The snobbery of filmmaking is this ludicrous idea that comedy isn’t art or that comedy can’t change the world or that comedy can’t change people—that you basically have to depress an audience in order for it to be meaningful.” — Taika Waititi, Jojo Rabbit writer-director-actor
I knew they were on to something when I purchased the last theater seat available for Jojo Rabbit.
Its six Oscar nominations, including best picture, pushed me to see the film a few towns away, smack dab in the best part of the day, a last-minute gig before the Oscar reveal. It for sure wasn’t the movie art that drew me—the silly Hitler character holding rabbit’s ears over a blond uniformed boy. Jojo Rabbit ranked last on my major nominated films to see before the 2020 Oscars for a reason.
But it’s my favorite movie of 2019 and perhaps of the decade.
IMDB categorizes Jojo Rabbit as Comedy, Drama, and War. But I insist on adding Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Romance, and Satire.
How can one film fit all these categories?
Under what spell does writer-director-producer-actor Taika Waititi thrive that he can create such a gem, one that tugs between your heart and your head for nearly two hours?
Months later, I still think of this move. I’ve watched it more than a dozen times.
I’m obsessed.
Jojo Rabbit is a World War II satire about a lonely German boy named Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis), a fanatic in Hitler’s youth army who discovers his single mother (Scarlett Johansson) hiding a Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie) in their home. Jojo must confront his blind nationalism while aided by his idiotic imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi).
Waititi balances satire and reality throughout the film. At first, his Hitler is idiotic, befitting of an imaginary friend. But as Jojo grows fond of the Jewish girl, imaginary Hitler begins to resemble the real Hitler.
For example, when Jojo confesses “She doesn’t seem like a bad person” imaginary Hitler’s speech begins calm and crescendos in force. You hear the real Hitler: “The german soldier was born out of necessity. Germany depends on the passion of these young men, Passion and the readiness to fall for the fatherland despite the futile efforts of allied war profiteers who send their ill-prepared armies clumsily into the lair of the wolf. And only zealous men who stand steadfast in the face of the enemy will be etched in German memory forever! But it is up to you to decide if you want to be remembered or disappear without a trace like a pitiful grain of sand into a desert of insignificance!”
Throughout the film, Waititi illustrates that none of us are immune to propaganda and indoctrination, especially when we are young and yearning for cause and belonging, but he also assures us that humanity is at the heart of us.
Using satire and an imaginary Hitler to highlight the absurdity of the times wasn’t an easy sell.
Back in 2011, “it was already a hard film to even describe to my friends when I was writing it,” says Waititi. “You could just see them going, ‘Why are you doing this? You’re on a roll—this is a career-ender, mate!’ I just wrote the script that I considered really good and sent it around and said, ‘Just get through the opening and it will start explaining itself to you.’”1
Satire proves an apt lens.
Take this quote about satire—
Irony and satire provide much keener insights into a group’s collective psyche and values than do years of [conventional] research.”2
But, Jojo Rabbit reaches beyond mere satire. The film serves as Waititi’s personal statement. When asked about why he, who is part Jewish, chose to play the role of Adolf Hitler, he said, “The answer’s simple. What better ‘fuck you’ to the guy?”
Like I said, Jojo Rabbit isn’t just one thing. It’s a glorious concoction.
The characters whip whimsy in the mix.
Waititi’s portrayal as Hitler is down right hysterical and fun, if not brilliant.
Scarlett Johansson’s performance as Jojo’s mother Rosie captivates and is well deserving of her Oscar-nomination. Her cheery, free-spirited disposition extends a lifeline amid extreme circumstances and makes you yearn for more of her scenes.
Sam Rockwell as Captain Klenzendorff, a gay Nazi officer, is one of my favorite characters. His portrayal of a disillusioned officer sympathetic to Jojo and the Jewish girl impressed me so much I’m searching for more of his movies.
Beyond styles and performances, I find movie facts critical to my understanding of any film.
In this one, when Rebel Wilson’s character Fraulein Rahm states “I had 18 babies for the Fuhrer. It’s a great year to be a girl!”, it’s a line based on truth. Lebensborn (meaning the ‘fountain of life’) was a Nazi initiative to counteract falling birth rates in Germany and to produce a master race in accordance with Nazi eugenics. Nazi doctors chose young women of strict Aryan heritage, women who enthusiastically volunteered to sleep with SS officers, in hopes they would birth a perfect Aryan child. The children were then taken away and raised as loyal servants.
Leave it to me to focus on so much seriousness in a wonderful, ultimately inspiring film, but the juxtaposition between abhorrent truths and satire is its brilliance.
Without knowing the truth, it’s just silly antics.
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Be sure to check out other facts on IMDB’s trivia page for Jojo Rabbit. Here are my favorites, condensed, compiled, and edited:
- Waititi’s WWII Germany is as vibrant and fashionable as it was in reality and not dreary as depicted in most films about this subject.
- All the German equipment seen, both carried and vehicles, are genuine German gear.
- In one scene, the Adolf Hitler character appears in a traditional Native American headdress. In reality, Native Americans inspired Hitler and he was sympathetic to their portrayals.
- Regarding the visual style, Waititi wanted to show that Germany was the height of fashion and design and textiles.
- One of Taika Waititi‘s reasons for making the film was that it felt to him like people are forgetting this part of history.
- The film is based on Christine Leunens‘s novel Caging Skies, a book that Waititi’s mom loved. Waititi added Imaginary Hitler.
- Even though the spoken dialogue is all in English, all written or printed text in the movie is in German.
- Hitler’s Youth really did exist for boys 10-18, as well as for girls. The Hitler-Jugend was the paramilitary organization for the German youth. Founded in 1922 Munich, Germany, it was declared illegal and a criminal organization after the fall of the Third Reich.
- At one point, Hitler reminds Jojo about the plot by Von Stauffenberg to kill him, calling him “that pirate”. This references Von Stauffenberg having lost an eye and a hand after being wounded in war.
- As JoJo walks around town after Hitler tells him to start acting his age, he sees citizens learning to use the Panzerfaust, a hand-held anti-tank weapon that was very easy to operate and deadly against Allied tanks and other armored vehicles during the invasion of Germany in 1945.
- In the scene when the Gestapo comes to Jojo’s house “Heil Hitler” is said 31 times in one minute. Waititi wanted to illustrate how ridiculous Nazi protocols were.
- The uniforms Hitler wears throughout the movie are consistent chronologically with his life in power and also reflect how Jojo changes his opinion of him.
- The film implies Captain Klenzendorf to be gay, which could explain why he vouches for Elsa in the Gestapo scene. Jewish and homosexual people were both targeted by the Nazis in the Holocaust, so he was in a similar situation to her and likely saw it as a duty to protect a fellow discriminated person.
- In their last appearance together on screen Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell) and Finkel (Alfie Allen) are both seen with pink triangles on their uniforms. This references the relationship suggested between the two of them throughout the film, as Nazis would mark the clothes of gay men with pink triangles.
- The last time Adolf Hitler appears, he has gunshot wounds on his head to reflect the fact that he has killed himself.
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1- https://www.ruidosonews.com/story/entertainment/movies/2019/10/21/taika-waititi-defends-jojo-rabbit-explains-his-goofy-hitler/4035233002/
2 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satire#cite_note-galaxy196806-8 (#11)
Jojo Rabbit received 151 award nominations of which they’ve won 34 times.
Director: Taika Waititi
Writers: Taika Waititi (Oscar Winner for adapted screenplay), Christine Leunens (novel)
Stars: Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Scarlett Johansson, Taika Waititi, Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson
IMDB: Jojo Rabbit
Purchase/Rent Movie from Amazon