The
crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis during WWII were so heinous that
some Americans didn’t believe the reports. That is why it was so important that
the Allied War Crimes Commission collected and presented as much audio and
visual documentation as possible. The reels of footage showing the horror of
the Final Solution at concentration camps were instrumental in pulling back the
veil of disbelief. The Stranger was
the first commercial movie to show it. The
Stranger was a success at the box office, pulling in over double its
production costs. Film historians in the know decry the heavy editing at the
beginning of the film. Gone is most of the footage establishing the
ruthlessness of a lead Nazi as he escapes the continent
and embeds himself in the heart of America. Some say that after
such hacking, The Stranger was
reduced to a small town murder movie and that it was less of a movie as a
result. I like to see the editing as having left a clearer message for the
audience of the time: That your preconceived notions of how things were—were
wrong. That any person with an understanding of what is right and just would
have to admit —by the horrific evidence before them—that truly evil people
exist in the world. And that, as difficult as it must be to admit, you need to
acknowledge such evil and stand against it. Yes, I would have loved to have
seen the additional footage. It would have made The Stranger a truly grand
Nazi-hunting movie. But its role in opening the eyes of 1940s America should
not be disregarded.
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