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March 2000, Week 4

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From:
Donald Larsson <[log in to unmask]>
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Date:
Sun, 26 Mar 2000 16:42:21 -0600
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Leo Eticknap notes:


> If we define a hero as being the character with whom the film-maker(s)
> intends the viewer to most readily empathise with, then a lot of Fritz
> Lang's films explore this issue, albeit with similar parameters in mind.
> Three which come readily to mind are...
>
> Part 2 of DIE NIEBELUNGEN in which Kriemhild gets up to some pretty nasty
> tricks,, most of which she justifies as avenging Siegfried's murder... (cf.
> the recent 'evil women' thread)

Kriemhild is more ingenious than some of her predecessors, but she's
firmly within the tradition of Revenge literature, including
Scandanavian sagas (like BURNT NJAL) and German predecessors.  There
was a very interest paper on the Revenge film at SCS in Chicago, but
the type certainly goes back at least as far as Greek tragedy, not to
mention all those Elizabethan and Jacobean revenge tragedies.  By
certain standards, one can say that the morality of these is
complicated at least.

For that matter, look at all those passages in the Old Testament when
God commands a warrior to smite all enemies, down to the child in its
mother's womb.  I doubt that an absolute standard of "heroism" can
apply to all texts and all cultures.

Don Larsson

----------------------
Donald Larsson
Minnesota State U, Mankato
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