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M: social issues
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Beckert's defense counsel is given a raised position above the crowd and is shot from a level position.
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The insanity plea. There was controversy in Germany over "Paragraph 51," which allowed for dealing with the criminally insane in asylums rather than jails. The serial killer Fritz Haarman committed additional murders after being released under Paragraph 51--a fact alluded to in the trial scene.
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| The dissenting opinion to Paragraph 51. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The law rescues Beckert from mob retribution. This is the last shot of Beckert in the film; significantly, we never are given his ultimate fate. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The only appearance in M of the judicial system, formal and distant. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The film offers no solution, other than the need to "keep closer watch over the children--all of us." | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| the opening sequence experimentation with film sound point of view and identification mirrors and shadows the official world and the underworld the surveillance society street scenes |
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