Whity.1971.-rainer.werner.fassbinder-western-.7... |work| Info

Shot back-to-back with The American Soldier and Beware of a Holy Whore , Whity bears the marks of Fassbinder’s manic phase. The budget was laughably small. The actors (many from his Munich "Anti-Theater" troupe) were sleep-deprived and often high. Critics at the time mocked the film’s dubbing (most actors spoke German or English, later looped poorly) and its theatrical, stilted blocking.

(1971) is the seventh feature film by West German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder Whity.1971.-Rainer.Werner.Fassbinder-Western-.7...

Here is a concise, helpful guide to understanding this challenging, lesser-known film. Shot back-to-back with The American Soldier and Beware

Is Fassbinder exposing racism or exploiting it? The answer is deliberately ambiguous. Unlike an American liberal film (like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner ), Whity offers no white savior. The violence is not cathartic; it is sickening. When Whity finally shoots the family, the film does not cheer. Instead, Whity dresses in the dead father’s clothes, walks to a playground, and rocks back and forth silently. Freedom, Fassbinder argues, is not liberation from the master—it is becoming the master, which is a different kind of hell. Critics at the time mocked the film’s dubbing