Jojo Rabbit, A Bildungsroman Disguised as a Hitler Comedy A film analysis of JoJo Rabbit (2019) Written by Nujhat Tabassum1,2,3,4 1 Department of Physiology, 2Department of Human Biology, 3Department of Psychology 4 Fourth-year undergraduate of Victoria College, University of Toronto
The Necessity of a Whimsical Tone At first glance, Jojo Rabbit seems to be a typical black comedy, one that makes light of one of the most controversial time periods in human record, the final days of World War II in Nazi Germany. As expected of the Hitler comedy, it is filled to the brim with slapstick humor in the form of gratuitous violence and absurdest dialogue poking fun at the Nazis and their silly bigoted worldview. The adults around Jojo, except for his mother, are portrayed as incompetent idiots, most notably Jojo’s imaginary friend, a heavily caricatured, fractured version of Adolf Hitler, who comes across as more of a scatter-brained fool than the fearsome leader, responsible for the death of millions. Shortly prior to the film’s release, there were growing concerns from critics and the general public that using such a flippantly humorous tone to portray one of the darkest times in human history would not only be ineffective as a storytelling device, but it would also be insulting to the victims of the war. Contrary to these beliefs, however, Jojo Rabbit manages to use its whimsical tone to its advantage, using it to immerse the viewer into the perspective of a child living in that time. The presence of the film’s silly tone can partially be attributed to traditional satire – the film can be viewed as social commentary, poking fun at the enemy, as the absurdity behind the Nazi Party’s doctrines and modes of operation are presented and picked apart. The film is silly because the situation it is based on is ridiculous – young kids aged ten and up, who were barely able to tie their own shoelaces, were expected to join the Deutsches Jungvolk, where they were handed guns and grenades, and trained in military warfare. By 1944, the Nazis, short on eligible adults, and desperate to keep the war going, resorted to employing these children into the Volkssturm militia, sending them off to the frontlines to fight against the enemies. German children and adult alike were heavily indoctrinated into the Nazi ideology, being brainwashed into believing the ridiculous propaganda that was being spread about the Jews, one that painted them as horned bogeymen that belonged in folk tales rather than real life.
Screenwriters’ Perspectives Vol. 1 No. 1 2020
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