A complex, well-acted meditation on moral obligation and human loyalty, Taking Sides features noteworthy performances from Harvey Keitel and Stellan Skarsgard.
A complex, well-acted meditation on moral obligation and human loyalty, Taking Sides features noteworthy performances from Harvey Keitel and Stellan Skarsgard.
Set in Germany in 1946, Taking Sides tells the story of the investigation of Wilhelm Furtwängler (Stellan Skarsgård), the renowned conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras, by the American occupying army. Major Steve Arnold (Harvey Keitel) has been told by his superiors that they want Furtwängler convicted of being a willing participant in the crimes of the Hitler regime, by virtue of his supposed support for and support from the Hitler government. They haven't got
the time or resources to go after every ex-Nazi, so they want Furtwängler, as the biggest cultural target they can hit. Arnold does his loud, boorish best to first humiliate and then attack the conductor over the supposed favoritism that he was shown by Hitler, Goering, Himmler, et al. and his conducting of a concert at the 1934 Nuremberg rally and at Hitler's 53rd birthday. Arnold finds, to his eventual distress but not dissuasion, that nothing is as simple as he would like to make it. His civilian secretary, Emmi Straube (Birgit Minichmayr), a concentration camp survivor whose father was part of the German Army plot to kill Hitler, and Lt. David Wills (Moritz Bleibtreu), a German-born Jew representing the War Crimes Tribunal, keep trying to remind Arnold that life and politics in Germany only deteriorated gradually after 1933, and in ways that couldn't always be anticipated by those who were there. Germans who chose not to leave weren't necessarily casting their lot with Hitler, but with protecting what was decent or even great about Germany, including her orchestras and music. Arnold knows nothing about music and even less about Germany and her people, and won't be deterred from his goal. Wills and Straube wish to resign from working with him, until they realize that they're facing the same choice that Furtwängler faced -- to leave a horrendous situation and have no way of affecting its conduct or outcome, or remain and do their best to stand up for decency and truth. In the process of doing that, they find out that Furtwängler is not only a great artist -- which they knew already -- but a great and brave man, who also has his flaws. The latter include an outsized ego that may have caused him to participate a little too willingly at times in the dangerous game he played of maintaining the excellence of Germany's musical institutions while protecting them (and also many musicians) from the worst ravages of the Nazi regime, at the same time also keeping lesser, more compliant figures from usurping his control. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
In Taking Sides, Harvey Keitel has interpretted "powerful performance" as loud, aggressive, and singularly one-sided, despoiling an otherwise thought-provoking film.
A provocative premise that never achieves its full dramatic and intellectual potential...noise is allowed to overwhelm argument and--more importantly--understanding.
This is a thought-provoking movie that will have you taking sides after the credits roll. It's set back in the 40's, but the story has relevance today.
"Taking Sides" is set after the end of World War II, when the United States Army is investigating former Nazis in Germany. One specific target is Wilhelm Furtwangler(Stellan Skarsgard), the famed conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Major Steve Arnold(Harvey Keitel), a dogged insurance investigator in his
civilian life, is put on the case. In interviewing several orchestra members about their conductor, Arnold receives the same answers - the orchestra did not perform at the Nuremburg rally, Furtwangler did not salute Hitler and he was not a member of the Nazi party. Not satisfied with those answers, Arnold digs deeper to find proof of Furtwangler's guilt while postponing their interview. In the meantime, he is banned from working as a conductor... "Taking Sides" is an intelligent movie that raises some interesting issues about the intersection of art and politics and patriotism(when can a person rightfully turn their back on their country?) through the most extreme example - Nazi Germany.(I did receive some insight into the German public's support of Hitler during World War II.) But the movie cannot escape its stagebound roots(though Ken Adam's wondrous production design sure gives it a try). Harvey Keitel simply overdoes it while Stellan Skarsgard takes the high road by underplaying perfectly. The film would have been better if it had focused more on Furtwangler. It portrays Germans as being cultured lovers of classical music while Americans are portrayed as relative philistines.(Marian Anderson's famous Easter 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial refutes this stereotype perfectly.) Director Istvan Szabo has been on similar ground before when he made "Mephisto" starring Klaus Maria Brandauer. "Judgment at Nuremburg" and "Zentropa" are much better movies about postwar Germany.
February 16, 2006
Walter M.
Super Reviewer
The notions of the good man's complicity through inertia ... are ones that have been more powerfully explored before.
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