AMOUR

AMOUR is an Austrian drama in French. At first, it seems to make an anti-euthanasia argument, but it suddenly switches to a pro-euthanasia argument in favor of murdering people suffering from a terminal or debilitating illness.

This reminds MOVIEGUIDE® of the notorious movie I ACCUSE funded and promoted by Adolph Hitler and his evil National Socialist propaganda henchman Joseph Goebbels. As many regular MOVIEGUIDE® readers know, I ACCUSE led the way for Hitler and his demonic minions to create the gas chambers and other mass execution methods. Eventually, they murdered 5 to 6 million or more Jewish people, about 1.9 million gentiles in Poland, and more than 1.1 million Slavs. In all, Hitler’s fiends deliberately murdered 10-11 million civilians and prisoners of war, according to historian Timothy Snyder in his book BLOODLANDS.

The story in AMOUR focuses on two retired music teachers who are now in their 80s, Georges and Anne. When Anne suffers a debilitating stroke, Georges is left alone trying to minister to his wife. Georges lovingly and diligently takes care of Anne. When Anne gets worse, however, their marriage and their love are severely tested. Then, Anne starts refusing to eat. Georges gets so angry that he slaps her to force her to eat. One day, he suddenly smothers her to death with a pillow.

At first, AMOUR takes what seems to be an anti-euthanasia argument. This portion of the movie is very moving as we see how lovingly Georges takes care of his wife. Suddenly, however, the movie switches and argues that the truly loving thing for George to do is to actually murder his wife! This occurs after Georges tries to force-feed Anne, but Anne keeps rejecting the food because she wants to die. This scene ends with Georges slapping his wife and feeling ashamed. [Spoiler alert] It’s soon after this that Georges suddenly grabs a pillow and smothers his wife to death.

AMOUR’s pro-euthanasia theme is abhorrent and evil. Like the Nazi movie, it plays on people’s emotions to support its conclusion. AMOUR also contains some foul language, but it’s the movie’s humanist pro-euthanasia worldview that’s truly evil.

Sadly, AMOUR won a big prize at the Cannes Film Festival this past spring. It’s also been critically acclaimed by American film critics. With movies like this, it’s easy to see how evil men like Adolph Hitler and his henchmen came to power and caused so many people to lose their souls and millions of other people to lose their lives.