"Jojo Rabbit" film review: "This is not a good time to be a Nazi."

In a world where Neo-Nazism is on the rise and in a conservative Hollywood, it's hard to imagine how a film like "Jojo Rabbit", which features a ten-year-old German boy, Jojo, dreaming of becoming the perfect fascist, could have been made.

Of course, "Jojo Rabbit" is not the first satirical comedy to make fun of Nazis and the Führer. Others include Disney's "Der Fuehrer's Face" produced in 1943, Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" in 1940, and the more recent "Inglorious Bastards" and "Life Is Beautiful".

What's so different about "Jojo Rabbit"?

But "Jojo Rabbit" is different from all these works because it is not only a satirical comedy, but also a war film from a child’s perspective, and a youthful coming-of-age story of the war years. The main character, Jojo, with short blond curly hair, round face and red eyes, always unable to tie his shoes, is about to step into a Nazi youth camp and become a glorious little fascist.

What the highly motivated Jojo does not know is that in the near future, the empire he believes in and the idol he worships will be destroyed. The enemies he wants to kill will become his friends and relatives, and he will finally recognize the ridiculousness and sadness of war.

The whole "Jojo Rabbit" follows Jojo's perspective, showing Germany at the end of World War II about to lose the war, but almost everyone is still immersed in an irrational collective orgy. Nazi uniforms are all with Wes Anderson-style bright colors. All adults have become child-like comical and blind Hitler believers, and all children are war machines full of political anger.

Our Jojo is of course a little pacesetter under Nazi ideology, hesitant and unsure from time to time, but sure that he will stand proudly by the Führer in the future. His room is plastered with Hitler posters and Nazi flags. He wears a Nazi uniform every day, and he is depressed for three whole weeks because his grandfather is not blond.

But Jojo has actually stood by the Führer, and like most children, he has an imaginary friend, a friend who is very good at throwing a tantrum and encouraging him, none other than Adolf Hitler himself.

My friend Adolf

Almost a third of the jokes in "Jojo Rabbit" come from the imaginary Führer, played by director Taika Waititi himself. The film opens with a rousing speech by the Führer to Jojo, who is about to enter the camp, accompanied by a rousing German version of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and historical footage of “Heil Hitler” of the populace.

"Jojo Rabbit" is adapted from the novel "Caging Skies" which is darker, and there is not this imaginary friend Hitler in the original. The director created this wonderful setting, and the producer had only one request to this bold idea: the director himself must play this version of Hitler. Taika Waititi, who is half Jewish, holds the role well, dutifully accompanies Jojo and does what a child imagines an adult should do, with his iconic moustache and small belly, easily anxious, and smoking when so.

But this Hitler is, after all, only a product in a ten-year-old's mind, and he knows only the limited things a ten-year-old knows, constantly retelling Jojo's most superficial knowledge of the world. As the empire disintegrates with each passing day, Jojo's friendship with this imaginary friend falters.

Although this Hitler setting brings subversive comedy effect, it is full of tragedy color. He is the only father figure around Jojo, a mixture of Jojo's father, who is in the battlefield far away from home, and the "heroic" Führer, who only appears in the newspapers and on the radio.

Lonely Jojo so very much needs a father, a mentor, a sensible adult to teach him how to grow up and understand the world properly. But in this era, extreme ideology is the only education he receives, and the only person who accompanies him is this Hitler neither fish nor fowl.

Those seemingly ridiculous training camp activities show how the imperial machine is tightly knit to produce generations of loyal followers, and when Jojo sees his mother's joy that the war is about to end, he is furious. But what he doesn't know is that loving the country and hoping for an early end to the war are two things that are not contradictory at all.

But in one crucial moment, Jojo's innocent and kind nature overrides everything else, and the butterfly effect triggered by that moment gives him the chance to finally escape the vortex. The two female characters re-teach Jojo how to know himself and the crazy world he is in.

Butterflies on the battlefield

Mom tells Jojo that when you like someone, it feels like there are butterflies flying in your stomach. What Jojo never thinks is, as a proud Hitler soldier, what makes the butterflies in his stomach restless would be a young Jewish girl Elsa, who hides in the attic of his home and is taken in by the kind-hearted Jojo's mother.

But she does not have long horns nor a long tail. In contact, Jojo's hostility towards Elsa gradually transforms into curiosity and respect for the Jewish people. And eventually, their relationship slowly goes through friendship, love, and eventually turns into family affection.

This is not only a story of a Nazi meeting a Jew, but also a story of a simple boy meeting a girl. After his "first love", Jojo finally understands that Germans and Jews are equal human beings and gives up the hatred and prejudice that have occupied his mind for a long time, turning back into a normal and funny boy.

There is also an amazing woman who has been indirectly influencing Jojo. She is the mother played by Scarlett Johansson, who is the most dazzling light in "Jojo Rabbit". She is an ordinary mother who will wear the same pajamas with her son, carefully coiffure her hair before going to bed, teach her son to tie his shoes, and argue with the training camp teacher after her son's injury.

But she is also the mother everyone dreams of, light and lively, wearing a pair of nifty red shoes, loving red wine and dancing, hugging her children with tenderness.

Such a mother teaches Jojo, who has only Nazis in his heart, how to be a ten-year-old child, and teaches Elsa, who has no childhood, how to be a woman. Jojo feels the butterflies flying in his stomach and Elsa learns to look directly into the tiger’s eyes. Mom also teaches Jojo that war is not the whole life, and shouldn't even be a part of it. While everyone wants Jojo to be a soldier, his mother only wants him to be an ordinary person: romantic, free, full of hope, ready to dance.

But Mom is not naive. By the gallows in the square where members of the Resistance hang, Mom forces Jojo to look directly at the bodies in the wind. When Jojo finally takes off his Nazi uniform, he finds a blue butterfly. For the First time he runs after the butterfly like an innocent child, only to end up in front of the heartbreaking red shoes.

The butterfly strings together the girl and woman who have influenced Jojo, the imagery is beautiful but cruelty. The war years of masculine orgy of violence are coming to an end and Hitler dies in Berlin. Father and mother figures perish together, and Jojo, who has just returned to being a child under feminine tenderness and tenacity, grows up instantly which makes people heartbroken.

"This is not a good time to be a Nazi."

Near the end of the war, the children all understand how ridiculous the hatred to the Jews is. After all, when the war comes, this superficial and ridiculous hostility does not stop the death on the battlefield.

In a nearly twenty-minute slow-motion sequence, the final battle starts, and between gunfire, Jojo sees everything. The shepherds raise their guns, the camp chief joins the fight in a battle uniform of his own design, the girls in the camp fiddle with their weapons at a loss, and the boys with grenades cheerfully charge into the hail of bullets.

All the beliefs and slogans are so comical and meaningless that the children with puzzled or excited expressions are just cannon fodder to postpone the collapse of the empire. But that defeat has long been predetermined.

The wounds of war are never divided into good or evil. When the end of history comes, the street in front of Jojo's house rings with the sound of gunshots executing prisoners of war. And everyone finally knows that it is not a good time to be a Nazi, but the words from the child's mouth will be a heavy sin that this nation will carry forever.

Epilogue

The emotions in "Jojo Rabbit" are quite full, and it' is as funny as it is sad. Roman Griffin Davis, in his first film role, is so vulnerable that make people heartbroken. And Scarlett Johansson reminds the audience once again what a great actress she is. The director as Hitler and Thomasin as the young Jewish girl are both amazing.

The most outstanding supporting role is Sam Rockwell as the captain. In the end, he earns a lot of tears from the audience with a strange costume and the goodness.

What "Jojo Rabbit" wants to convey is not how bad the Nazis are, nor does it intend to gain a good sense of self by satirizing the Nazis. It just uses a child's perspective to reinterpret the ideology under war and power, reaffirming a universal value: unwarranted hatred comes from ignorance, and when we put aside our prejudices, we will find that we are all just human beings.

I want to end this article with two lines from the film. Jojo’s mother smiles and waves on her bike when she meets a group of wounded soldiers in the street: "welcome back, boys, now go home and kiss your mother!"

At the end of the war, Jojo meets his best friend on the street, who has taken off his uniform and is in an undershirt, waving his hand to Jojo and saying, "Bye Jojo, I'm going home to kiss my mother."

Well, were you touched by this movie? Let me know in the comments!