never look away (2018)

While ostensibly supposed to be about the romance between two young people seeming barely emancipated from their teenage longings and ideas, the movie is actually a look at the theory of eugenics from the perspective of an SS doctor played by Sebastian Koch - who in real life I have no doubt has competent views in his own mind which he holds with conscience engaged without a doubt - in the movie script he makes a declaration to the Commanding Russian officer of rank of General  of the Russian armed forces, Koch having been arrested  for deemed atrocities including designating mentally ill German people for euthanization or forced sterilization and forced confinement in the interim as the case may have required in his own view. The statement by Sebastian Koch playing a doctor of rank in the brutal SS wing is that "the earth has limited resources and cannot afford to sustain all living beings" - he goes on to say that choices must be made - he says that the question being posed is: "who should be given these scarce resources to live upon - the "ill" or those who are "well" instead?

The problem with his statement is that in defining "ill" versus "well" he apparently neglects to consider such aspects as the spirit of the people being compared, and their sanity as good christians in what are the best regards of the view of this for any actually good people who might consider the matter more sanely objectively than might certainly instead, a misguided servant of Hitler in this regard. as such the barbaric scene of cruelty vented against a young attractive (she's aryan in this case) woman in this case in inflicting insanity in the sheer manner in which she is treated to the sentence of being forcibly sterilized for a minor seeming mental condition by comparison to the brute of a guard handling her or Koch as an SS doctor treating her with (he's too nice a man in reality in my own view to be cast in this movie scene as scripted - given my own view of this great acting talent that he represents - including for his brilliant performance in "Black book" a movie from the Netherlands of this similar period of wartime Europe we have posted here for you too. Ultimately it was probably best that the woman not have children if her sad condition could deteriorate further or cause congenital defects in a child she might have borne. However the manner of the treatment speaks volumes to the lack of human care in all too many of those so treated by Hitler's regime and this spoke as much about those involved on both sides when the conduct and nature of spirit of those on either side of this equation is considered with care.  

One would have to consider that the movie begins with the word "Dresden" displayed on the screen - opening the dialogue as it were as its quite clear even the British considered the German populace located in Dresden during the attack on the mainly civilian population there in what was always seen as a war crime of sort by those of conscience who would reject targeting civilians with such horrific outcomes from this targeted bombing for those on the ground, to whom it would seem little value was being attached of Human Rights concerns, despite the relations in what heritage is shared between the two nations. A British historian speaks to this on a clip we have posted on the net including youtube, wherein he states that our values have only since evolved as human beings and as such he ascribes to what is known as "moral relativism" - the idea that our notions of the right thing or decent thing to do in any such case is nothing more than whet feels "good enuf" at the particular point in time when it is considered rather than being eternally so by enduring notions of the right and best principles prevailing instead - as unaffected by the vagaries of time in fact.

Michael Rizzo Chessman
(moviesbyrizzo)