'Jojo Rabbit'

SPOLIERS ARE AHEAD SO IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE PLEASE STOP READING NOW.

Jojo Rabbit is an interesting film to say the least. It is a film based during the time of World War II in Germany. It focuses on this 10-year-old boy, Jojo, who is an aspiring Nazi fanatic wanting to be in the personal protection service of Hitler. The twist of it is that Jojo has an imaginary friend, who so happens to be Hitler himself. The plot takes an unforeseen twist, as Jojo finds out that his mom is hiding a Jewish girl in their house. Instead of turning her in, he decides to write a book to help other spot Jews.

The movie takes a massive twist after Jojo does not rat out that Elsa (the Jewish girl) is not actually his sister when the Gestapo arrive at his house, after suspicions about his mom being a traitor. Jojo then finds his mom dead for being a part of those rebelling against Hitler.

Now, this movie was an interesting take on it. It was a humorous drama where many parts of it took the beliefs that the Nazis had during the war, and twisted it to the utmost extreme version. For example, stating that all Jews had the Devil controlling their brains.

But it also showed two very interesting sides of what could have been going on during the War. On one hand, you have this little boy who wants to, so badly, go to war and fight for Hitler because that is what he has grown up around. On the other, you have his mother, who wants the best for her boy and the country they live in, going against the law to try to make things better.

The best part of the story, and the message I think that is behind all the humor, is that his boy changes his mindset in regards to what he had always thought was right. During the movie, Jojo has his eyes opened to the fact that Jews really are people just like he is, and that Hitler is not the leader or man he idealized.

You can also see the changes as the movie goes on to his imaginary Hitler, as he goes from carefree to the more serious and fanatic self that he was known to be towards the end of the war. At the beginning, when Jojo was all about the Nazi party, he was fun loving and accepting and encouraging. But as the movie progressed and Jojo became more accepting of Elsa, he became more hostile and aggressive in how he looked and spoke to Jojo.

This movie does a really great job of taking a moment in time that everyone remembers, that has such a strong opinion on what was right and wrong with what happened, and transforming it almost into a plot that has a modern take to it. As much as it was set back in the time of the Second World War, we can still see these themes of realization in today’s day and age. However, in today’s day and age, it encompasses more than just a religion. There are those realizing people’s different cultures, religions, and even sexual preference.

Some people are a little off put by the concept, which I agree—The thought of having a young boy with Hitler as his imaginary friend, before you realize when the movie takes place, is very disturbing. But this movie does a really great job in making it all make sense, while still able to keep a current theme to it. Some parts will have you laughing, and others will have you cringing, just imagining everything that went on in that timeframe, but it is definitely a very well done, dark humour movie.