Verboten!
If you dive deep enough into the world of <PERSON>, you start to notice trends, themes, and stylistic touches that keep coming back. One idea might strike him early in life, and you'll see that note keep popping up throughout his books and films. He re-uses the name "<PERSON>" in several of his stories, for instance, and the "Big Red One" symbol is basically <PERSON>'s version of a <PERSON> cameo.
<PERSON> had a deep admiration of <PERSON>, which he writes about in his autobiography. He tells the story of how his outfit in WWII was holed up in <PERSON>'s house (now turned museum), and years after Verboten!, he <PERSON> would set a crucial scene in Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street in that same museum.
So when Verboten! opened up to the dramatic strains of <PERSON>'s 5th, then switched to the sounds of gunfire echoing the beat of those opening notes, I laughed because I knew I was solidly in full blown <PERSON> territory.
Later in the film, <PERSON> switches over to <PERSON>, and times the movements of Nazi Werewolves preparing for an attack to the rousing tune of Flight of the Valkyries. It's a surprisingly artistic choice for <PERSON>, who is usually grounded with little visual flair, letting the characters and action drive his stories.
But Verboten! also marks many of the conservative technical choices that can be found in many of <PERSON>'s movies. Rather than shooting extra inserts, he'll often blow up a section of a wide shot to highlight an action, and not only does he use archival footage in Verboten!, but he intercuts it with new footage to suggest characters are interacting with the older, scratched-up film. It's a choice that I applaud for its audacity, even as I find it hilarious as we cut from footage from the actual Nuremberg trials to a shot of two characters from the movie (clearly filmed with different film stock) sitting in the stands watching the proceedings.
It's a sloppy movie. 378
A bold movie (you see uncensored archival footage from the Nazi concentration camps). It's either poorly paced or unconcerned with pacing, focusing on a forbidden romance between an American soldier and a German woman in the first half, and swinging away towards an attempt by disgruntled Germans attempting to restart the Nazi party in the second half (The Force Awakens should have taken notes from this movie).
And yet, I still found this to be one of <PERSON>'s more poignant works. As a filmmaker, he often did a lot of things the "wrong way", and even his best movies feature shoddy, questionable filmmaking choices. Yet when he's passionate about the material, it shines through to the finished product. The fire in his heart burns through this picture—through the low budget and ungraceful editing. It's got punch and anger. It screams at the idiocy of prejudice and weeps for the victims.
If this isn't one of <PERSON>'s best, it's at least one that I can instantly point to when people ask me what a <PERSON> movie is. 698