History Film / TheDamned

[[redirect:Damned}}]]

''Damned'' may refer to:
* InfernalTropes, an index which includes tropes about damned souls/people/places/etc.
* ''Film/TheDamned1947'' is a French film by Creator/ReneClement (the film is also known as ''Les maudits'').
* ''Film/TheDamned1969'' is an American film by Creator/LuchinoVisconti.
* ''Music/TheDamned'' is a British band first formed in 1976.
* ''{{Literature/Damned}}'' (2011) is a novel by Creator/ChuckPalahniuk.
* ''{{Roleplay/Damned}}'' (2012) is a JournalRoleplay played on [[http://dreamwidth.org Dreamwidth]].

If an internal wick brought you here, please change it so it points to the correct page.
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* ''Film/TheDamned1947'' is a French film by Creator/ReneClement (also known as ''Les maudits'').

[[redirect:{{Damned}}]]

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[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lacadutadeglidei_855_hr_232.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:200:Yeah, a BigScrewedUpFamily of ThoseWackyNazis!]]

''The Damned'' is a 1969 film by LuchinoVisconti.

Set in the early days of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany, ''The Damned'' depicts the downfall of the Essenbecks, a prosperous German steel family. Patriarch Joachim (Albrecht Schoenhals) announces his retirement from the family business. Frederick Bruckman (Dirk Bogarde), an ambitious company executive, conspires with Joachim's daughter Sophie (Ingrid Thulin) and SS official Aschenbach (Helmut Griem) to murder Joachim and take over the company. This sets off a vicious power struggle between Frederick, Sophie, Aschenbach, Sophie's son Martin (Helmut Berger) and Konstantin (Rene Koldehoff), an SA leader. Caught in the middle is Herbert Thalman (Umberto Orsini), Joachim's vice president whom Frederick frames for Joachim's death, his wife Elizabeth (Creator/CharlotteRampling) and Konstantin's son Gunther (Renaud Verley).

''The Damned'' was extremely controversial in its day, for both its sexual content and graphic violence. It remains a polarizing movie: some critics consider it a masterpiece, others think it's overblown and sensationalistic. Compare for instance Vincent Canby's [[http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=EE05E7DF173AB22CAA494CC2B779958D6896 glowing review]] with Creator/RogerEbert's [[http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-damned-1970 scathing one]]. One notable fan is director RainerWernerFassbinder, who said it "means as much to the history of film as Shakespeare to the history of theater."

Not to be confused with a [[Film/TheDamned1947 1947 French film]] or [[Music/TheDamned the British punk band]].

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!!Tropes used by the film:
* AbortedArc: One early scene alludes to Herbert stealing corporate documents during his flight from Germany, hence rendering him potentially dangerous. This however is quickly forgotten - it's not even mentioned [[spoiler:when Herbert returns]] - leading viewers to wonder what threat Herbert poses to the Nazis, or [[ShootTheShaggyDog why his family has to suffer]]. Aschenbach even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this, saying that foreign industrialists "won't be able to make use" of Herbert's documents.
* AffablyEvil: Aschenbach is a trope codifier. Whether he's wooing Frederick, threatening Sophie or negotiating with the Army, he's [[PsychoticSmile constantly smiling]] and speaking in a friendly, even tone of voice. Which only makes him more menacing.
* AllGermansAreNazis: Averted. Aside from Konstantin, the Essenbecks only deal with the Nazis in the course of business (Joachim in particular seems disgusted by Hitler). We also see Herbert and his family persecuted as dissidents, and a scene where SA leader Konstantin argues with Aschenbach and several Wehrmacht generals.
%%* AmbitionIsEvil
* AristocratsAreEvil: As invoked by the title. The German elites are too decadent and self-serving to stand up to the Nazis, and wind up destroying themselves.
* BigScrewedUpFamily: It doesn't get more screwed up than blackmail, incest, murder and currying favor with Nazis.
* BlackAndBlackMorality: All the characters except Elizabeth and Gunther are varying shades of evil, or at least petty or self-serving.
* {{Blackmail}}: [[spoiler: Konstantin offers to Martin to cover his dirty affair with the Jewish little girl in exchange of being nominated president of the company. Later he's HoistByHisOwnPetard.]]
* BookBurning: The film provides a literal example when the [=SA=] plunders a college library and burns the books.
* BreakTheCutie: Gunther's arc from sensitive violinist to prospective SS recruit, as the bad things that happen to him kindle a hatred within him that allows Aschenbach to put his hooks into him.
* BullyingADragon: Aschenbach and Sophie's meeting halfway through the film. Sophie tries to throw her weight around, threatening to withhold support from the Nazis unless they allow Frederick to inherit the steelworks. Aschenbach doesn't take it well.
* TheChessMaster: Aschenbach masterfully manipulates everyone around him.
* CoolUncle: Gunther looks at Herbert as a father figure given his [[FantasyForbiddingParent Fantasy Forbidding Father]].
* TheCorrupter: Aschenbach, again, towards Frederick and Gunther.
* CrapsackWorld: It ''is'' Nazi Germany, what did you expect?
* CreepyCrossdresser: Martin's introduced singing a MarleneDietrich song in drag.
* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler: Herbert's established as the OnlySaneMan and a virulent anti-Nazi, but he's framed for Joachim's murder and exits about a half-hour into the film. Frederick also qualifies, since despite his early focus, his character arc becomes less important than Martin's.]]
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Aschenbach assures that [[spoiler: Martin's relationship with the little girl and her suicide won't be investigated at all because ''she was Jewish''. And of course because he's soooo rich and powerful...]]
%%* DevilInPlainSight: Aschenbach
* DepravedHomosexual: The SA are depicted as such.
%%* DinnerAndAShow
%%* DownerEnding
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: The Jewish girl who is raped by Martin. And at the end, Frederick and Sophie.]]
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: We know that [[spoiler: Elizabeth died in a concentration camp]] only because [[spoiler: her husband]] tells about it.
* DumbStruck: [[spoiler: Sophie after being raped by her son.]]
%%* EvilNephew: C'mon Martin...
* EvilUncle: Konstantin [[spoiler: blackmails Martin for his dirty business with the Jewish girl. But Martin is pure evil himself, [[EvilNephew so...]] ]]
* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler: Gunther, at the end. From the WhiteSheep of the family at the end he's duped into joining the Nazi party.]]
* FanDisservice: While the film is known to be sexually risqué, most of the sexual scenes consist of child molestation, a depraved homosexual Nazi orgy that ends in a bloody massacre, and a sexually explicit incestious rape scene.
* FantasyForbiddingParent: Konstantin wants his son to stop fooling with violins and literature and learning the family's business.
* FrameUp: Herbert is blamed for Joachim's murder. Symbolically parallels the [[FalseFlagOperation Reichstag Fire]] occurring on the same day.
* FreudianExcuse: If ever any movie character had one, it's Martin. Lost his father in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and is constantly reminded of his heroism; his mother is a domineering schemer with strong squicky hints of incest. Little wonder he turned out so messed up.
* GambitPileup: Among Frederick and the Essenbecks, at least. Aschenbach proves a master of XanatosSpeedChess and takes advantage of their discord.
* HappilyMarried: Herbert and Elisabeth [[spoiler: until DiabolusExMachina comes.]]
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Konstantin blackmails Martin and uses his leverage to reroute arms shipments to the SA. [[spoiler: This convinces Aschenbach to mark Konstantin for extermination in the Night of the Long Knives.]]
* HollywoodHistory: The Night of the Long Knives compresses numerous disparate murders and arrests, spread over three days and across different parts of Germany, into a giant massacre of SA members at a single location in one, well, night. Not to mention Visconti's depiction of the SA staging a gay orgy.
** Yeah, that last part is actually pretty accurate.
* InadequateInheritor: Obviously old Joachim sees Martin as one.
* IveComeTooFar: Frederick experiences this right before the Night of the Long Knives:
-->"I've accepted a ruthless logic and I shall never get away from it."
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Martin, at the end of the movie, who has joined the Nazi party and he can do as he pleases]]. [[DoomedByCanon But of course]] [[ForegoneConclusion we know how it will end.]]
* LadyMacbeth: Sophie is a particularly nasty example, urging Frederick to kill Joachim and Konstantin while taking power of the company.
%%* LotsAndLotsOfCharacters
%%* NaziNobleman: [[spoiler: Martin at the end.]]
* {{Nazisploitation}}: An early and [[FollowTheLeader extremely influential]] example.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The Essenbecks are clearly modeled on the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krupp Krupp family]]. Martin in particular seems based on Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, both a fanatical Nazi and something of a playboy, who served three years in prison for war crimes.
* OedipusComplex: Martin's creepily close relationship with Sophie. And it's only the first of his issues.
* OnlySaneMan: Herbert appears to be early on with his CassandraTruth speech, but his outspokenness borders on WhatAnIdiot considering he's lecturing people either indifferent towards or supportive of the Nazis.
%%* ParentalIncest: [[spoiler: Martin and Sophie.]]
%%* PrettyBoy: [[EvilIsSexy Martin]] and Gunther as well.
%%* PsychopathicManchild: Martin...Martin.
%%* ThePurge: The Night of the Long Knives.
%%* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil
* RecycledInSpace: ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' meets ''Literature/{{Buddenbrooks}}'' in UsefulNotes/NaziGermany with some Dostoevskij put in the middle.
* RotatingProtagonist: Frederick is the main character through the first half, but Martin overtakes him by the film's end.
* ShoutOut: [[spoiler: Sophie and Frederick committing suicide after their wedding is an obvious one to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler's suicide with Eva Braun.]] Herbert Thalmann shares his surname with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Th%C3%A4lmann the leader of Weimar Germany's Communist Party]].
* SpiritualSuccessor: ''Film/TheNightPorter'', also starring Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling.
** 1976 film ''Salon Kitty'', where Helmut Berger and Ingrid Thulin once again team up in a story about the depravity of German society in the early days of Nazism.
* StraightGay: [[spoiler: Konstantin]], a brawling SA man who participates in gay orgies.
%%* TallDarkAndHandsome: Both Martin and Gunther.
%%* ThoseWackyNazis
%%* UncannyValleyMakeup: Sophie in the end.
%%* UnholyMatrimony: Sophie and Frederick, if only they can marry.
* VillainProtagonist: Martin and Frederick definitely qualify.
%%* VillainousIncest: A particularly disturbing example.
* WhiteSheep: Gunther[[spoiler: until he joins the Nazi party.]]
* WidowWoman: Sophie and does she resent it!
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Aschenbach's attitude towards Frederick and Sophie late in the film.
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%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

Set in the early days of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany, ''The Damned'' depicts the downfall of the Essenbecks, a prosperous German steel family. Patriarch Joachim (Albrecht Schoenhals) announces his retirement from the family business. Frederick Bruckman (Dirk Bogarde), an ambitious company executive, conspires with Joachim's daughter Sophie (Ingrid Thulin) and SS official Aschenbach (Helmut Griem) to murder Joachim and take over the company. This sets off a vicious power struggle between Frederick, Sophie, Aschenbach, Sophie's son Martin (Helmut Berger) and Konstantin (Rene Koldehoff), an SA leader. Caught in the middle is Herbert Thalman (Umberto Orsini), Joachim's vice president whom Frederick frames for Joachim's death, his wife Elizabeth (Charlotte Rampling) and Konstantin's son Gunther (Renaud Verley).