Incident At Oglala

Year: 1992

Grade: B-

Country: USA

Director: Apted

Review

within the first five minutes i had this film pegged as a fictional story of a leni riefenstahl in a post-WWII germany type situation. an artist who was great and may have done some things for the nazi party, but never necessarily supported hitler and his methods. it turns out that the film is actually based upon a real-life conductor, and the controversy following the war, rather than being a fictionalization of a potential post-war trial of riefenstahl. at any rate, the basic guiding principles/questions of the film are the same: to what extent does one offer forgiveness for an artist who in/directly supported the cultural supremacy of the third reich? in the film keitel plays an american major who is responsible for investigating the level of complicity of a certain german conductor, played by skarsgård. as the plot unfolds we discover that skarsgård has enough in his past to make a case either way – as a sympathizer of the party, or as a quiet musician just trying to be a great artist. both the leads do a great job, but, in fact, the entire cast is fairly solid. the film does lag in areas, but it’s a compelling enough debate carried out by two strong performers, to carry the audience through the slow spots. in the end i didn’t feel entirely compelled by either argument – it’s a good question and one that varies on a case by case basis, but in this case i think it’s easy to say the conductor should have left the country in 1934, and it’s hard to expect him to stand up against the enormous pressure of the time and place.