slg@ukma.UUCP (Sean Gilley) (09/25/85)
Some friends and I discussed this the last time we saw Cabaret, and
never were able to come to anykind af conclusion either way that we
could support. Now, after seeing it again, this time on TV, I still
am not sure. So I put it to you:
In the movie Cabaret, is the character played by Joel Gray
a Nazi?
I seem to find scenes supporting both views. What do you think?
Sean.
--
Sean L. Gilley Phone: (606) 272-9620 or (606) 257-4613
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arpa: ukma!slg@ANL-MCS.ARPAjeff@rtech.UUCP (Jeff Lichtman) (09/29/85)
> > In the movie Cabaret, is the character played by Joel Gray > a Nazi? > > I seem to find scenes supporting both views. What do you think? > > Sean. My opinion is that Joel Gray's character was a symbol of German decadence in the period immediately preceding the rise to power of the Nazi party. I don't think he was supposed to be a Nazi himself. I remember the character mainly for the cabaret act, and I don't think he did much else but leer. At one point, he goosestepped around stage with a Hitler-style mustache, but I took this to mean that he thought Naziism was great fun, not that he was a Nazi himself (this would require him to hold a serious political viewpoint, which is incompatible with the kind of decadence he portrayed). In another number, he sang about a man married to a gorilla, where it was implied that the gorilla was a Jew. That fact that the Joel Gray character took great glee in this meant to me that he was playing to the anti-semitism of the audience, and that he shared in this anti-semitism. This doesn't make him a Nazi, though. One of the themes of the movie is that the German people were looking for a way out of their bad situation, and that they were willing to let hoodlums take over the country in order to accomplish this. -- Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.) "Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent..." {amdahl, sun}!rtech!jeff {ucbvax, decvax}!mtxinu!rtech!jeff
daveb@rtech.UUCP (Dave Brower) (09/30/85)
> In the movie Cabaret, is the character played by Joel Gray > a Nazi? I though not, because I always assumed he was a homosexual, not a popular group with the Nazis. He also seemed too close to the satirical edge to be taking it seriously. However, if his closet were deep enough, I can well imagine him joining the masses of "Good Germans" later on. -- {amdahl|dual|sun|zehntel}\ |"If his brains ran down, how could {ucbvax|decvax}!mtxinu---->!rtech!daveb |he talk?" ihnp4!{phoenix|amdahl}___/ |"Happens to people all the time...."