Germany Books

Fritz Lang, who always regarded M as his best film and the one by which he would be remembered, called it "a documentary". It is one of the first film about serial killers, and already Lang goes beyond depicting the pathology of such criminal; what M examines is the pathology of 20th century modern society.

In this compact but meticulous study, Anton Kaes reveals the connection between the film and the Weimer German society in which it was made, and shows us how Lang fused his film with shrewd criticism and annualization of the world in which he lived in; a 20th century metropolis of mass society and mass-media culture. Yet he is not satisfied to put M back to its social context of the time. Lang's analysis of social pathology, and Kaes' explanations of it, inevitably reveals the parallel between that society of the 30's and ours of 70 years after. True, that the development of technologies has changed the face of the earth in all those years, but nevertheless the evolution took place in the same direction that Lang predicted 69 years ago.

Kaes shares one brief chapter to analyze the 1951 Joseph Rosey's remake to point out that details may have changed (which restrained Lang from directing the remake himself), but the basic sociological pathology still applied in Los Angeles then. And it still remains so for that matters. The appendix shows the non-existent 6 minutes scene which was cut after the film passed the censor board. People from all over the town and the country call the plolice and proclaim to be the murderer. Lang recreated the same sequence later in THE BLUE GARDENIA. Paul Schrader said recently that in the culture of media and celebrity, there are no moralities. The deleted scene from M reveals that, and the same mentality is true more than ever at this beginning of the new century.

This book does not pretend to be a detailed biography of Manfred von Richthofen, the famous "Red Baron" of the German airforce in the First World War. Nevertheless, it is very revealing, and the photography and illustration is wonderful--much of it in full color.

"Nothing happens without God's will," said von Richtofen, "This is the only consolation which we can put into our soul during this war."

In modern warfare, all pretense at chivalry and knightly honor is gone. Not even a memory of it remains. Warriors kill their "enemy," both the enemy warriors and the civilian populations with impunity, at long distance, with detachment and clinical precision. In von Richthofen's time, at least in the beginning, it was different. Their airplanes were made of sticks and fabric stuck together with animal glue. Their guns were primitive, and to fly at all, regardless of enemies trying to kill you, was a dangerous proposition. They were the pioneers of aerial warfare, still clinging to the old traditions of the cavalry, and honor, and courage, and chivalry toward a vanquished ("unhorsed") enemy.

Their commanders forbade the wearing of parachutes, thinking that it would encourage cowardice and the abandonment of the fight and their valuable aircraft. So, when the wings tore loose from the fuselage in a high-G maneuver, or when the aircraft burst into flames, the aviator's doom was sealed, and a horrible death resulted.

On June 6th, 1917, Manfred von Richthofen was shot down and received a head wound, with which he was hospitalized. He returned to duty. On April 21st, 1918, less than a year later, Rittmeister Manfred von Richthofen, intent upon shooting down Lt. May's Sopwith Camel, of the 209th Squadron of the RAF, was himself caught from behind by a burst of machine gun fire by Capt. A.R. Brown. Brown saw him stiffen as he saw the burst of tracer. He kept after his quarry, Lt. May, though, as Brown pulled up and clear. They flew behind the English lines at treetop level, May twisting and turning, and von Richthofen following each move with his red Fokker triplane. The Baron was hit by ground fire and landed his airplane, dead. He had been officially credited with 80 air-to-air kills, the largest number of any aviator on either side in the First World War.

This is an interesting book, both for the insight into the Baron von Richthofen's character, and for the information included in it about World War One aircraft and tactics.

Joseph Pierre