The short, sad decline of film

As a kid I learned to take pictures with my dad's 35mm Nikomat camera. In those days, all of the photos were taken on Kodachrome 64, a slide film that holds its color for a very long time. Later I found a little 126 camera and started buying film for it. Although it had almost no features and was a very odd format (26mm by 26mm officially, although the film was actually 28mm square), I learned the concepts of taking good pictures by trial and error. I remember that my favorite picture was one I took of a dog while I was running along side it. I liked the photo because the dog was in focus and the background was blurred.

In 2001 we bought a Nikon N80 film camera to take with us to the olympics. I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out which films to use. It was amazing the variety! There were tons of films, but as I recall I bought a lot of Agfa Optima Pro II 400 and Konica 200. I also shot a lot of Kodak Supra 100 and loved the fact that Kodak Supra 800 could be pushed to 3200, making it perfect for things like hockey!

None of those films exist anymore.

First Konica went out of business. Then Agfa. Then Kodak started discontinuing films left and right. Recently they discontinued HIE, the infra-red film that I shot in Chicago and Colorado last year. I was very dismayed by this loss, as there is nothing else quite like it on the market.

2001 was probably the high point for film. At that time the best digital camera on the market, the Nikon D1x was 5.1 Megapixels. There were higher pixel counts, but that (well, the original D1) was the first truly high end pro DSLR from a major manufacturer. Previously Kodak would take Nikon bodies and adapt them for digital, but Nikon, Canon, Minolta and Olympus were not making DSLR's until the release of the Nikon D1.

Digital was beginning to take hold, but film still was the dominant player. The competing film companies were producing better and better emulsions and competing for business. In the five years that followed 2001, film sales would evaporate as pro DSLR's came into their own. The drop in professional sales ended film research, and began the steady decline of film as a medium. On the consumer end, digital point and shoots completely destroyed the low end camera market. APS was the first casualty, followed quickly by the advanced 35mm point and shoot.

And then came the death blow. In 2003 Canon produced the digital rebel for less than $1000. With that, the consumer SLR market crashed. By early 2006 Nikon had discontinued all of their film cameras except for the mighty F6 (the best film camera ever made) and the FM10, a model aimed at beginning photography students. People stopped buying film bodies and began to buy DSLR's. Without the prosumer purchases, film companies began dropping left and right.

For color print film, Kodak and Fuji are essentially all that remains. It seems that every few months Kodak announces the discontinuation of more films. What is left is a small collection of print films, and a slightly larger collection of slide films. Even black and white seems to have taken a beating. The workflow of digital photography is simply too appealing. It takes a lot less time to import photos than it does to scan the negatives or the slides.

I am one of the holdouts. I still use the N80 that we purchased in 2001. We have added a 10MP Point & Shoot to our equipment, but the best pictures we take still come from the N80. But our options are dwindling. There is now only one place worldwide to get Kodachrome developed. How long will that last? I used to process slides at my local costco. That services has been discontinued. I have to drive nearly 60 miles to find a place that will process my true black and white film. Color print film remains easy to process, primarily because of the popularity of disposable cameras, and the fact that the same equipment creates prints from negatives and digital files.

I miss the variety of films. Each of them brought something different to the table. Each of them affected the photographs in various ways, and those films are lost, gone forever. Digital cameras now contain modes to emulate the effects of those various films (most commonly Velvia), but it isn't quite the same.

Film will never totally go away, but the attrition is far from over. Rumors are now swirling that Kodak might stop selling film altogether or sell the business. When this all shakes out there will be very few options for film photographers, and possibly only one company.

I like Fuji Slide films. I shoot Provia 100F almost exclusively. I don't care for their print films. Superia X-TRA 400 doesn't scan well, and doesn't look as good as the shots I take with Kodak 400UC. I don't generally shoot 100 print film, I use slide film for those occasions. I no longer have any film that I can push to 3200 like I used to. This is a real loss. Kodak's discontinuing of HIE is a huge loss. I expect that eventually they will discontinue 125PX, if they haven't already. Fewer and fewer options will make shooting with film less attractive.

Such is life I guess, but it's a bummer.

You can file this as a lament :-)

Joel

Sex God

Rob Bell makes me cry. There, I've said it. But really, he does. The way he writes, he brings together the truth of God's scripture and the reality of God's love with such clarity that it brings tears to my eyes.

I love reading, but some books are easier to read than others. I've been working my way through some very good books that are heavy reading, and since this was sitting in my stack I decided to give it a shot. It didn't take long for me to finish it. Rob writes like he preaches. Lots of pauses, short phrases for impact, and he leads you through a narrative like a good story teller would.

Sex God is Rob's latest book. The subhead is "Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality" which sounds kinda weird, but it's really not. It's also a book about a lot more than sex. This book is about the value of human life. About dignity. About marriage. About relationships.

One of Rob's chapters is entitled "God Wears Lipstick" and in it he discusses the concentration camps during world war II, and the horrors that the British soldiers found when they liberated those camps. Each of these people that had been brutalized, violated and stripped of all their dignity were bearers of the divine image of God. He relates the treatment of these people with how men treat women when they turn them from divine image bearers to mere objects of lust. Rob writes "The problem is that 'that' is actually a 'she.' A person...It's degrading. It's violating. It does something to a person's soul"

The entire chapter is very powerful, but it's the story at the end that made me cry: "It was shortly after the British Red Cross arrived...that a very large quantity of lipstick arrived...I believe nothing did more for these internees than the lipstick. Women lay in bed with no sheets and no nightie but with scarlet red lips...At last someone had done something to make them individuals again, they were someone, no longer merely the number tattooed on the arm. At last they could take an interest in their appearance. That lipstick started to give them back their humanity."

I have removed a lot to keep this entry short and given you a very brief summary of the chapter (very brief), but the essence is that humans are special, and God has an interest in seeing us retain our humanity and this affects how we treat one another. This theme carries through the entire book, as Rob drives home the point that every person is worth dying for. Every person.

The latter sections of the book deal more specifically with sex, as Rob moves into a discussion of how the union of a man and a woman is designed to provide a glimpse of who God is. What was revolutionary to me was the discussion on heaven, and how our relationships on earth provide small glimpses of what God will provide for everyone in heaven. It suddenly became very clear why there will be no marriage in heaven, we won't need what marriage provides because we will have the full glory of God.

Sex God isn't as critically acclaimed, or as controversial as Velvet Elvis, but it's a great book nonetheless. I have to admit, I wasn't excited about the book when I read the title. I dragged my feet on purchasing it because I wasn't sure if I would like it. But having read it, I am very grateful for the gifts that God has given Rob, and that Rob is obedient to use those gifts for the kingdom.

If you haven't read Velvet Elvis, read that first. But if you have, pick up Sex God. Highly Recommended.

Joel

Movies - Christmas 2007

We don't get out to movies much, because it's very expensive. By the time we drive to the theater, buy two tickets, and pay a sitter, we could have bought three or four full priced DVD's. But for one reason or another, I've seen three movies in the last month.

First up was Beowulf in 3D. This effects laden retelling of an old english poem was entertaining, but I don't think it is what anyone would call a great movie. I also don't think I would have enjoyed it as much in 2D, and that's a very real problem. When a film virtually requires a gimmick, that is not a good thing.

The whole movie is animated using a technique similar to what was done for the Polar Express, only it doesn't look as creepy. While neat, I think I would have enjoyed it more as live action. In the end I was entertained, which is the point I guess, but it's not a movie I can see owning and certainly not a "must see" film by any stretch. If I was rating it, I'd give it a C, or perhaps a B- if you see it in 3D.

The second movie I saw was Noelle. I really liked this film, and would have enjoyed it even if I didn't know David. Unfortunately, this movie will be gone from most theaters by the time you read this because of a poor first weekend showing. The movie business is very unforgiving, and if the first weekend isn't a resounding success, the movie will be gone very quickly.

Noelle is a story about a catholic priest who is sent to shut down a small cape cod church that is no longer viable. That is the story on the surface, but there is a much larger undercurrent of faith and forgiveness. The movie has a nice blend of humor and drama, and generally produces tears by the end in all but the most hardened person.

This is one of the few movies we have gone to see as a couple, and both Patty and I enjoyed it. I wish this movie had been promoted better. I have only talked to one person who had heard of it before I mentioned it, and they might have read about it here in my earlier entry, because I know they had read my blog... I'm very disappointed at how this whole thing has gone. I would like to have seen Noelle do a lot better, and I think better promotion could have made a big difference here. Overall this movie was probably a B to me. Not perfect, but well worth seeing.

Last night I went to see I am Legend. This movie stars Will Smith as a (not exactly) the last man alive on earth. To be honest, I really like the premise here. Will Smith is utterly alone in New York City. He is the only "normal" living citizen. The rest of the planet has been wiped out by a virus that was originally produced to cure cancer (which it did). Unfortunately, the virus mutated and went from curing cancer to effectively giving the entire human race something like rabies that makes their hair fall out and turns them into gollum like ultra violent creatures that cannot be exposed to sunlight.

The movie was a mix of suspense, action, and save the world heroics. Will Smith plays the role well, as he tries to survive in Manhattan, avoiding the creatures that come out at night. This is by far my favorite of these three films. While I really liked Noelle, I am Legend is more the type of movie I enjoy seeing. It makes me want to see The Omega Man, a 1970's movie based on the same book, simply to see how cheesy it can be :-)

There is an interesting subplot of faith in I am Legend as well. I don't want to go into it too much because I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone. I am Legend is well worth seeing. It's not perfect, but I give it an A-...

Joel

Heretic

So the internet is abuzz recently because Mark Driscoll called Rob Bell a heretic. I was not at the conference where this happened, but from what I understand it was because of Bell's book Velvet Elvis, in which Rob lays out a hypothetical situation wherein the virgin birth was conclusively disproved, and asks the question "could you still be a Christian?" Rob's point has nothing to do with the virgin birth. Indeed, on the very next page he affirms the virgin birth and his belief in it. But his point is lost because we want to jump on the sensational...

Why do we eat our own? The world is lost and dying without Christ, and we are more worried about attacking people who don't share our beliefs exactly when we should be rejoicing in the impact that is being made for the kingdom of God. The reason Rob chose the virgin birth was that he didn't want the issue to be trivial, he wanted to make his point that we can't hinge our faith entirely on one aspect of what we believe the bible says. He included ways the scripture could be read to not support the virgin birth, not to argue that point, but to make it clear that our faith is not one without basis, but one that we support with the revealed written word of God.

I like Driscoll. I like Rob Bell. Both men have done great things for the kingdom of God. We need more leaders like them who can take the word of God into a post-modern culture without getting mired in relevancy or bogged down by modern thinking. We also need to be united for the cause of Christ, not working to undermine the ministries of others.

The world is lost. Rather than drag this on, let's return the focus to sharing the love of Christ and proclaiming the gospel to those who need Him.

Joel

Politics

I generally find politics wearying, but important. Like most people, I have strong opinions about where I think this country ought to be going, and what issues are important. A few days ago a friend of mine sent me a link to a website that is extraordinarily helpful. It's called glassbooth, and it allows you to choose how important various issues are to you (no matter which side of the issue you are on) and then answer questions about those issues. After the survey, the site matches up your political views with the candidates (all of them) and you can see specifically how your views and those candidates line up. It is brilliant! Give it a try.

Last night was the CNN/YouTube Republican debates. Before the debates I liked Ron Paul's focus on reducing the size of the federal government and giving freedom back to the people, but glassbooth told me that I line up best with Hunter, Thompson and Huckabee. After the debate, I find that Huckabee is my man. He is very sharp, he is charming, witty, and he stands by his principles and isn't afraid to say that God isn't just a political position in his life. I found myself cheering at several of his answers last night.

Ron Paul reminds me of Ross Perot. He says great things one moment, and random scary things the next. As much as I like his focus on freedom and reducing federal government, I think he would be a foreign policy disaster, sending the US back to policies of isolationism.

Fred Thompson was my favorite before the debates simply because he seemed conservative and the glassbooth survey confirmed that. After the debate I think he should drop out (along with Tancredo & Hunter) of the race. He will only serve to distract money from other conservative candidates. He really looked like he needed cue cards and he didn't seem to be able to think quickly on his feet. His campaign ad was the worst of the night, and landed like a lead balloon.

Tancredo & Hunter really needed to differentiate themselves from the bunch, and instead came across looking like one issue candidates who want to build a fence between us and mexico.

Giuliani was far more impressive than I expected. He did a very good job of pointing to his experience in New York as well as at other levels, and came across as a man who could govern this nation. I don't line up with him nearly as much ideologically, but I was impressed by his performance. His YouTube ad was the best of the bunch as it was done in the style of YouTube. It mixed facts with humor, juxtaposing his record on crime with Rudy cutting snowfall in new york and taking a stand against king kong...

Mitt Romney stumbled a bit, and came across very defensive. He seems like a guy with too many skeletons in his closet for some reason. On the whole I think he's a strong candidate, but I wasn't impressed by him last night.

John McCain came across as the most competent, but with views that were clearly unpopular to the crowd. His stance on Iraq in particular did not sell with the crowd, and his poll ratings reflect that.

You can see the debate (including my friend Chris' song that opened up the whole thing!) on YouTube.

I was very surprised that I genuinely enjoyed watching the debates last night. The CNN/YouTube format worked for me. I realize there were flaws and complaints (A lot of people were upset by the questions CNN chose, the seemingly anti-republican bias etc. Hey, that's going to happen after the nomination, might as well learn how to answer the questions now...), but on the whole I liked what they did, attempting to bring debates into the internet age that we live in.

Joel

20 Grand Days Out - Yap

This summer we took an epic vacation. A once in a lifetime vacation. We went to Hawaii, Guam and Yap. The main purpose of this trip was to go to Yap, where I lived for a year around 1980. I have already written about our visits to Hawaii and Guam (click on those names to read the first two entries). Here's our experience on Yap.

Our plane left for Yap at 6AM and arrived around 7:30. All flights to Yap take place at very early hours of the morning, something that they are hoping to change. We arrived at the airport and were picked up by Cy. Cy lived with us for a number of years while I was a kid while he went to school in the US. I consider him my brother.

We rented a car at the airport because Cy does not have a vehicle that can accomdate all of us plus luggage. Our car was a Hyundai Santa Fe, with a badge on the back declaring it a "V9" something that I'm sure is truly unique in the world of automotive engine design :-)

We stopped at the store and picked up a few items that we would need during our stay like cabin crackers and bottled water. It's been 27 years, but the stores look exactly the same as I remember them.

Susan, Cy's wife, made lunch for us. She is an excellent cook, but more on that later. Our accommodations were a complete surprise to me. In 1980 when we lived on yap we lived in a wooden house (long since destroyed by a typhoon). We had no running water, so we had to shower in a stream (still there, but very little water flowing) and we had 55 gallon drums that served as water collectors to be used in the house.

Now we stayed in a concrete house with running water. To make things even more deluxe there was hot water, something I never imagined we would have available to us on Yap. The place we were staying was also quite big. It had three bedrooms, a living room/dining room and a kitchen. The house also had four air conditioners, something I found quite remarkable. We did not use them because they didn't work very well and electricity is very, very expensive on Yap.

I did not recognize it, but we were staying at one of the places where I had spent a lot of time as a boy. We also were living right next to where my parent's had their house in 1967. The amazing thing was that the land on Yap is growing rather than shrinking, so the distance to the shore was about three or four times as far as I remember it. Cy confirmed that the beach keeps getting further away from the road.

We spent the day getting familiar with our surroundings. Cy was a wonderful host, cutting down coconuts for us to drink, and they provided us with the most beautiful handmade (by Susan and her family) leis for us. In an era where leis are cranked out en masse, to have one hand made, woven from banana leaf with hundreds of small flowers was amazing. What really stuck out to me was the beautiful fragrance they gave off. Truly a very special treat.

For dinner, Susan made us fish accompanied by soursap and breadfruit. It was excellent, although I didn't care much for the very soft flesh of the soursap. We finished off the night playing Uno, something we would do a lot on this trip.

Our next day was sunny and hot with very little wind. We went into town for lunch at the Mnuw, a restaurant in a boat attached to the Mantaray hotel. The Mantaray is one of the four hotels on Yap. The hotels are small, and focus on serving a tourist crowd of divers, mostly. The food was just ok, but their own microbrew beer (stone money brewing company) was pretty good.

After lunch, we drove to the old airport in search of the japanese zeros that were destroyed there during World War II. We only found one, and that was because someone showed us where it was. There used to be more, I'm not sure if they've been reclaimed by the jungle or if they have been sold off to WWII collectors, sadly something that is becoming more common with WWII relics on islands like Yap.

We also visited the place where I lived when I lived on Yap. It was very overgrown now, but the beach still looked as I remembered it. I took photos, none of which I am very happy with. Still, it was a big deal to me to see this place again. I couldn't manage to capture that one shot that would encompass the beauty as it exists. I also did a little snorkeling this day. I love snorkeling, but I wasn't able to do as much as I had hoped on this trip because we didn't have my parents with us as was originally planned. With Patty and the kids there I felt a little guilty going out to look at the coral, leaving them to sit around and wait for me to return. The reef around Yap is still very pretty, but it isn't like I remember it.

For dinner Susan made us Chicken and rice with breadfuit and bananas. There are lots of varieties of bananas on Yap, and they are always picked fresh making them much better than what we get in the supermarkets at home.

On Friday (the next day) we went into town and did laundry. I had not planned on being able to do laundry on Yap, so this was another nice surprise. This brings up the single biggest difference about Yap now verses Yap in 1980. You can now speak English to everyone on Yap, and they understand you and can converse with you. In 1980 it was very difficult to get by with English. You really needed to learn Yapese if you wanted to talk to people. I never became fluent, but I knew enough to get around. These days my Yapese is consigned to a few phrases and words.

We met Cy at the meeting house in Gagil. This is a very new structure, having been built by the community for the Yap day celebrations last year. We also met the US Ambassador to Micronesia at the meeting house, and then we went down to where the traditional navigation society (of which Cy is the chair) was building traditional yapese canoes. We met Sesario Sewralur, the son of the legendary navigator Mao Piailug who is from one of the outer islands of Yap. One thing I noticed was that Cy spoke to everyone in Yapese, but he talked with Sesario in English. When I asked him why, he told me that Sesario didn't speak Yapese, and Cy didn't speak the language of Satawal. I never realized before that the outer islands spoke different languages. As it turns out, there are four language groups in the Yap Islands.

After seeing the construction of these canoes and chatting with the ambassador, we went back to Cy's house where we took his boat out for a spin. It was nice to be out on the water around Yap again. With a fringing reef it is almost always a nice smooth ride around the island at high tide. At low tide navigation becomes very difficult because of the reef and it is not advisable to travel by boat.

For dinner we had fish, star apple and papaya. I had never had star apple before, and I loved it. I also need to note that the fish we had while on Yap was some of the best fish I have ever had. One variety, Rainbow Runner, was particularly tasty. Susan Mugenbey is an outstanding cook and a very delightful lady. We were constantly amazed at her skill and knowledge of the island fruits and vegetables.

Yapese culture is very different from US culture, and this is the first time Patty has ever been this far "off the grid" as far as amenities and culture. After a few days, it became very overwhelming to her. We were concerned about the kids having lice, nursing a few little injuries etc. On Saturday it all caught up to Patty and she had a bit of a meltdown. Thankfully, it didn't last long and she was able to gather herself back together and have a good attitude about the whole visit. For me being on Yap again was such a joy it was easy to forget that this isn't easy living if you aren't used to it.

The big highlight of Saturday was the opportunity to go to a yapese dance and cultural demonstration. One of the great things that is happening on Yap is the desire to keep ahold of some of their culture before it is lost. These dances are part of that, as one of the villages has the children (elementary and teenagers) put on dances for tourists. While this is an income producing enterprise, it is also valuable to Yap because it teaches the younger generation the traditional dances.

It was really, really cool to see the dances. It was also one of the only times my wife and kids got to see the traditional dress and some of the traditional activities of the yapese. The village that hosts the event does a very nice job of displaying a lot of the traditional yapese crafts, the harvest of betelnut, the fruits that the yapese eat etc.

Sunday we got to do something that was very, very special to me. I have seen Yapese canoes in artwork and I've seen them around the island, but I had never been out in one. Even when we were there in 1980 they were not used very much anymore, and that has not changed. It is the work of the traditional navigation society that is bringing back the traditional yapese canoes. My dad is one of the world's leading authorities on Yap, and he has never been out in a traditional yapese canoe. But this day we got to go out in one.

The problem with wind driven canoes is that the tide and the wind dictate what you can do. We were supposed to go out at high tide, but there was no wind. A couple of hours later there was some wind, although it was a very light breeze. The tide was much lower, requiring us to trudge out through the seaweed to get on the boat (something I hate doing. call me a wuss, but I don't like walking through all the goo). Still, we were able to go out for an hour and a half or so. Sesario was our captain. Not exactly a big challenge of his navigational abilities, but it was still a real treat. The Yapese way of travel is very peaceful.

We had lunch at the village view resort, which is where we sailed out of. This is one of the four hotels, and by far the most unique. It is located in the village of Maap, and has ten bungalows that are right on the beach. This place is a dive hotel that mostly serves Japanese tourists, and the lunch menu reflected that. As usual, Cy knew the owner and several key people, he is extraordinarily well connected.

When we returned we found a rather unique situation. An old woman and her granddaughter had gone out fishing (highly unusual, it's the men who fish) in a boat with no motor. They were poling along when they got out too deep for their pole. Set adrift, they floated all night and ended up in a village quite a long ways from their home. Cy's brother John had towed them back with his boat to his house where they were sleeping until high tide (remember the tides affect everything). At high tide we hooked them up to cy's boat and towed them to Tomil, which was about a 40 minute ride at a pretty good clip. After dropping them off we returned home at full throttle, which the boys loved. It was fun watching their smiles build as we picked up speed.

It was unusual for women to be fishing because Yapese tradition is that the sea gods are all female and the land gods are male. Thus, the women work the land and the men work the sea. Pretty good arrangement if you ask me. You work the taro swamps, I'll go fishing :-) I think the guys definitely got the better end of that deal.

The next day we were supposed to go fishing, but there was a tropical depression that dumped a lot of rain on us. Not a good idea to out past the reef in a small boat in a storm...

We had a couple more slow days where we just enjoyed being on the beach and living the slow Yapese lifestyle. Unfortunatley Jacob got sick, so he had to stay inside quite a bit. I got to go fishing with Cy and I took Grace. Jacob was NOT happy about this development, but we made it up to him by taking him the next day. We were total failures at fishing, which was quite frustrating.

One of the interesting things about Yap is that the water is privately owned. While we were out in the boat John and Cy saw some kids net fishing, and got very agitated. We headed in at full throttle and when we got close, they yelled at the kids in Yapese. As we motored away I asked what happened and they explained that those waters were owned by their family, and those kids did not have permission to fish in the waters. They were very upset.

We had dinner with Cara, an American who lives upstairs where we were staying. She is a lawyer, and she and her husband are on Yap for a few years. We really enjoyed getting to know her, and we had a great time together. Her husband wasn't around because he had gone to the states for a wedding.

The next day was another slow day, and also one in which we had to prepare to leave, as we had to be at the airport at 3 in the morning or something ridiculous like that. That night Cy's family held a huge party for us in which we got to fellowship with the entire extended family. Cy's family is the one that took my parents in and helped them get established in the 60's, and we have always had a bond with them. It was regrettable that my parents weren't able to be there (my grandmother died while we were on Yap, and my parents had anticipated that and stayed home). One of the people who came was Dapoy, who unfortunately died a few weeks later. I didn't realize that he was quite sick, and didn't travel much. I was very grateful that he had made the effort to come see us.

Cy and Susan gave us a very nice sendoff, and we drove back to the airport, dropped off the car and flew back to Guam where Helen and Fred took us to their house for the day so we could relax before our flight to Hawaii (via Tokyo). Unfortunately they took the handmade leis and stuff from us on Guam at the airport, saying they were concerned about bugs and stuff. It was a big bummer because they were _so_ beautiful (Susan had made a second group of them for us to take on the return trip).

After the day with Helen and Fred we flew to Hawaii, where we had a HUGE surprise. My mom and dad were on Hawaii. They were supposed to be in Guam for a conference, but they had flown to Hawaii and about ten steps from the gate to get on the plane my mom collapsed. My dad thought she had died based on the way she looked. After a minute or so she "came to" and asked what had happened. The paramedics came and she was taken to a heart institute on Hawaii where she had a pacemaker installed. My mom is doing well, and my kids enjoyed getting to see grandma and grandpa for the one day we were on Hawaii.

The next day we flew home to Los Angeles and then drove to Oak HIlls. In total, 20 grand days out. The whole adventure was amazing, and we are truly grateful to have been able to go. I have many reflections on Yap that I will save for another entry. I hope you've enjoyed reading about our trip.

Joel

Downfall

History is written by the winners. The result of that is that the experiences and stories of those who were on the losing end of the conflict is rarely told. When we think of the fall of the third reich we tend to view the event (rightfully, IMHO) with great joy. At last the evil that Hitler had tried to impose on the world had been brought to a close.

Downfall is the story of the end, as told by the German side. It is fascinating. We never think about the emotional toll, the real people and lives that were involved, but Downfall tells their story. It shows a side of Hitler we never see, and often don't like to acknowledge exists: that of a personable, likable man. We have created a bit of a comic book character out of Hitler, making him such a demon that no one would realistically follow him. Downfall shows Hitler in good moments and (many) bad.

The actor who plays Hitler is absolutely brilliant. He manages to go from charming one moment to a screaming dottering old man the next. Hitler holds fast until almost the very end that they will prevail. Once he realizes that the war is lost, he makes plans to commit suicide, getting advice on how to do it most effectively. One of the interesting points of the film is how, after all is lost and the decision has been made, Hitler is still pouring over maps talking about the need to reclaim the German oilfields once the Berlin conflict has been won.

Other characters have equally depressing ends, including the Goebbels who murder their children in the bunker because they can't bear the kids to be raised in a non-Nazi Germany. Evil doesn't stop with your own family, it permeates everything.

I thought Downfall was brilliant, if wholly depressing. I've never really given thought to the real people involved on the Nazi side of the conflict. Their hopes and dreams died in that bunker. The movie is bookended by an interview with the real Traudl Junge in which she talks about the guilt she feels for having liked the most evil man who ever lived. She confesses that when she heard the war trials she was convinced that she wasn't part of it all, but later she realized that she should have listened to her conscience.

This movie is almost impossible to find in a blockbuster or other video store, but it is worth seeing. I received this as a birthday gift from my brother in law and his wife, and had asked for it because I had no other way to find it. If you have a delivery service like Netflix, this is worth putting on your list. It will give you new insight into the end of the war.

Joel

PS - I realize it seems like I recommend almost every movie I see, but that's because I don't bother to writeup the unremarkable ones...