Movie Analysis

Name: Amina Ahmad: Roll number:

23 December 21, 2022 Great Books SS-104
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Power means the influence or control of a person on others (others may be a possession or
some person). Here the question arises: “why do we need power”? We need the power to
influence others because desires are like built-in property in a normal person, all humans
have a deep desire that others should listen to our thoughts and then work according to their
will. But all people do not acquire power means they have no authority to forcefully make
them work according to their will and when they get power, it entirely depends on them how
they utilize that power. Power plays an important role in the amelioration and deterioration of
society. So, power in the hands of a single person can bring positive or negative impacts on
society.

The movie “The Bunker” depicts how much destruction took place when a civilized nation
handed-over power to a man in the name of NATIONALISM, who was not evenly
considering the lives of his masses. The movie “The Bunker” is based on the true historical
event of World War 2 and how many deadly decisions were made by Hitler in a closed
underground place that brought humiliation to the entire German nation in front of the whole
world. We will discuss power in a dictatorship and are major problems in this kind of
system.

Hitler was the Leader of the Nazi Party and the one who had enormous power, he was a
dictator as well as a chancellor of Germany. He was a brilliant orator and he used his skill to
persuade his nation towards Fascism (the ideology that Aryans are a superior race and only
they have the right to rule over the world), he found a way to comfort because he participated
in world war 1 and this war bring glory to him( as his earlier life was full miseries and
suffering after his parents’ death) so he started the war again later on it became world war 2
and in a consequence entire nation suffers. In the last days of his life, he resides in the bunker
(building under the ground to remain safe from carpet bombing) so from the bunker, he was
making policies and leading the war. Some generals realized his policies are leading to the
destruction of Germany. Some of his generals realized the policy of destruction of Germany
was dreadfully awful but Hitler was adamant to fulfil the policy even though he was aware
they would lose the war, but he did not want to leave Germany in the hands of enemies.
Because of his general’s betrayal, he was in complete depression. His loyal generals asked
him many times to leave that bunker, but he refused he got married to beloved Eva Braun,
and they both committed suicide. Later, the generals who were strictly obeying his policy
also commit suicide because Hitler’s agenda become the only purpose of their life.
 “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

A dictatorship is a form of government in which a small group of people rules over the entire
nation without the active participation of the public in government affairs. Similarly, there
was a small group of people who obeyed the orders of Hitler, and this applied to German
people this sort of rule public opinion can be neglected evenly on the important issue
regarding that nation. In the movie, when Hitler decided the destruction of Germany, the
public was unaware of this bloody policy. If Speer had implemented this policy given by
Hitler, the condition after of war in Germany would be much worse. Resistance is very
necessary against wrong decisions or cruel systems to avoid any deadly event; this resistance
can be in the form of criticism for example in Pakistan, Habib Jalib wrote poems against the
martial law of Zia ul Haqq or raising voices against violence to give awareness to the public
like when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged around 50 people burnt themselves on roads as a
protest to stop these evil activities. Resistance can be in form of disobeying the violent person
because protests are necessary to put a stop to the brutal activity otherwise silent person
becomes a part of that vicious crime and a violent person gets the courage to propagate this
activity. As Speer mentioned while an argument with Hitler: ‘If the enemy wishes to

destroy us, why help them?’

Speer was aware of the ground realities and result of this policy, so he retailed to a dictator
because it was his way to resist the brutal system. When the result of the policy concludes the
same as the intentions of the enemy then it is better to resist that policy.

Most of the time, a dictator uses any sensitive case to stay in political activity usually they
create a reason to stay in power. A special kind of narrative is built by the dictator to lead
his/her nation because powerful people need a community to whom they can rule, and this
narrative building is necessary to get support from the public like Hitler built a narrative in
which he showed that Germans should be the conqueror of the world because they are the
superior race even he knew that they had lost the war but still he was hoping that they could
win. The narrative building is not easy because changing the opinion of the masses takes a lot
of time, but Dictators do this in very less time by use of their power and they use different
tools to cope with resistance taking place while building the narrative. Sensitive issues prove
to be weapons to divert the attention of the public from issues related to their lives because
once the nation gets indulged in these problems, they will be less concerned about areas of
their lives to be addressed rather they blame that specific issue for all weakness. As the
argument of Fascism given by Hitler in the movie that they survived the attack of Romans,
and attacks in the middle-ages, a 30-year religious battle they will survive this war too
because after a series of defeats they should be victorious, this idea was much fascinating but
this ideology was costing millions of lives of soldiers, civilian even teenagers were fighting
getting injuries and were being killed, he was just depicting the false perception that there is
the hope of winning because of this deadly ideology. He put his nation after this ideology and

in wartime, no one was taking notice of the economic situation, poverty such factors which
has a direct impact on the lives of people, but their attention was diverted like Speer
mentioned: ‘No one has the right to tie the fate of the German nation to his

destiny. ‘To continue their power, they merge their ideas with the ideas of the nation or
transform them accordingly for their interest. Like in 1979, the revolution in Iran by a secular
monarchy, in Pakistan Zia ul Haqq used the name of Islam to save power and get moral
support under the banner of religion leading both nations into crisis because these narratives
were strong enough to capture the minds of people and lead them towards a different way.
Such narratives should be avoided because such sensitive issues are still hot enough to cause
someone heart affliction and must be highly discouraged to avoid chaos in the future because
no one knows which minor factor become the trouble of tomorrow.
In a dictatorship, a dictator uses enormous power to stop any type of retaliation by the public
by some means to continue the system without any interruption, in the war times only
information was only sent from the bunker evenly all the documents were checked that was

even sent by solider to his family, Hitler banned radio-station and press which were against of
him or his agenda and that was shown in the movie there was the room from where through
telephone news and orders were exchanged. No one can criticize their ideology often they
pay writers or build mass communications systems to spread their thinking, or they can make
changes in books to build their ideologies in the young generation. We can say dictatorship is
one man’s show and after all, all the policies are run by one man and other people might lose
interest if their opinions are not appreciated by the dictatorship. In Pakistan, during marshal
law, even judges, writers, and journalists were punished because they went against the
dictators. Healthy criticism should be accepted in all kinds of systems but banning institutes
because they are exposing their mistakes to prevent historic blunders.

Each system has its own merits and demerits, dictatorship has too. But it’s necessary to
understand the importance of resistance in this system only one man is deciding according to
his intellectual level for the nation if progress is rapid, then destruction also went on a
massive level. Freedom of speech must be appreciated in any kind of system because when
no one criticizes the ruler for wrongdoing, then society will be on verge of chaos for example
Hitler was a man of strong nerves (evenly he had strong willpower that help him to fight in
wartime) but if he used his intellect and power for the welfare of public then the results
would be different. Power has no positive or negative impact; the use of power makes it
good or bad so the use of power must be viewed closely by the relative institutes to exclude
the chance of any mishap.