Jojo Rabbit Movie Analysis

Art is usually seen as a sign of a thriving society, but it can also be a sign of healing one. Many great masterpieces come from during and after the collapse of societies, and in turn, through wars like WW2, otherwise known as the holocaust. With a staggering death count of an estimated 70-85 million people and the implementation extreme racial genocide, WW2 created many artworks, including satirical recreations of Nazi Germany like the film Jojo Rabbit, realistic depictions of concentration camps like the film Schindler’s List, and survivors experiences visualized like the book Maus. All of these artworks are very powerful in visulaizing the horrors of the holocaust, yet Jojo Rabbit takes the cake on this one, though only by a small jump. Jojo Rabbit is a comedy-drama written and directed by Taika Waititi and follows the story of Johannes, or Jojo, a young German boy blinded by nationalism and his imaginary friend, aka Adolf Hitler, who discovers his mother is hiding a young Jewish girl in her walls. The film uses lots of satire towards the nazis, shows both the Nazi and Jewish sides, and the effects of Nazi propaganda.

One of the most prominent themes in Jojo Rabbit is the satirical approach of Nazism. Individual Nazi figures throughout the show are seen less of antaganasts, but more of comedic relief. When Jojo first arrives at the Nazi training camp we get the impression that the officers are strict, but bufoonish. This is the first glimpse where nazi authority figures are used as comedic figures, which becomes a common theme. For example, ‘Heil Hitler’ is used in the same tone as a goodmorning. The movie also plays out the paradox of an ‘good nazi’ through a character named Hauptmann Klenzendorf, who is shown throughout the film to be evil on the outside yet kindhearted on the inside. Klenzendorf became the captain of the youth camp after being demoted after a war injury and is quite sarcastic about his new position. After Jojo blows himself up with a grenade and he is demoted even further, he is shown to actually be quite kindhearted. When Nazi inspectors arrive at Jojo’s, he protects Elsa by lying to the inspectors about the identification papers when she gets the birthdate wrong. He hits his ultimate peak by protecting Jojo from American soldiers, by shouting "Get away! Get away, Jew! Get away!" and spitting at Jojo, effectively saving him from prosecution and death.

In the beginning of the movie Jojo is consistently believeing and parroting everything he hears about the Nazi party. He even has an imaginary Hitler who he has regular conversations with. Jojo wears a nazi uniform and goes to a nazi youth camp in the hope of soon becoming a nazi soldier, yet he ends up blowing himself up with a grenade and now has facial scarring and a limp, making him very self conscious, as he was now ‘crippled’ and couldn't make a good soldier. Now that he is home consistently he finds Elsa, the Jewish girl his mother is hiding in the attic. Elsa threatens Jojo and terrifies him, so he consults with imaginary Hitler and attempts to make a pact with Elsa, in which Elsa tells him secrets about Jewish people and Jojo writes a book about it. Through their interactions, Jojo begins to question what hes learned about the Nazi party through all the contradictions hes seeing and of all the things he learns from Elsa, including his growing crush on her. The book Jojo writes, Yoohoo jew, really shows Jojo's progress through the movie. The first photos are jewish people and their ‘monstourus traits’, yet as it moves on it shows more of his romantic love of Elsa and how he begins to question Nazi propaganda more and more.

Through the theme of Nazism in the film we really a good look into some of the propaganda that was used to support the Nazi party. From the beginning of the show we can see Jojo in full belief of nazism and fully supporting the party, even though he doesn’t actually understand what the nazis are outside of the lies he’s told. In Elsa’s words, "You're not a Nazi, Jojo. You're a ten-year-old kid who likes dressing up in a funny uniform and wants to be a part of a club, but you're not like them." where she calls out his faux-nazism as simply parroting what he’s heard. For example, in Jojo's book Yoohoo Jew we see many drawings of people with horns and wings, or anatomy closer to mythological creatures rather than humans. His mother, while not blatantly, is against his nazism and wishes for him to let loose and enjoy his life more, and tells him "Life is a gift. We must celebrate it. We have to dance, to show God we are grateful to be alive.". Rosie is a firm believer in the gift of life and that even if times are tough you must find pleasure in it. When Jojo finds out his mother is spreading anti-nazi propaganda, he really starts to think about it more and more, up to when he finds his mother hung in the town square. One of the key developments of Jojo’s turn against Nazism is throughout the movie he refuses to dance, but at the end when American soldiers free the town Jojo and Elsa begin to dance. 

However, many people see lots of controversies in Jojo Rabbit and many critiques have been published since the films first airing. Many people claim the film is too comedic and seemingly ‘pokes fun’ at one of the most disturbing events in history. Critics say that although Jojo Rabbit is meant to be anti-nazi it doesn’t completely come off that way. There isn’t any graphic scenes like in Schindler’s List where most scenes have dead bodies and horrific imagery of concentration camps, nor is there any long-term effects on Jewish peoples of the war like in Maus.

Due to these controversies, Jojo Rabbit can get quite the bad reputation, however I think that any movie attempting to turn the holocaust into a punchline is close to impossible, especially since anti-semetism is still raging across the world. I think the satire element around nazis really helped make the film special, and the goal of the film is not to be taken at face value, but to make you think and want to learn more. There are many hidden punchlines throughout the film, such as during the youth training camp Fraulein shouts "Now, get your things together, kids. It’s time to burn some books!", hinting at the amount of books burned during the holocaust for containing anything that opposed Nazism.

Although Schindler’s List and Maus were miraculous works of art, and I was very tempted to choose Schindler’s List, Jojo Rabbit made me think the most, which in my opinion makes it the most powerful. The realism of Schindler’s List is stunning and disturbing, and gives you an insight in how concentration camps were, while also tackling the ‘good nazi’ paradox, and the personal story and aftereffects of a camp survivor in Maus mixed with the artistic choices make these medias extremely powerful, but neither impacted me in the way Jojo Rabbit did. Afterall, I quite like a film that makes me think.