Episode 002: Bent
“Max is gay and as such is sent to Dachau concentration camp under the Nazi regime. He tries to deny he is gay, and gets a yellow label (the one for Jews) instead of pink (the one for gays). In camp, he falls in love with fellow prisoner Horst, who wears his pink label with pride.”
It was released in 1997 and is based on a play of the same name by Martin Sherman.
This week we are reviewing Bent, a 1997 film that revolves around the persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany after the Night of the Long Knives, which was a purging of Nazi leaders by Hitler. As we are still in LGBTQ+ history month in the UK, I thought it only fair to have another historic look at queer people through media, but this time a little closer to our time than Ancient Greece.
You can either listen to the podcast on the left, or you can read below for a majority of the transcript of the podcast! Now as always, our discussion will begin with a brief summary of the film followed by spoiler free thoughts and feelings about the film. This will be followed by an in-depth discussion of some of the key plot points that occurred and we will then finish off with my overall rating of the film and a heads up about what we are looking at next time. If you have not had a chance to watch Bent and don’t want to hear any spoilers, then please feel free to skip the detailed section and listen to it afterwards if you so wish.
Overall, I think it is more than fair to say that this is a tough watch. Not because the film is bad or anything like that, but rather it is a very brutal look into a historical event and it’s something you know happened. So right off the bat, I have a few trigger warnings for people about to jump into this film. It contains graphic murder, violence & torture, homophiobia, anti-Semitism, suicide, underage sex, and rape. So if any of these are not for you, or you are not in a place to deal with them just now then please don’t feel you have to see this film.
The actors involved really sell the story and deliver great performances of their characters, with the key people portrayed by Clive Owen, Lothaire Bluteau, and Brian Webber. You then also have some very familiar names such as Jude Law, Ruper Graves, and Ian McKellen making appearances. Clocking in at an hour and 44 minutes, the film is a very bleak representation of queer life under Nazi rule in Germany. Although there are maybe some light moments of reprieve to let the audience breathe, it definitely isn’t afraid to shy aware from a realistic portrait of what many queer people faced during that time. And the film also allows us to see the effects their traumatic experience has on them and some of the coping mechanisms that will have occurred, from people in denial and saying this isn’t real up to developing that self hatred for actions they took to survive to even becoming more callous themselves as they become desensitized to pain in certain ways.
At some point, there is a mention that some of the people found and caught for being queer was due to them having signed a petition for making homosexuality legal and that list of people was acquired by the Nazis. I think that is always a present concern for activists in many places, and this just acts as a stark reminder to why data protection is important and why many activists, including Sisters, will choose to keep their personal lives and activist lives separate for their own protection.
In terms of representation, the film gives a realistic glimpse into the horrors of what homosexuals would have dealt with during the Nazi regime in Europe. It shows how people would adapt, either by choice for their own survival by forgoing one's previous life by completely reinventing our public selves or changing unconsciously as a way of dealing with the trauma of being tortured and subject to a daily hostile environment in the concentration camps. The people themselves all portray realistic versions of gay people, with many different facets of who gay men can represent as: from the repressed male who is married to a wife for public appearance, to the openly flamboyant dancer who doesn’t care about the politics, to the older gentleman with a queer air about him, to the straight acting guy who wants to keep under the radar.
The ending itself is a tear-jerker which really shows both the strong bond we build with the characters from the great acting and writing along with the reality that the entire film is something we know most probably happened to thousands of people! And although I won’t mention any spoilers just yet of what happens, one of the best quotes comes around here of “I love you, what’s wrong with that?” since it really sums up the absurdity of homophobia and people being treated so abhorrently just because of who they fall in love with!
And to just finish this section, I do want to say that the song “Streets of Berlin” by Mick Jagger fits so well with the film, and it’s interesting to see the two different ways that song resonates when hearing it during the credits compared to when we heard it at the start of the film. So considering this the warning to bring tissues for this film.
Final Feelings and Recommendation
In terms of recommending it to you, I think it is something everyone should look at if they are in a place to deal with the various topics I gave a warning about earlier. It is so important to remember that in the recent past there was this horrific treatment of queer people, which in some places of the world is still continuing, and this acts as a reminder for those rights we fought hard for and why its important to continue fighting for equality for all of our LGBTQ+ siblings everywhere!
The film is well acted and has a really touching story to share, and so even though it can be a bit of a brutal watch, I would easily give this 10 out of 10 pink triangles. My only fault with the film is that it made me cry and ruin my make-up, but it shows it really does portray its story across so effectively!
SPOILERS AHEAD
Now, just a reminder that at this point, I will be going into a more detailed analysis of the film means there will be spoilers! If you haven’t managed to watch Bent yet and you don’t want anything spoiled, then this is your last chance to avoid the discussion. Or you can go ahead and close the page, go read the film and then come back afterwards to finish reading. I promise I won’t mind. Still here? Well then, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The film opens in a very interesting way, with a large party happening in the ruins of an old building and people being very free and open in what they are up to. Not every film opens up with a cabaret and orgy after all! But during this we do get intercut scenes of the start of the morning after as well as a suspicious character at the cabaret and a devious looking meeting taking place, but our key focus for the start of the film is on the hedonism our underground culture is embracing during the night before it all comes crashing down. We don’t have long before we have the appearance of stormtroopers coming to the building, and we know that this idyllic morning after banter will soon be shattered as they are suddenly banging at the door. It’s a quick turn of events when 15 minutes into the film you are into Nazi officers having their throat cut open by their former peers, pushing our two key characters to go on the run.
We can see the burning of the cabaret clothing, basically a casting off of the old lives they all had, as they now have to learn to adapt within the new hostile climate for them. During this conversation, we have their friend confirming he basically sold them out to ensure his new life so he can survive in Nazi Germany, and its really difficult to know how to sit with that for me. On one hand he is arrogant, flippant, and so smug about his actions and what repercussions that has had on others, so it’s easy to see him as a bad person and a Nazi enabler who should be hated. Yet on the other hand, you have to consider the difficult position people would be put in to ensure they could survive and needing to potentially put oneself first at the expense of others, which is something we do see Max have to deal with twice later on as well. It just helps show how complex and all in the grey real life is.
We then also have to see what many people, not just homosexuals but large parts of society, would have been forced to do at the time in terms of begging friends for help to get out the country, seeking ways to make deals to cross borders, as well as hiding in the woods to try and avoid being found out and sent away, which is sadly the case for Max and Rudy. Although we know Max may have actually managed to escape if he had taken other people’s advice and ditched Rudy, I think it is commendable he chooses to stay as he does care for his friend and can’t just leave him by himself to the Nazi’s.
The behaviour of the Nazi officers is vile, no shockers there! From hunting down and killing homosexuals and forcing Rudy to break his glasses before taking him to be tortured, to running the concentration camps themselves and assigning tasks such as moving rocks or snow from one spot to another to drive people mad, we get a glimpse into just some of the atrocities these people carried out! But as mentioned earlier, they also set up twisted situations where Max is put in the unenviable situation of having to carry out acts that harm others to ensure his own survival. This is seen in the train where he not only has to pretend he doesn't know Rudy after he has been beaten but then also has to help beat him and watch him lay suffering in the cart till he is eventually thrown out. Yet the most horrific thing they set up is convincing him to sleep with the 10 year old girl by claiming she is 13 and that he will be given a Star of David badge for it instead of a pink triangle. It’s just so surreal to imagine people being vile enough to treat other people like this and to then laugh about it and carry on as if nothing is wrong, but we know it is possible for people to be this evil.
During the film we do get to see this friendship and then eventual romance develop between Max and Horst, from bribing guards to bring him onto rock duty with him and how at first they won’t speak but then over time we see the montage where they eventually start chatting and gossiping. Then it all comes to a head one breaktime where they start telling each other they are sexy and then get into some sexy oral time where they describe what they are doing to each other while still having to stand still. As they say, they find out how to carry out an act of defiance towards the Nazi’s and you really do root for them to find a way to reject Nazi brutality in whatever way they can.
We sadly also see the effects of prolonged torture and captivity and how it has slowly changed Max over time. During the winter, while Horst is freezing and they are stuck standing in their break, Max tries to initiate oral sex to keep Horst warm and his mind of his declining health. He not only pushes Horst into it when he is reluctant, but he then gets very rough in his details which upsets Horst and ruins it. It really shows how the cruelty of the Nazis has bled into people over time as they become familiar with it on a day to day basis, with Max even being compared to the gestapo in his desire to hurt Horst.
The self hatred we see is hard to watch, as we believe that at some point Max would have never said queers weren’t meant to love and that he would have respected his partners boundaries, but again due to the trauma we witness him being subjected to everyday, it wears away at who he was until he does forget how to be gentle. He even spends the film rejecting the fact he isn’t a Jew and should have a pink triangle, all because he knows how he would be treated then and he wants to survive. It’s just hard imagining how many people were, and in this day and age are, subjected to such hate for being themselves that it turns them into more callous versions of who they really are. Thankfully we do see Max take Horst’s words to heart and he does try to be gentle and even lies about having a cough to make sure he can get medicine for Horst.
As soon as the two Nazi’s show up and are watching them from above and asking questions, you just feel this tension in the air and know this can’t possibly end well. And that sense of dread just deepens as they start asking questions about Horst’s cough and how Max is feeling with his supposed cough. You know that once they are asked to go for a walk, nothing good is going to follow, but what we do see with Horst’s final moments is another act of defiance as he chooses the way in which he will be killed, rather than just following Nazi orders to the end. I did find it heartbreaking to watch the final moments of the film as Max has to dispose of Horst’s body, and the alarm goes off as he is carrying him. So he has three minutes of holding his dead lover and continues talking to him, reaffirming that he won’t drop him and rambles about certain things from his past.
At the very end when he is moving rocks to cover Horst’s body, getting to see him make that choice to finally embrace his authentic self and removing his own top with the Star of David to wear one with the pink triangle on feels really empowering for the character. It feels really powerful that just as he is about to electrocute himself on the fence that he chooses to be recognised as who he is, a final act of defiance in the face of a political movement determined to crush him.