Seeing this film often reminded me of the pictures of Leny Riefenstahl that I was allowed to see once (these pictures, being Nazi propaganda, are kind of forbidden) In a similar way it shows the beautiful healthy young men that were to build a 'thousand year Reich', and it shows the quasi religious and pompous rituals that went along with that. It also clearly makes one see the attraction of it, especially to youth.
All the young man in the NaPolA school of the movie are beautiful, which is probably more realistic than one would think of it at first; the Nazi's selected these boys on physical quality, and had standards for ideal looks. They also had a thing for the aesthetics of the young male body, and it wasn't a taboo, like it seems nowadays, for a man to admit another man's beauty.
These aesthetics, and this taboo are probably the reason why this film was labeled a 'gay' movie when I saw it, more than the friendship between the two main characters, that to me seemed to be nothing more than that; a profound friendship. (if a friendship like that is already labeled 'gay' it leaves us to think about the emotional poverty of modern men)
I think it's unbelievable that I didn't hear more of this film before, and that it was in Dutch cinema's only for a very short period, but I guess a reason for that is this 'gay' label.
A big pity, for this film deserves a big audience, both for quality and message.
All the young man in the NaPolA school of the movie are beautiful, which is probably more realistic than one would think of it at first; the Nazi's selected these boys on physical quality, and had standards for ideal looks. They also had a thing for the aesthetics of the young male body, and it wasn't a taboo, like it seems nowadays, for a man to admit another man's beauty.
These aesthetics, and this taboo are probably the reason why this film was labeled a 'gay' movie when I saw it, more than the friendship between the two main characters, that to me seemed to be nothing more than that; a profound friendship. (if a friendship like that is already labeled 'gay' it leaves us to think about the emotional poverty of modern men)
I think it's unbelievable that I didn't hear more of this film before, and that it was in Dutch cinema's only for a very short period, but I guess a reason for that is this 'gay' label.
A big pity, for this film deserves a big audience, both for quality and message.