Darren Carver-Balsiger’s review published on Letterboxd:
In The White Ribbon, director Michael Haneke seems to ask us: where does evil come from? This is a story told as a parable, to show us a world we deeply know. It is an inhuman look at humanity, showing us the root of an evil that is (and, more crucially, was) powerful. There is sharp black and white photography, accompanied by static camerawork, and this colourless, slow portrayal of life makes no comment upon it, instead just showing us the festering evil. The White Ribbon is cold, cerebral, and calculated, calmly deconstructing things and presenting them bleakly. It's an uncompromising masterpiece.
Spoilers from here onwards.
The White Ribbon is a story of children, specifically evil children. Throughout the film a series of misdeeds or "accidents" befall the characters and it is pretty clear that the children are responsible. Yet one wonders what made these children so rotten. Part of it is likely to do with the love which is lacking in The White Ribbon. There's a lot of "tough love" here, but that isn't really a way to show love. The parents here don't want to care for their children, just to control them, and they subsidise their care with a variety of alternatives (a nanny, religious teachings, harsh discipline). In this uncaring, unloving world, it's as if showing love is a sign of weakness. When a child wants to heal an injured bird, even that kindness is rewarded only with a cold politeness. So when fear of God or parental discipline is the only thing stopping the evil, it takes very little for it to surface. Realising that adults are weak and use discipline just for control makes the children want to be defiant of their elders. The adults have created a world of problems and burning the world to restart society might not seem so bad. If someone punishes you, then you punish others. These children even have warped religious logic on their side, for if God doesn't stop them doing bad or dangerous things he mustn't disapprove of it. It's pretty obvious where the evil lies in The White Ribbon but no one speaks up about it. It becomes a vast conspiracy, as people refuse to believe in the evil of the youth, thus letting it grow. We don't want to believe in evil and so we try to force innocence upon them. If they're not evil, they must be pure. But is there anything more ineffectual than merely tying a white ribbon onto a girl destined to harm others?
Broader than just generational conflict, we see society in The White Ribbon as a failure. With religious power and harsh authoritarianism, we see a world so wrong that it cannot crush the rising evil. There are powers that control society, with class and religion being the chief oppressors, and the characters of the Baron and the Pastor hold a lot of influence in The White Ribbon. They create a bleak, dark, and depressing existence for the characters. Rules, manners, and authority are everywhere in this society and everything is so rigid and difficult to assess. There's a lot of apathy towards the crimes committed, creating a cruel world filled with dark secrets. The religion shown is unable to fix evil, only allowing it to be re-directed. To enforce righteousness punitive measures are taken because people don't show strength, they just blame others for their failures. Even sex is repressed and so what sex is shown in The White Ribbon manifests in unhealthy habits and desires. There is only one happy or pure subplot in the film - the romance between the teacher and the nanny - but everything else is a microcosm of an insular, evil world. Perhaps such darkness was forever destined to consume man. The White Ribbon is like an invisible wire, cutting through the lies of the world and showing us the evil within us all. Perhaps society as a whole is responsible for this evil, and so everyone is to blame but no individual is at fault.
As some people who've read my reviews for a while might know, I'm a bit of a history geek (especially for European history in the first half of the 20th century), so the historical context of The White Ribbon is not lost on me. This is unequivocally a film about Nazism. Almost all German history from 1900 - 1980 is defined by Nazism. The era before 1933 is defined by the reasons that the Nazis gained power, and the decades after 1945 are defined by the way Germany had to reconcile what it had done. You can't blame anyone but the Nazis themselves for their decision to adopt that ideology, yet it is very important to remember where those people came from. The children in The White Ribbon would grow up to become the Nazi generation and the film presents us an interesting thesis that authoritarianism and religious rigidity created a world where Nazism could grow. Nazism had to come from somewhere and there had to be a reason this culture was more favourable to authoritarianism. The child characters in The White Ribbon don't come from a world of war, but as the film ends on the eve of World War One, they will soon learn of it. They will learn that authority can fail them, as they will see during World War One and the subsequent disarmament and later hyperinflation. They will blame democracy for these losses and instead adopt Nazism, perhaps having nostalgia for the stricter days just before the war. Back then the culture was authoritarian, with power in the hands of very few, and the children's evil was ignored and their lives were stable. The White Ribbon is about rural life and we can't forget that the Nazis were popular in rural areas. The White Ribbon traces the rot at the centre of German society to long before the Nazis gained power. It is a film with a rich sense of history that captures a moment of stillness just before the most important event of the last 200 years: the First World War. That war set in motion so much, it finally showed us what modern warfare looked like, it led to another World War, it led to the first Marxist-Leninist state, it began the decline of the traditional colonial powers, and it brought the USA closer to the front of global politics. It also, as The White Ribbon implies, brought us the most evil regime in history: the Nazis.
The White Ribbon is a truly dark movie, with nastiness bubbling just below its surface. It's an enigmatic mystery that has no answers, just like the question it poses of why people would grow up to become Nazis. It's a scathing deconstruction of society and an important historical lesson on the ways evil can grow. Very close to being a five star movie, The White Ribbon is an important and contemplative masterpiece.
