#56 of 2010: Fritz Lang's M

l killer, fritz lang, german, otto wernicke, peter lorre, social problems, suspense

this "first-cinematic serial killer" film (that's how it's billed in the netflix summary) is much less polarized- in terms of "good v. evil", "victim v. villain", "justice v. retribution", etc.- than you would expect if you hadn't seen anything else by Lang. based on my limited experience of the director's work ("Metropolis"), I certainly wasn't predicting a cut-and-dry morality tale, but I was surprised at just how complex, how condemning and also redeeming of EVERY character/character-type, this movie is. it'll yank on your emotions but it won't tell you what you'd need to do if it was real. you'll see the good in bad guys but it won't hold up outside of present circumstances. you'll see the bad in victim-mothers, and you'll have a hard time placing the divisions between complicity and willful ignorance and helplessness. like any examination of morality with real depth, this movie forces you to judge yourself as you judge its characters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M_(1931_film)