germany in the movies...

something random occurred to me as i was watching previews before a movie the other night...there are currently 3 movies out or soon released dealing with various aspects of nazi germany in and after world war two. "the boy in the striped pajamas," "the reader" (releasing jan. 9), and "valkyrie" (releasing Christmas day). i have only seen the first movie i listed and thought it was very well done. i was not prepared for the ending at all, but the story of the film was beautiful. it shows in great detail the affect on families that the war had as a young german boy befriends a jewish boy being held in a concentration camp his own father oversees. "the reader" appears to do something similar as it chronicles the life and relationship of a woman who became a soldier and a young man who read to her as part of a secretive affair. he re-encounters her 8 years later as a law student observing her as a defendant in a war crimes trial. finally, "valkyrie" portrays one of a dozen or so attempts to assassinate hitler.

as someone who studied history in college, i have always been leery of people taking movies of historical events as solid true history. some films have done a great job at documenting the events that took place, others take considerable artistic license. at any rate, it seems lately that hollywood has taken an interest in telling stories that before have possibly gone unnoticed. hollywood is in the business of entertaining and telling stories. but what prompts three different studios to make these films at the same time? maybe i'm just searching for significance where there isn't any, but is there something to this? are we as human beings no longer content settling for one version of a story? maybe our culture as a whole is realizing the true value in exploring all peoples stories, for when we learn the story of the other the distance between us diminishes.

hmmm, should i link this to my civil rights posts? ~aroll