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20 NlBELUNGEN SAGA (SlEGFRIED iND KriEMHILDe's REVENGE)
problem, applicable as well to this film, occurs in the conversation of Medea with the chorus:
Medea: Only a coward or a madman gives good for evil.
Chorus: There are evils that cannot be cured by evil. Patience remains and the gods watch all.
Medea: Let them watch my enemies go down in blood.
Medea (later) : Anyone running between me a*id my justice will reap what no man wants.
Chorus: Not justice, vengeance. You have suffered evil; you wish to inflict evil.
Kriemhilde is of course faced with a similar issue. Shculd she turn the other cheek and forget about the murder and forgive Hagen or should she carry out her plan of vengeance? The film would of course have more interest if there was a soul struggle over this issue, but this moral problem never bothers her. She decides immediately to avenge Siegfried, there being no question in her mind, and she proceeds to sacrifice everything to this unwavering aim. Some pjace along this line, like Medea, she is no longer "human," but merely a vengeful monster. but it is difficult to say where she should have turned back. Hagen ought to be punished but at what cost to self and country and humanity?
These moral tangles are not presented as well as in Medea. The Germanic Saga had no direct dramatic scenes and the authors of the film did not add any. Thus there is a lack of drama; the characters are not seen in direct conflict. Except for the main action of revenge, there are no side issues to lend further meaning or to sustain interest. The epicstyle of the acting and the austerity of her person — both of which are necessary to the film — tend to dampen the drama inherent in some of scenes. There is a resulting heaviness, and one awaits a denouement which perhaps takes too long to occur. It is almost as if the film were told in the past tense rather than the present.
Kriemhilde does not have enough soul-searching scenes to humanize and make more believeable and more poignant her situation. She is instrumental in killing her clan and yet gives little evidence of any qualms. She is too inhuman, too abstract for an audience to feel for her tragic dilemma. As a result, it occasionally becomes difficult for an unsophisticated audience, spoiled by many years of realism and everyday drama. to accept the larger-than-life creation of a heroine whose entire soul and body are directed all consumingly towards one end. For this reason her "grand" facial expressions and gestures are appropriate. If snickering occurs, it is due to the embarrassment of an audience before such a style and not to am basic deficiency in the film or in the acting.
Although there is more spectacle and essentially less action in Kriemhilde s Revenge than Siegfried, it is difficult to cavil, for there is no part, no shot that one would want to cut. If there is a fault, it lies in the conception as a whole and not with individual sections. If Kriemhilde' s Revenge comes off second best to Siegfried, it is still a major achievement. In its nobilit) of purpose and brilliancy of execution, it ranks among the great films of all time. — A. L.