MUCH ADOLF ABOUT HATE
Hitler satire ‘Jojo’ targets bigotry
Don't be fooled.
Writer-director Taika Waititi's “Jojo Rabbit,” which opened Friday, might look like a cinematic showcase for Adolf Hitler's would-be comedic side. But the self-described “anti-hate satire” based on Christine Leunens' novel “Caging Skies” not only deconstructs the culture of hate, bigotry, and ignorance that spawned World War II and the Holocaust, but spits in the face of such mindsets.
“I think if we restrict who is able to tell these stories, then that … hinders our progress in dealing with the subject matter and spreading the messages that we're trying to spread,” Waititi, who also plays Hitler in the black comedy, told the Daily News of his own Jewish heritage, which he notes is “not on the poster.”
After he's injured at a Hitler Youth training camp (where he's taunted with the nickname “Rabbit”) during WWII, 10-year-old Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) discovers Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie), a Jewish girl his mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding from the Nazis, putting his devotion for the Führer to the test.
Roman told The News that the film, which marks the 12year-old's cinematic debut, “[shows] how kids can easily be manipulated and how just teaching kids fragments of hate can change their whole mind. And that adults, they need to be more careful.
“They need to really think what they're teaching kids … and how hate can really change children,” he adds.
Waititi, 44, says, “I think now more than ever, we, unfortunately, are having to continue to tell these stories about WWII … it's sad that in this day and age we still have to do that.”
Unlike many other WWII films, Waititi said, “There was never any possibility of the story visiting the death camps. It's not that I was shying away from that. You don't have to include every single part of what happened during WWII in every movie. You can allude to those things.”
On the other hand, so many children today “have no idea about a lot of the things that happened” and so, he said, “You've got to keep telling these stories, got to keep this conversation going.”
Last year, Waititi reportedly tweeted about the film: “What better way to insult Hitler than having him portrayed by a Polynesian Jew?”
“Part of my background that is within the film is that the film exists in the first place,” he says, noting his background “is shared by two cultures who are incredibly resilient, survivors, and very funny.”
In “Jojo,” Hitler's propaganda is ever-present, but the German leader himself only physically manifests as Jojo's Jiminy Cricket-esque imaginary friend Adolf.
“You looked at him and he'd be in this scary costume, and he'd be so nice,” Roman recalled to The News of engaging with Waititi on-set.
“I don't think anyone can be redeemed,” the director said, despite his characters' surprising crises of conscience. “I think we'd like to think that, though. … Especially if those actions lead to the deaths of millions of people, yeah, I don't know how I feel about allowing them another chance.”
While he acknowledges some WWII films “aren't suitable for children,” Roman regards the “kind of outrageous and risky” “Jojo Rabbit”, which is rated PG-13, as somewhat of a “teaching” tool for kids who don't know about the subject.
“It's weird to still hear that people are Nazis and such,” said Roman, who hopes his peers “realize that hate is really powerful and stupid and it does such stupid things. It messes up kids' lives.”
Waititi added, “It seems sort of ironic and sort of strange that in 2019 you still have to make movies to explain to people that it's bad to be a Nazi.”