Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Fixing indentation
Changed line(s) 34 (click to see context) from:
* HopeSpot: A brief moment when Saul and some other Sonderkommandos seem to have escaped the camp. They find refuge in a shed and start talking about joining the Polish resistance. Then the SS shows up.
to:
* HopeSpot: HopeSpot:
** A brief moment when Saul and some other Sonderkommandos seem to have escaped the camp. They find refuge in a shed and start talking about joining the Polish resistance. Then the SS shows up.
** A brief moment when Saul and some other Sonderkommandos seem to have escaped the camp. They find refuge in a shed and start talking about joining the Polish resistance. Then the SS shows up.
Changed line(s) 39 (click to see context) from:
* SoundOnlyDeath: The whole movie, the camera never strays more than a few feet away from Saul--until the very end. A Polish boy shows up at the abandoned barn where Saul and the other Sonderkommandos are huddled. The camera then leaves Saul, following the Polish boy as he runs away from the barn, the SS guards dash past him, and gunfire rings out signaling the death of Saul and his companions.
to:
* SoundOnlyDeath: SoundOnlyDeath:
** The whole movie, the camera never strays more than a few feet away from Saul--until the very end. A Polish boy shows up at the abandoned barn where Saul and the other Sonderkommandos are huddled. The camera then leaves Saul, following the Polish boy as he runs away from the barn, the SS guards dash past him, and gunfire rings out signaling the death of Saul and his companions.
** The whole movie, the camera never strays more than a few feet away from Saul--until the very end. A Polish boy shows up at the abandoned barn where Saul and the other Sonderkommandos are huddled. The camera then leaves Saul, following the Polish boy as he runs away from the barn, the SS guards dash past him, and gunfire rings out signaling the death of Saul and his companions.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 1,2 (click to see context) from:
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0634.JPG]]
to:
%%
%% Image selected per Image Pickin thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16968229380.06631700
%% Please don't change or remove without starting a new thread.
%%
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0634.JPG]]
org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_img_3822.png]]
%% Image selected per Image Pickin thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16968229380.06631700
%% Please don't change or remove without starting a new thread.
%%
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 9,10 (click to see context) from:
Various similarities in plot and tone were noted between this film and ''Film/TheGreyZone'', though Nemes stated that his film was intended as a challenge to the other, arguing that ''The Grey Zone'' relied too heavily on emotional upheaval and shock value; as such, he employed more stark realism and minimalism, as demonstrated by the majority of the film taking place close behind Saul.
to:
Various similarities in plot and tone were noted between this film and ''Film/TheGreyZone'', though [[SpiritualAntithesis Nemes stated that his film was intended as a challenge to the other, arguing that ''The Grey Zone'' relied too heavily on emotional upheaval and shock value; value]]; as such, he employed more stark realism and minimalism, as demonstrated by the majority of the film taking place close behind Saul.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* FathersQuest: Saul is convinced he's on a quest to get his son proper Jewish rites upon his death. Whether he actually is on one, or he has simply mistaken another corpse for his son, is ambiguous.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
No longer a trope.
Deleted line(s) 40 (click to see context) :
* YourCheatingHeart: Saul's son is the product of an affair with his mistress.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* AmbiguousSituation: It's hard to tell whether the boy is truly Saul's son, Saul's mind is breaking down from the horrible situation he's in, or it's metaphor.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* ShootTheShaggyDog: After all the trouble Saul goes through to give his "son" a proper funeral, the rabbi is revealed to be a fraud, the corpse is lost in a river, and Saul is shot to death by the SS.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
It's Gory Discretion Shot when a splatter of blood / flesh happens.
* BattleDiscretionShot: The camera stops following Saul for the first time at the end of the film, instead following a young boy moving through the forest as the gunshots presumably killing Saul are heard in the background.
Changed line(s) 26,27 (click to see context) from:
** The camera stops following Saul for the first time at the end of the film, instead following a young boy moving through the forest as the gunshots presumably killing Saul are heard in the background.
* TheHeroDies: Saul is presumably shot dead in the end, as Nemes wanted a Holocaust story about a protagonist who dies.
* TheHeroDies: Saul is presumably shot dead in the end, as Nemes wanted a Holocaust story about a protagonist who dies.
to:
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 7,8 (click to see context) from:
One day Saul, who goes through his tasks in a machine-like, disassociated state, is shocked to see that a pre-teen boy somehow survived the gas chamber and is still breathing. And it's doubly shocking, because they boy is his son. A Nazi doctor promptly suffocates the boy to death, but Saul becomes determined to give his son a proper funeral with proper Jewish rites, as opposed to letting the body burn in the crematoria. Meanwhile, the Sonderkommandos, who are acutely aware that they themselves will be murdered soon, are organizing a rebellion, smuggling in weapons and explosives to the camp.
to:
One day Saul, who goes through his tasks in a machine-like, disassociated state, is shocked to see that a pre-teen boy somehow survived the gas chamber and is still breathing. And it's doubly shocking, because they the boy is his son. A Nazi doctor promptly suffocates the boy to death, but Saul becomes determined to give his son a proper funeral with proper Jewish rites, as opposed to letting the body burn in the crematoria. Meanwhile, the Sonderkommandos, who are acutely aware that they themselves will be murdered soon, are organizing a rebellion, smuggling in weapons and explosives to the camp.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 9,10 (click to see context) from:
Various similarities in plot and tone were noted between this film and Film/TheGreyZone, though Nemes stated that his film was intended as a challenge to the other, arguing that ''The Grey Zone'' relied too heavily on emotional upheaval and shock value; as such, he employed more stark realism and minimalism, as demonstrated by the majority of the film taking place close behind Saul.
to:
Various similarities in plot and tone were noted between this film and Film/TheGreyZone, ''Film/TheGreyZone'', though Nemes stated that his film was intended as a challenge to the other, arguing that ''The Grey Zone'' relied too heavily on emotional upheaval and shock value; as such, he employed more stark realism and minimalism, as demonstrated by the majority of the film taking place close behind Saul.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Already covered by Sound Only Death
Deleted line(s) 30 (click to see context) :
* KilledOffscreen: We don't actually see Saul getting killed, only hear the gunshots.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* KilledOffscreen: We don't actually see Saul getting killed, only hear the gunshots.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** The beginning of the film depicts the routine gassing of a group of Jews, though we only hear their screams of fright as they realize that they're being killed.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
Various similarities in plot and tone were noted between this film and Film/TheGreyZone, though Nemes stated that his film was intended as a challenge to the other, arguing that ''The Grey Zone'' relied too heavily on emotional upheaval and shock value; as such, he employed more stark realism and minimalism, as demonstrated by the majority of the film taking place close behind Saul.
The film received universal acclaim upon its release. It won, among others, the Academy Award, Golden Globe, Critic's Choice Award, Independent Spirit Award, and [=BAFTA=] for Best Foreign Language Film, as well as the Grand Prix at Cannes.
The film received universal acclaim upon its release. It won, among others, the Academy Award, Golden Globe, Critic's Choice Award, Independent Spirit Award, and [=BAFTA=] for Best Foreign Language Film, as well as the Grand Prix at Cannes.
Added DiffLines:
* DownerBeginning: The film opens with Saul's daily task of luring Jews into gas chambers without letting them know that they're being led to their death; within minutes [[NightmareFuel their panicked, dying screams can be heard]].
Added DiffLines:
** The camera stops following Saul for the first time at the end of the film, instead following a young boy moving through the forest as the gunshots presumably killing Saul are heard in the background.
* TheHeroDies: Saul is presumably shot dead in the end, as Nemes wanted a Holocaust story about a protagonist who dies.
* TheHeroDies: Saul is presumably shot dead in the end, as Nemes wanted a Holocaust story about a protagonist who dies.
Added DiffLines:
** In-universe, Saul's son has apparently survived the gassing. [[Film/TheGreyZone Unlike another film where such a thing happens]], the boy is suffocated immediately.
* NothingIsScarier: Most of the horrible going-ons of Auschwitz are off-camera as the action follows only Saul, leaving the audience to fill in the gaps with what they know occurred at the death camp -- which in itself is [[HumansAreBastards almost beyond comprehension or imagination]].
* NothingIsScarier: Most of the horrible going-ons of Auschwitz are off-camera as the action follows only Saul, leaving the audience to fill in the gaps with what they know occurred at the death camp -- which in itself is [[HumansAreBastards almost beyond comprehension or imagination]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 14,15 (click to see context) from:
* DownerEnding: Laszlo Nemes said in an interview that most Holocaust films--''Film/SchindlersList'', ''Film/ThePianist'', etc--focus on a survivor. He set out to make a movie in which the protagonist dies. Saul and the Sonderkommandos who escaped with him are massacred seemingly within minutes of clearing the camp when SS guards hunt them down.
* DueToTheDead: Saul's whole motivation, to hold a proper funeral for his son--or whoever the boy is.
* DueToTheDead: Saul's whole motivation, to hold a proper funeral for his son--or whoever the boy is.
to:
* DownerEnding: Laszlo Nemes said in an interview that most Holocaust films--''Film/SchindlersList'', ''Film/ThePianist'', etc--focus on a survivor. He set out to make a movie in which the protagonist dies. Saul and the Sonderkommandos who escaped with him are massacred seemingly within minutes of clearing the camp when SS guards hunt them down.
down. Not to mention that the driving motivation of the film leads to this -- not only is it ambiguous as to to whether or not the body is actually that of his son, but the prisoner who purports to be a rabbi turns out to be a fraud. Saul then loses the body in the water, failing to give him a proper funeral.
* DueToTheDead: Saul's whole motivation, to hold a proper funeral for his son--or whoever the boy is. Unfortunately the rabbi turns out to be nothing more than a fraud, and Saul loses the body in the water.
* DueToTheDead: Saul's whole motivation, to hold a proper funeral for his son--or whoever the boy is. Unfortunately the rabbi turns out to be nothing more than a fraud, and Saul loses the body in the water.
Added DiffLines:
* StageWhisper: Many conversations take place only in whispers, given the secretive nature of the narrative; that the audience is so close to Saul makes it only the more intimate. The effect is heightened when listening to the film with headphones, making it sound as though characters really are whispering from a distant direction.
Added DiffLines:
* WhamLine: An unusual variation: That Rabbi Braun stumbles over the Kaddish shows that he doesn't even know it, and is a fraud, thus failing Saul on his mission.
* YourCheatingHeart: Saul's son is the product of an affair with his mistress.
* YourCheatingHeart: Saul's son is the product of an affair with his mistress.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 13 (click to see context) from:
* CrapsackWorld: It's f***g Auschwitz.
to:
* CrapsackWorld: It's f***g fucking Auschwitz.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0634.JPG]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 18 (click to see context) from:
* GoryDiscretionShot: Sort of. Although the horrors of the crematoria are shown, the film doesn't actually focus on dead bodies a whole lot. Most of the shots of corpses are framed with the corpses out of focus or shot obliquely.
to:
* GoryDiscretionShot: Sort of. Although the horrors of the crematoria are shown, the film doesn't actually focus on dead bodies a whole lot. Most of the shots of corpses are framed with the corpses out of focus or shot obliquely.obliquely, as the camera holds a tight closeup on Saul in the foreground at all times. This is likely to symbolize how Saul has internally disassociated from what is going on around him.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 18,20 (click to see context) from:
* GoryDiscretionShot: Sort of.
** Although the horrors of the crematoria are shown, the film doesn't actually focus on dead bodies a whole lot. Most of the shots of corpses are framed with the corpses out of focus or shot obliquely.
** The whole movie, the camera never strays more than a few feet away from Saul--until the very end. A Polish boy shows up at the abandoned barn where Saul and the other Sonderkommandos are huddled. The camera then leaves Saul, following the Polish boy as he runs away from the barn, the SS guards dash past him, and gunfire rings out signaling the death of Saul and his companions.
** Although the horrors of the crematoria are shown, the film doesn't actually focus on dead bodies a whole lot. Most of the shots of corpses are framed with the corpses out of focus or shot obliquely.
** The whole movie, the camera never strays more than a few feet away from Saul--until the very end. A Polish boy shows up at the abandoned barn where Saul and the other Sonderkommandos are huddled. The camera then leaves Saul, following the Polish boy as he runs away from the barn, the SS guards dash past him, and gunfire rings out signaling the death of Saul and his companions.
to:
* GoryDiscretionShot: Sort of. \n** Although the horrors of the crematoria are shown, the film doesn't actually focus on dead bodies a whole lot. Most of the shots of corpses are framed with the corpses out of focus or shot obliquely.
** The whole movie, the camera never strays more than a few feet away from Saul--until the very end. A Polish boy shows up at the abandoned barn where Saul and the other Sonderkommandos are huddled. The camera then leaves Saul, following the Polish boy as he runs away from the barn, the SS guards dash past him, and gunfire rings out signaling the death of Saul and his companions.obliquely.
** The whole movie, the camera never strays more than a few feet away from Saul--until the very end. A Polish boy shows up at the abandoned barn where Saul and the other Sonderkommandos are huddled. The camera then leaves Saul, following the Polish boy as he runs away from the barn, the SS guards dash past him, and gunfire rings out signaling the death of Saul and his companions.
Added DiffLines:
* SoundOnlyDeath: The whole movie, the camera never strays more than a few feet away from Saul--until the very end. A Polish boy shows up at the abandoned barn where Saul and the other Sonderkommandos are huddled. The camera then leaves Saul, following the Polish boy as he runs away from the barn, the SS guards dash past him, and gunfire rings out signaling the death of Saul and his companions.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* SurvivorshipBias: A deliberate aversion, as Nemes wished to make a film about a Holocaust victim that actually died in the Holocaust.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* GasChamber: The Auschwitz crematoria, shown in horrifying detail.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
''Son of Saul'' is a 2015 film from UsefulNotes/{{Hungary}}, directed by Laszlo Nemes.
It is set in October 1944, at Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Saul Auslander is a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderkommando Sonderkommando]], one of the squads of Jewish prisoners used to assist in mass murder in the Birkenau crematoria. It is Saul's job, along with the other Sonderkommandos, to get Jews selected for murder undressed and into the "shower" rooms. After a Nazi threw the cyanide gas in and all the Jews were killed, the Sonderkommandos would go through their belongings for valuables, as well as remove the bodies from the gas chamber and take them to the crematoria, and then clean the gas chambers to receive the next group of murder victims.
One day Saul, who goes through his tasks in a machine-like, disassociated state, is shocked to see that a pre-teen boy somehow survived the gas chamber and is still breathing. And it's doubly shocking, because they boy is his son. A Nazi doctor promptly suffocates the boy to death, but Saul becomes determined to give his son a proper funeral with proper Jewish rites, as opposed to letting the body burn in the crematoria. Meanwhile, the Sonderkommandos, who are acutely aware that they themselves will be murdered soon, are organizing a rebellion, smuggling in weapons and explosives to the camp.
----
!!Tropes:
* ContrivedCoincidence: Averted--assuming that the boy actually is Saul's son, anyway. All the Jews of Hungary were taken to Auschwitz to be murdered, the other death camps having been shut down by October 1944, so a Hungarian Jew like Saul at Auschwitz could well have seen someone he knew.
* CrapsackWorld: It's f*****g Auschwitz.
* DownerEnding: Laszlo Nemes said in an interview that most Holocaust films--''Film/SchindlersList'', ''Film/ThePianist'', etc--focus on a survivor. He set out to make a movie in which the protagonist dies. Saul and the Sonderkommandos who escaped with him are massacred seemingly within minutes of clearing the camp when SS guards hunt them down.
* DueToTheDead: Saul's whole motivation, to hold a proper funeral for his son--or whoever the boy is.
* EpicTrackingShot: The first scene is a four-minute tracking shot following Saul as he goes about his work ushering Jews into the crematoria for murder. Then every other scene is just like that. The camera never leaves Saul for the entire film (until the last thirty seconds, that is), following him around everywhere in tracking shot after tracking shot, usually either right by his face if he's in conversation or right behind his shoulder if he's walking somewhere.
* ExtremelyShortTimespan: A day and a half, Oct. 6-7, 1944.
* {{Gorn}}: Oh look, piles of corpses.
* GoryDiscretionShot: Sort of.
** Although the horrors of the crematoria are shown, the film doesn't actually focus on dead bodies a whole lot. Most of the shots of corpses are framed with the corpses out of focus or shot obliquely.
** The whole movie, the camera never strays more than a few feet away from Saul--until the very end. A Polish boy shows up at the abandoned barn where Saul and the other Sonderkommandos are huddled. The camera then leaves Saul, following the Polish boy as he runs away from the barn, the SS guards dash past him, and gunfire rings out signaling the death of Saul and his companions.
* HopeSpot: A brief moment when Saul and some other Sonderkommandos seem to have escaped the camp. They find refuge in a shed and start talking about joining the Polish resistance. Then the SS shows up.
* ShownTheirWork: The depiction of the operation and design of the crematoria is highly accurate. A rebellion of Sonderkommandos did happen at Birkenau in October 1944, as depicted, with a few of the Sonderkommandos briefly escaping. Women working in the clothing detail helped smuggle explosives, as shown in the movie. The clandestine photos being snapped by a Sonderkommando are [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderkommando_photographs also real]].
* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: Although it's never definitively stated, it's hinted that the boy isn't really Saul's son and that Saul may not even have a son. One of his friends says specifically that Saul doesn't have a son. Notably, Saul never says the boy's name.
* YourDaysAreNumbered: The Sonderkommandos are acutely aware that their reprieve is temporary. When an SS overseer demands the kapo give him 70 names of people he "can do without", the Sonderkommandos know it's time for the revolt.
It is set in October 1944, at Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Saul Auslander is a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderkommando Sonderkommando]], one of the squads of Jewish prisoners used to assist in mass murder in the Birkenau crematoria. It is Saul's job, along with the other Sonderkommandos, to get Jews selected for murder undressed and into the "shower" rooms. After a Nazi threw the cyanide gas in and all the Jews were killed, the Sonderkommandos would go through their belongings for valuables, as well as remove the bodies from the gas chamber and take them to the crematoria, and then clean the gas chambers to receive the next group of murder victims.
One day Saul, who goes through his tasks in a machine-like, disassociated state, is shocked to see that a pre-teen boy somehow survived the gas chamber and is still breathing. And it's doubly shocking, because they boy is his son. A Nazi doctor promptly suffocates the boy to death, but Saul becomes determined to give his son a proper funeral with proper Jewish rites, as opposed to letting the body burn in the crematoria. Meanwhile, the Sonderkommandos, who are acutely aware that they themselves will be murdered soon, are organizing a rebellion, smuggling in weapons and explosives to the camp.
----
!!Tropes:
* ContrivedCoincidence: Averted--assuming that the boy actually is Saul's son, anyway. All the Jews of Hungary were taken to Auschwitz to be murdered, the other death camps having been shut down by October 1944, so a Hungarian Jew like Saul at Auschwitz could well have seen someone he knew.
* CrapsackWorld: It's f*****g Auschwitz.
* DownerEnding: Laszlo Nemes said in an interview that most Holocaust films--''Film/SchindlersList'', ''Film/ThePianist'', etc--focus on a survivor. He set out to make a movie in which the protagonist dies. Saul and the Sonderkommandos who escaped with him are massacred seemingly within minutes of clearing the camp when SS guards hunt them down.
* DueToTheDead: Saul's whole motivation, to hold a proper funeral for his son--or whoever the boy is.
* EpicTrackingShot: The first scene is a four-minute tracking shot following Saul as he goes about his work ushering Jews into the crematoria for murder. Then every other scene is just like that. The camera never leaves Saul for the entire film (until the last thirty seconds, that is), following him around everywhere in tracking shot after tracking shot, usually either right by his face if he's in conversation or right behind his shoulder if he's walking somewhere.
* ExtremelyShortTimespan: A day and a half, Oct. 6-7, 1944.
* {{Gorn}}: Oh look, piles of corpses.
* GoryDiscretionShot: Sort of.
** Although the horrors of the crematoria are shown, the film doesn't actually focus on dead bodies a whole lot. Most of the shots of corpses are framed with the corpses out of focus or shot obliquely.
** The whole movie, the camera never strays more than a few feet away from Saul--until the very end. A Polish boy shows up at the abandoned barn where Saul and the other Sonderkommandos are huddled. The camera then leaves Saul, following the Polish boy as he runs away from the barn, the SS guards dash past him, and gunfire rings out signaling the death of Saul and his companions.
* HopeSpot: A brief moment when Saul and some other Sonderkommandos seem to have escaped the camp. They find refuge in a shed and start talking about joining the Polish resistance. Then the SS shows up.
* ShownTheirWork: The depiction of the operation and design of the crematoria is highly accurate. A rebellion of Sonderkommandos did happen at Birkenau in October 1944, as depicted, with a few of the Sonderkommandos briefly escaping. Women working in the clothing detail helped smuggle explosives, as shown in the movie. The clandestine photos being snapped by a Sonderkommando are [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderkommando_photographs also real]].
* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: Although it's never definitively stated, it's hinted that the boy isn't really Saul's son and that Saul may not even have a son. One of his friends says specifically that Saul doesn't have a son. Notably, Saul never says the boy's name.
* YourDaysAreNumbered: The Sonderkommandos are acutely aware that their reprieve is temporary. When an SS overseer demands the kapo give him 70 names of people he "can do without", the Sonderkommandos know it's time for the revolt.
