Look Who's Back
Constantin Films
Xenophobia is one of the most powerful and least productive biases in the modern world. Though it has no place in our society, and has been known to be destructive via strong inalienable hate, it is a common vice among many Americans and Europeans alike. In these troubling times hatred is an easy emotion, and it seems to have seeped into the consciousness of world powers and average citizens alike. David Wnendt (“Wetlands”) perceived this discontent when he decided to adapt the 2012 bestselling novel “Look’s Who’s Back,” and created what many critics have dubbed the German Borat.
Look Who’s Back follows a newly regenerated Adolf Hitler (Masucci) as he interacts with the modern world, meets a TV journalist, and quickly becomes a national sensation in the guise of a comedian. Interwoven in the narrative sections of the film are vignettes featuring unscripted moments between the former dictator and real German people (much like Borat, which was basically a mockumentary with real people). If you are of the impression that German nationalism and xenophobia was tamped and then outright banned after the Holocaust you are sadly mistaken. Everywhere Masucci goes, in the guise of the former dictator, people are happy to talk to him, some of them even posing for photographs with him. One women yells, “I love Hitler,” and another gives him a hug, like he’s a cuddly children’s performer rather than a genocidal maniac.
Hitler has become something of a symbol in recent years for a way of life that doesn’t exist in Germany any longer. Brexit and Trump’s election prove that fear and hatred are powerful emotions that can lead to stupid, altogether harmful actions by a large amount of people. If you truly believe you would not be swayed by propaganda in Nazi Germany, I strongly urge you to read The Wave by Todd Strasser, or see the 2008 film of the same name. Our current times prove that Hitler could rise again. In this film he becomes a national figure, a comedian, a man who gives advice about how the country should be run in the face of immigrants and unrest in the face of political and social hardships.
I didn’t find this to be all that funny, but instead insightful and clearly cautionary. It definitely shared aspects of the over-the-top cluelessness of Borat, as you watch real people sink to such low levels without them being aware of their injudicious words, or in actuality, well aware. Frankly I would hope that a shared knowledge of the past would prompt people to have true outrage for a man dressed as Hitler, walking the streets. Hitler has become a glaring figure in the pantheon of history, his image as inescapable as Mickey Mouse. People forget the true horror of that image, and latch onto an idea of how the past truly was, which conflicts with accurate history. Watching how the world is conducting itself, I hope that we can find our inner humanity in these trying times.
