Valkyrie and Hitler relating to Walter Benjamin

Painting v. Video

Walter Benjamin once said "The characteristics of the film lie not only in the manner in which man presents himself to mechanical equipment but also in the manner in which, by mean oh his apparatus, man can represent his environment." In the movie Valkyrie Tom Cruise uses his environment and other resources to plot a plan to annihilate Hitler and his plans. Tom Cruise uses people, communication devices (phones and etc.), natural resources to create a bomb; he uses this to destroy Hitler and let the world know that Hitler has been killed. In the film when there are important shots by the camera; for example, when Tom Cruise is making a bomb the camera zooms in and there is some dramatic sound.

Benjamin also mentioned that "Magician and surgeon compare to painter and cameraman." When I first read this statement, I did not understand it. As I read on, I see how Benjamin was comparing the cameraman with the surgeon and painter with the magician. He said that "the painter maintains in his work a natural distance from reality, the cameraman penetrates deeply into its web." In the picture of Adolf Hitler the painter could only put so much detail and he could also put things that did not exist in real life. On the other hand, the film Valkyrie the producer could only put things that existed in real life without editing the film.

In Chapter 12 of Benjamin's work he said that "The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public." I think that in the picture of Adolf Hitler if there were people and his soldiers some people might change their views; for example, they might see that some people smiling and like the Hitler's idea. If you talked about Adolf Hitler and showed a person this picture, they will most likely not change their view because Hitler looks like an arrogant man.

This is the relation between painting and film. With a film you can make lots of things possible, as Benjamin said "the camera introduces us to unconscious optics as does psychoanalysis to unconscious impulses." You can easily edit and make things possible by the use of technology and films today. For a piece of painting if you messed up you would have to start over again.