So Glad I Don't Have To See: The White Ribbon

'I THOUGHT THIS HAD TO DO WITH THE HOLOCAUST!' — a disgruntled elderly woman, watching Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema

144 minutes of crucifixes, molestation, beatings, maimings and sinister blonde children in a German village circa 1914. The whole idea, as far as I can tell, is that the stench of the holocaust is so sulpherous as to overshadow not just subsequent generations of Germans, but previous generations of Germans, as well. There's no escape! All Germans within a 100-year radius must be held to account! I just don't get why high-brow filmmakers get off on guilt to the degree that they do. It's the sina qua non of the stricken intellectual — the surest badge of one's moral seriousness. It's not. Its just morbid and boring.