From NetFlix:
In this drama based on the play by Martin Sherman (who also wrote the screenplay), a Berlin homosexual is caught up in the Nazi hysteria during World War II. After being forced to kill his lover, he’s placed in a concentration camp and lies to get himself classified as Jewish rather than gay. But several rule-breaking incidents and his love for a fellow male prisoner bring him to admit his true nature. Mick Jagger appears briefly as a drag queen.
If you see this film before you watch “Walk On Water” you might appreciate the second film more. “Bent” offers a unique view of Nazi cruelty, especially as directed towards homosexuals. This view couples well with “Walk On Water”.
I watched this film because I was trying to find films with Clive Owen. “Bent” only increases my appreciation of his acting skill. He is willing to take unusual, possibly controversial roles. I only hope he resists the temptation to which Anthony Hopkins succumbed, namely taking stupid roles in order to make money. Sadly, “Duplicity” comes close to that mistake.
This could be a difficult film for you to watch because:
- Initial scenes show decadent public entertainment in Berlin including explicit homosexual activity. Indeed Berlin at that time in history was very decadent.
- When the two male lovers are first captured, they are put on a train to Dachau in which the goal was to break their spirit and hopefully eliminate them before they arrived at Dachau. One of the partners is brutally tortured and Clive Owen is forced to deny he knows the victim and must beat that victim who is thrown bodily off the train.
- The officers insist that Clive Owen perform straight sex on a 12 year old girl who is in fact dead during the encounter. The German officers laugh and have a gay old time.
- In prison Clive finds a new gay acquaintance Horst. The two are forced to repetitive, meaningless hard labor moving rocks back and forth.
- Needless to say, they cannot touch one another. At one point they verbally work thru a sexual encounter in which each achieves orgasm. It proves to them that they are still alive.
- All along Clive managed to be classified as Jewish as opposed to gay. Toward the end of the film the officers cruelly kill Horst and ask Clive to dispose of the body.
As a side note on hypocrisy, many Nazis (some of them leaders such as Roehm) were openly homosexual. You can find an enlightening article on Homosexuality in the Nazi Party.
Jude Law, Mick Jagger, and others have cameo roles. I challenge you to spot Jude Law.
The music, believe it or not, was written by Philip Glass. He must have been very young because the music is beautiful.
If you can stomach the harsh details and try to ignore them, you will watch a story of a guilty man finally forgiving himself and admitting of love. Do NOT expect a happy ending.
