recent years. See it.
-David Alston
Movie Review: A Place in History,
Summary: 5 Stars
We should never forget what ALL people went through under Hitler's Nazi regime.
An amazing and powerful film. High praise, to all involved in the making of, "Paragraph 175".
Worth every moment. A must see (seeing IS believing, for those who do not believe).
Movie Review: Paragraph 175
Summary: 5 Stars
Excellent movie. Just what was required for the paper on sterotyping and prejudice in the nazi war camps.Movie Review: From a Dark and Lonely Place In The Soul
Summary: 5 Stars
The German Penal Code of 1871, Paragraph 175, states "An unnatural sex act committed between persons of the male sex or by humans with animals is punishable by imprisonment; the loss of civil rights may also be imposed." The law was widely disregarded, and the post-World War I Weimar Republic saw a flowering of gay and lesbian culture, most particularly in Berlin. When the Weimar Republic collapsed and the Nazi party rose to power, few gays and lesbians felt any reason to fear: was not Ernst Rohm, head of the SA, well known for his homosexuality?
On 1 July 1934, later known as "The Night of Long Knives," the Nazi party conducted a bloody purge of their ranks. Rohm was among the victims, and as the Nazis swept to full power over Germany they moved to broaden the scope of Paragraph 175. The glory days of gay and lesbian Berlin were over. Somewhat oddly, lesbians were not regarded as a threat to the Nazi party, and many lesbians either left Germany or simply withdrew from public life, thus escaping with their lives. Gay men, however, came under full attack. A special branch of the Gestapo was formed to identify gay men; once their lists were established the arrests began.
With many records destroyed by the Nazis as the Allies swept through Europe at the close of the war, it is now very difficult to estimate how many homosexuals were arrested. Most historians agree there is hard evidence to support a figure of 100,000, but many note that the total may have been well in excess of that, possibly to the extent of 600,000 total. Of those fed into the Nazi meat grinder, perhaps 4,000 survived--a much lower survival rate than that found even among political prisoners. There is considerable evidence that homosexuals were regarded as the "lowest of the low" in the prison pecking order and suffered not only from Nazi atrocity but were also sometimes savaged by their fellow prisoners as well. And to them was given a final curse: the victorious Allies retained Paragraph 175 as law following the collapse of Nazi Germany. Fearing possible re-arrest at Allied hands, homosexuals who survived the prisons and concentration camps dare not speak of their lives and experiences. Most would remain silent until their deaths.
The documentary PARAGRAPH 175 does not attempt to examine the full scope of Nazi atrocity or even Nazi atrocity against the gay community. It instead focuses on the memories of a handful of men and women who recall their experiences. Perhaps the single most famous of these is Pierre Seel, who saw his lover killed by dogs in the death camps and who closeted himself to a remarkable extent after the war. "I am ashamed!" Seel cries at one point in his series of interviews. "I am ashamed for humanity!" It is a memorable moment of pain echoing across the decades. Seel died in 2005.
While most of the interview subjects are male, lesbians are represented by Annette Eick, a remarkably charming woman, and while their stories vary considerably in detail they are the same in content: I was there, I saw it, and I bear witness for those who cannot speak. At times the film seems excessively languid, but overall it does justice to its interview subjects, who emerge as fully-depicted individuals, sometimes passionate, sometimes restrained, but never without the dignity that should belong to all mankind as birthright.
The DVD contains several extras. Although it contained several points of interest I was not greatly impressed with the audio commentary; on the other hand, I was greatly impressed with two bonus interviews and particularly so by subject Kitty Fisher, a Jewish woman who recounts how a homosexual prisoner came to her aid--and whose advice ultimately saved her life.
These are painful memories, all of them, and all the more so because the Holocaust has been increasingly downplayed over the past few decades--downplayed to a point at which some few now attempt to deny that it ever occurred at all. But facts remain facts no matter how many misguided people attempt to change or refute them, and in the name of humanity itself we owe all those who have suffered in the killing fields of the world the dignity of truth. PARAGRAPH 175 is a part of that truth.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer