I showed my Comparative Systems students a couple movies at the end of the term this year, Good-Bye Lenin! and The Barbarian Invasions. On the final exam I asked the following question,

In both Good Bye, Lenin! and The Barbarian Invasions, the sons must deal with the difficult situation of a dying parent. In Good Bye, Lenin! the son tries to comfort his mother by recreating the East German socialism that she so loved. In The Barbarian Invasions, the son ends up doing battle with a number of quasi-socialist economic/political institutions (socialized medicine, unions, drug prohibition, etc.) to make his father’s last days more peaceful. Compare and contrast these different views on the socialist society.

One of my students (Jayme Lemke) wrote a particularly nice answer and I copy it (with permission) below the fold.

Good Bye, Lenin! is an idealistic film viewing the days of East German socialism as a time of prosperity and happiness. For the mother, socialism is very much a way of life that motivates and gives meaning to her existence; as such it has become a system she depends upon. Even though she spends much of her time writing letters to petition the government to improve their occasionally ridiculous production decisions, she always signs the letters with Social greetings and seems happy to do so. Her emotional attachment to the East German government is so strong that when she is dying her son is afraid to take away her Socialist ideals, fearing that by doing so he would take away her will to live. Therefore, when the Berlin Wall is torn down he ends up spending a great deal of his time creating a fake world for his mother in which Coca-Cola advertisements and refugees from the West arrive only by the design of the state. In addition to this rosy perspective of socialism, the film also seems to be pointing out the negative aspects of capitalism. For example, the sister’s employment at Burger King is ridiculed by her brother, who sees having to work such a job as a demeaning capitalist byproduct. The implication here is that such silly jobs do not exist in a heavily socialist state where work is more equitably distributed. The interesting thing about this film is that even though the economy begins to flourish after a brief decline, many of the older generation still long for the days of socialism as representative of their youthful idealism. This effect, no doubt resulting at least in part from a heavy indoctrination against capitalism, is a testament to a generation’s deep faith in socialism. Barbarian Invasions approaches socialism from an entirely less optimistic point of view. In this film, even the less extreme Canadian form of socialism makes it difficult for the son to take care of this father. The government is a restrictive force requiring the son to resort to extralegal measures such as the illegal purchase of drugs and bribing of union workers. In Lenin, socialism opens opportunities for Germany as personified in the work of the mother, but in Barbarian socialism actively restrains the son’s efforts. Another difference between the two films is that in contrast to Lenin which seems to highlight the flaws in capitalism, Barbarian ostensibly does the opposite. The bribery of the union workers takes a jab at the common misconception of socialism as some sort of moral higher ground where the people care more about each other than they do in a capitalist society. The fact that these union workers can be bought and do not want to help the father for any reason other than monetary gain is a strong refutation of this argument. The union workers in the hospital even make a common practice of stealing from the patients; clearly, this vision of socialism is far from ideal. In spite of the contradictory themes between these two films, they do draw a few similar conclusions. For example, in both Lenin and Barbarian, loyalty without reason is recognized to a certain degree. In Lenin, this kind of faith is transparent in the beliefs of the mother and many of her friends. Similarly, as the old man in Barbarian is dying, his friends gather around to discuss the good things about life, including their previous conviction in the value of centrally run government. However, this discussion is more of a humorously nostalgic moment in which the “old folks” are poking fun at the number of bandwagons they so readily joined in contrast to the strong convictions expressed in Lenin. Another common theme between these two disparate socialist explorations is the ease with which people can be bought. In addition to the previous example of the union workers, the sons in both films are able to hire their parents’ previous students to come in and cheer them up. In this sense the two stories both acknowledge wages or monetary reward as incentives, and in these cases this particular incentive has good results as both of the parents are very glad to see their former students. Good Bye, Lenin! and Barbarian Invasions are both used as vehicles to make statements regarding socialism, with the primary difference being the level of idealism with which the subject is approached. The contrasting themes of these films are highlighted by the similar plot elements, resulting in two stories of unique and varying perspectives on socialism.