The Work of Lang
The work of Lang got praises from different scholars. This is because during his film production, he set new standards for the film industry.
He utilized the available technology and used intellectual ideas in filmmaking. This had a massive impact on the development of the film industry during his life, especially in Germany before he travelled to USA. According Lang, the film industry was independent; therefore, the government should not control the industry. Lang escaped from the country, since the government had started to control what he was producing. The government banned the film “The Testaments of Dr.Mabuse,” because they feared that the public would be enlightened of its poor governance.
If Lang had not left the country, the German film industry would probably have been in a much better shape (Phillips 46). Lang used different languages to market the film internationally. However, he still got negative reviews from different individuals and the government. He used the diversity of film language to analyze the intermodal relations with technology. In “The Testaments of Dr.
Mabuse” Lang show the alienated relationship of sound, text and moving images. During this film, synchronizing entities of film body were not yet established. However, Lang brought it out in the film; he, for example, used off-screen sound. The film produced by Lang faces several criticisms from other filmmakers and scholars. In his film production, Lang wrote his own scripts; therefore, the whole film was singular in vision from the start. Some other writers even commented that Lang is pessimistic, since he appeared more concerned with the character, and how the human race is affected.
In addition, he involved himself in the negative side of human nature rather than the positive part of the human life. Homosexuality Homosexuality is one of the themes that Lang tried to bring out from the film. The Nazi regime was not happy with this, since it encouraged homosexuality, which was considered immoral. This is one of the main reasons why Lang’s film got banned in Germany by Joseph Goebbels. According to Goebbels, the film was not suitable for German citizen. He had earlier offered Lang a position of supervisor of Germany film production, but Lang had declined (Kalat 94).
The Nazi had a negative opinion about homosexuality in the country; therefore, they used their powers to eliminate homosexuality in Germany between 1933 and 1945. In the modern world, the film is more acceptable, since theworld has changed and became more loyal to homosexuals. Other targeted groups were Germans with mental and physical disabilities, Jehovah’s witnesses, Roma, and Soviet prisoners of war. The campaigns by the Nazi against homosexuality were aimed at over one million German men, who got asserted. At the time, homosexuals were considered enemies of the state and, hence, were imprisoned.
Many died from starvation, diseases, exhaustion, beating and murder in the prisons (Madden 99). Therefore, Lang’s film seems to favor homosexuality, but this was not in accordance with the German law. This portrayed how he was not patriotic to his own country, since the film scenes were trying to show that the Nazi movement was evil. Instead, Lang should have tried to reveal the positive side of the government. He should have used the film to show how the government was supportive of its own people (Madden 79). Confidence in the Country’s Leaders According to Joseph Goebbels, the film would have ruined the confidence the German people had in their leaders.
The film had subversive anti-Nazi elements, and Lang used those to bring the government down. Therefore, Joseph Goebbels had a legitimate reason of banning the film. The film portrays the Nazi government as evil and corrupt. These traits would have ruined the governance of Germany. The Mabuse resurrect and corrupts the mind of Baum; in this case. the Baum’s mind is the people of Germany, and Mabuse is the government itself.
Mabuse controls the mind of Baum, just the same way as the Nazi government controls Germany as a country (Abel 156).Narrative Structures A number of critics have pointed out that “The Testaments of Dr.Mabuse” has a narrative structure that it is unusual. The sequences that prove successive were connected by associative rather than chronological logic. In addition, the film has a fascinating story and a number of tense moments, but it takes long to set itself up. Conclusion According to this paper’s introduction, the main objective was to test the thesis, whether it was fair enough for the German government to ban the Lang’s film.
It is debatable, since it would have destroyed the German government. On the other hand, it could have aided in developing countries by educating people on how the Nazi governed Germany. Lang’s mother was a Jew, and this probably contributed to why he did not like Nazi movement. Jews were seen as the enemies of the state in the early 1930 and late 1940 (Packker 78). After the ban on importation of foreign films in the country, Lang developed intellectual ideas and came up with convincing films. This film acted as a source of entertainment to the citizens.
It also acted as an educative forum to the citizens on democracy that did not prevail in the country. Homosexuality was an enemy to the Nazi movement; therefore, homosexual men were imprisoned and killed. The killing and imprisonment of homosexual men created tension among citizens, and some of the men who were not gay ended up dying (Kaes 123). The Nazi movement had targeted other groups such as the Germans with mental and physical disabilities, Jehovah’s witnesses, Roma, and Soviet prisoners of war. The majority of these people were citizens of the country, but the Nazi movement wanted them dead, because they were different.
The main objective of the movement was to get a superior human race, but getting rid of the Germans with mental and physical disabilities, Jehovah’s witnesses, Roma, and Soviet prisoners of war was against human rights. The Government did not view these people as humans, worthy of their protection; therefore, the government was unfair, corrupt and racist (Abel 203).The film uses the German expressionist movement that had lost its use after the introduction of sound. Although German expressionism was rarely used in film production, Lang combined it with sound. Lang developed the film industry in Germany; therefore, banning his film deteriorated the development of film production in Germany.
Some film producers stopped their film production in Germany and went to US, where the conditions were more favorable. The main cause of this massive migration was because the US citizens embraced their style of film production more than Germans theirs. Lang also felt that for film production to develop, the film industry should be independent, rather than the government controlling its activities. According to Joseph Goebbels, the film was ruining the confidence of its citizens in its leaders. The main reason why Lang related the film to the government of Germany was not to ruin the confidence of its citizens in its leaders, but to educate people on the truth about its government.
The film portrays the Nazi government as evil, racist and corrupt. In addition, Lang produced it in French and English. Lang used different languages to market the film internationally, but different individuals and the government negatively viewed this. He used the diversity of film language to analyze the intermodal relations with technology (Kalat 98).
