In 2012, Austrian film director Michael Haneke criticized Steven Spielberg’s 1993 Holocaust drama, “Schindler’s List,” for the way it manipulates its audience. “The idea, the mere idea of trying to draw and create suspense out of the question of whether gas or water is going to come out of the showerhead to me is unspeakable,” Haneke said. His words echoed an oft-cited 1973 interview with François Truffaut, in which the French director responded to the observation that there is little killing in his films. “Some films claim to be antiwar, but I don’t think I’ve really seen an anti-war film,” Truffaut said. “Every film about war ends up being pro-war.”
Abstracting Evil
Where Hollywood glamorizes violence, music and opera allow audiences to think for themselves
