M

                                                      Now I Lay me Down

     One of the author's argument for films that deals with pedophilia and child murder is that the themes of theses movies are not as successful primarily is for the content. This topic is a very tricky topic to talk about and it generally gives people a sense of uneasiness. No one wants to hear of how a child have been murder or the extent of someone possibly wanting to hurt a child. Its the innocence that presumes the child that makes it such a difficult topic to discuss. The author goes on to briefly discuss how many movies have tried to pursue this area of interest and then how many movies undoubtedly failed to grasp an audience. He speaks of a more current movie The Lovely bones and how the movie was not well received in theaters. On the other hand one child movie that succeeded was Nightmare on Elm Street. The success of this movie had a different perspective than the later primarily because one it dealt with teenagers. Not that it means all teenagers are not innocent but this dealt with promiscuous teens rather than other aspects such as rape and brutal murders.

   Another interesting argument that the author makes regarding the lack of success for child murder films is how the successful films indicated or dictated the death of a child. He uses one film that was successful which is M, and how each murder was place. He goes on to say that the reason behind a successful film such as M and Nightmare on Elm street is how the film did not focus on the murder, but showed symbolic features to indicate that a murder has taken place. With Nightmare on Elm Street it was usually a loud scream or a red scene, where in the movie M he showed the ball that young Elise was playing with on her way home from school rolling from under a bush. These indications allowed the viewers to use a visual sense as to what happen to the characters verses them having to view the gory details of watching an innocent child be murdered.


   The two movies I would like to analyze are Lady in White and the movie IT.  Lady in White murder in the film is based on a young boy who witnesses the murder of a young girl. The young girl ultimately begins to haunt the town and they find out that there is  a series of murders that have taken place. It seems that there is one awful seen in the movie and that is the murder of the young girl, however the rest of the scenes are based on the mood and the atmosphere. Like in the movie M the mood and atmosphere were strong points in the movie which dictated when the killer would strike next. The next movie IT is based on a clown with supernatural powers that terrorized and murdered children. Most of the murders were left to the imagination of the viewers which is similar to the movie M.

                                                          Kracaucer's Central Thesis

   They say that society influences culture. In the case of Dr. Calebri, Blue Angel and M all focuses on authority leadership. During the pre-Nazi period authoritarian was a dominant part of society. The films only reiterated how society was at the time. It we were to break down the analogy of each film during that period it goes to show that this was a very influential aspect during this time. Now taking a look at each movie separately Dr. Calebri, the Professor, and the police force in the movie M  all symbolize the authority leadership. This type of leadership supports the idea because of what was going on in Germany at that time. The writers and producers of these movies basically used the elements of what was taking place at the time and illustrated it in the movies. They used the forces of a controlling doctor, a controlling professor and a dictating police force to enforce the issues of being in control. When you look at it from that perspective each of these figures actually plays a controlling role in real life. A doctor is in control of his patient, a professor is in control of his class, while the police force keeps society under control by helping to enforce the law.

   In the film Dr. Calebri his control was implemented over Cesaer in which he control his mind allowing him to dictate the murders. In Blue angel, the Professor was in control of his class and tried to control Lola who was a liberal so those two opposing forces lead to his demise. In the movie M the police force and the underground group that actually captures the murderer were in control, one was in control of upholding the law, the other was in control of the businesses that were losing money behind this child killer.

   The evidence in the film Blue Angel that dictates democratic values is Lola perspective in the movie. She was not easily moved by the Professor and continue to live life in her own manner. Dr. Calebri was always in control but could not escape the wrath of the community as they figured it was him who dictated Cesear's killing spree. This led to the other doctors coming together as would the political system in a democratic environment to to overthrow the government but in this case they are overthrowing Dr. Calebri. In the film M, when the underground group take the law into their own hands they set up a trial for the killer. The also shows a democratic perspective in how the issue of murder is handled in a democracy.