Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

"Amen" (2002), directed by Costa-Gavras, based on Rolf Hochhuth's play, "Der Stellvertreter" (The Deputy), goes where few filmmakers dare to tread nowadays. Over half a century later, people still argue over whether Pope Pius XII could have done more to save Jews from the Holocaust, or whether he was in fact "Hitler's pawn". This film cannot settle such questions any more than Oliver Stone's "JFK" can tell you who was really behind the Kennedy assassination. The best reason for seeing "Amen" is not to righteously shake your fist at the past, but to place yourself in the moral hot seat occupied by Kurt Gerstein: a good Gedankenexperiment whenever war crimes are being committed on a daily basis.

Gerstein (Ulrich Tukur), a chemistry professor with a doting wife (Antje Schmidt) and lovely children in a middle-class home, is very much a "company man". Thanks to his well-connected father (Friedrich von Thun), Gerstein is made a Lieutenant in the Waffen SS Technical Disinfection Services, specializing in fumigation and water purification to combat typhus in the German army. Though privately Gerstein doesn't like Nazis, he's proud to be saving lives and serving his country in wartime.

One day Gerstein's superiors invite him to observe a new application for his Zyklon B gas pellets - at a concentration camp in Poland. We are spared the gruesome spectacle itself; what we see are the reactions - Gerstein can barely contain his horror. Later, gas chamber designers pick his brain for ways to increase "production", and a dapper, charming SS Doctor (Ulrich Mühe) informs Gerstein he must now supply the camps with enough Zyklon B "to process 10,000 units a day." Clearly, now that Gerstein knows the Reich's terrible secret, this is a job he cannot turn down.

As the only living witness with a conscience and hard evidence, Gerstein has to get the word out. On a train to Berlin, he approaches Swedish diplomat Baron von Otter (Justus von Dohnanyi) and begs him to inform the Allies. Maybe they could drop propaganda leaflets and stir the German people to rebel against Hitler, or they could bomb the railways leading to the camps. Maybe...

Gerstein goes to his Protestant church leaders, who once succeeded in halting the euthanasia of "unproductive citizens" (too late to save his retarded niece Berthe) - but this time he is met with denial, evasion, excuses, & rationalizations for playing it safe. He then tries to see the Papal Nuncio of Berlin, but is rebuffed. Only one man there takes him seriously: Father Riccardo Fontana (Matthieu Kassovitz), son of the influential Count Fontana (Ion Caramitru) in Rome and an acquaintance of Pope Pius XII (Marcel Iures). Perhaps Fr. Fontana can persuade His Holiness to rally the entire Catholic world against the Nazi atrocities. Perhaps...

Though Fontana is a fictitious character representing those clerics whose heroic efforts saved many from the Final Solution, Lt. Kurt Gerstein was quite real, as was his torment. He was an unwilling cog in the world's most inhuman death machine, and despite his efforts to impede the juggernaut's progress and convince the outside world to take action, he ultimately saved no one from the ovens and was technically complicit in the very crimes he reported. It should come as no surprise that even now Holocaust deniers paint him as a raving schizophrenic to dismiss his testimony.

Anyone well acquainted with WWII knows the rest of the tragedy: wherever Gerstein and Fontana go, no matter how they plead or what documents they show, everybody has an excuse for looking the other way, including U.S. Ambassador Taylor (Richard Durden). The film's obvious implication is that everyone - Protestant, Catholic, German, and non-German - who refused to speak out from fear, indifference, or expedience, shared some of the blame for the Holocaust's enormous death toll.

Once upon a time I could not fathom how human beings could behave that way, but now it is no mystery, for apathy is ubiquitous. This may partly explain why "Amen" vanished so rapidly from the theaters - moviegoers would sooner watch psychos dismembering teenagers than be forced to consider how they might act in Kurt Gerstein's position. (It takes no bravery to wave the flag and cheer for der Führer when everyone's doing it.)

Apologists can present ample evidence of the Vatican's efforts to save Jews quietly and diplomatically - and in fact, the film does not dispute that, nor does it accuse the Pope of being pro-Fascist. A balanced view may be that the Vatican contained (and still contains) factions working at cross-purposes - like any other government. Ironically, the Church that gave sanctuary to Jews during the war extended similar hospitality to Fascists on the lam after the war - just as some Allied officials sought to bring war criminals to justice, whilst others secretly recruited the most useful Nazi scientists and agents for the impending Cold War.

I regard "Amen" as one of the most important Costa-Gavras films, certainly comparable with "Z" and "Missing" in its political and emotional impact. Patrick Blossier's camerawork, Yannick Kergoat's editing, and Armand Amar's stirring music create a sense of nonstop dramatic motion, rather like the ominous recurrent image of freight trains ceaselessly going you-know-where.

The script by Costa-Gavras and Jean-Claude Grumberg is most un-Hollywood, for this is hardly a glorious Hero's Journey, and any humor one may occasionally spot is of the blackest variety. One flaw with the writing and direction is that Pius XII remains opaque and cryptic throughout; though the film isn't really about him, this sheds little light on his true motives.

One memorable aspect of "Amen" is the relationship between Gerstein and the Doctor, a fictional character based on Dr. Josef Mengele, the "Angel of Death". Talk about the embodiment of Evil: here's a cheerfully detached psychopath who has found his true niche, who sees right through Gerstein and enjoys watching him "squirm on the hook," so to speak. Do people like the Doctor still wield tremendous power in this world? I think the answer is obvious. The real question is, What will you do about it?

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older