A nagy füzet (2013)

The Notebook begins as World War II is winding down. As an ally of Nazi Germany and part of the Axis Powers Hungary is on the losing end. The movie focuses on two young twin boys (András and László Gyémánt), whose names we never learn. They are 12 when the movie begins in the summer of 1944 and 13 when the movie ends in the summer of 1945.

To ensure their safety their parents (Gyöngyvér Bognár and Ulrich Matthes) place them in the care of the woman's mother, who lives in the countryside running a small farm. The problem is the grandmother (Piroska Molnár) has not seen her daughter in 20 years and clearly has a very low opinion of her. At the end of the movie she is surprised her daughter (after dying in a shell explosion) even had a husband. She is a mean old woman who's rumored to have poisoned her husband and the movie supports this conjecture. The villagers call her "the Witch." At the beginning of the movie the boys hate her because she keeps calling them bastards and is very mean to them. It's clear her grudge against her daughter is carried over to her grandsons to whom she shows no love nor warmth.

The boys transform from normal children into two human beings who have hardened themselves both physically and psychologically to deal with the rapidly deteriorating situation in Hungary. They nonchalantly watch both their mother and baby sister get blown to bits (largely their fault) and they cunningly watch their father die crossing a minefield (entirely their fault). No remorse is shown. At the end of the movie they go their separate ways, from being inseparable twins to purposely separating themselves.

To say the boys morph into monsters is not quite accurate. By the end they bear a grudging respect for their grandmother and assist her in dying after she's had a second stroke. They avenge an old Jewish man who's shown kindness to them by blowing the face off a pretty maid who turned him in to the authorities. So it's difficult to say that they've gone all the way from innocent boys to out-and-out psychopaths.

The movie makes it clear the boys' transformation stems from the barbarous and irrational ordeal they are forced to endure from other people and from the War itself. They have had to survive the fall of Hungary. The German Army has pulled out as represented by the Waffen SS German Officer who departs abruptly and who's shown a homosexual interest in them. The Hungarian Army has fallen into tatters as represented by the Hungarian soldier the boys stumble upon frozen and starved to death. And the Soviet Army is rolling into Hungary raping any girl or woman they can get their hands on, like Hairlip (Orsolya Tóth). About the Soviets there's a caption that says: Welcome the liberators. They've come to take all you own. When a priest is surprised that the twins know their Ten Commandments, one of the boys comments: The Fifth Commandment says Thou Shalt Not Kill. But everyone kills.

The Notebook could have used a brief introductory prologue to familiarize the viewer in more depth with the political context. Example: By 1944 the Second World War was rapidly being lost by the Axis Powers and Hungary, as an ally of the Axis Powers represented chiefly by Nazi Germany, was on the losing side. Several times in 1944 the Hungarian dictator, Admiral Horthy, sought to negotiate a separate peace with the Allies to pull Hungary out of the war but was unsuccessful. Under the direct orders of Adolf Hitler, in the autumn of 1944 the German Army (Wehrmacht) and the Waffen SS took over full control of the conduct of the war in Hungary but by the winter of 1945 Budapest, the capital of Hungary, surrendered to the rapidly advancing Soviet forces and the government of Hungary collapsed in total defeat.

The Notebook is also a truly gripping and powerful movie, but definitely not for those who prefer to avoid the realities of life and who like nice, cheery, feel-good stories. Also not for those who like blow-'em-ups/shoot-'em-ups. Many of the scenes are very brutal and very intense. This movie will make you ponder in depth the inhumanity and abject cruelty some humans do to other humans. And it's still going on out there in spades in many parts of the world. The twin boys in The Notebook were not adults. The horrors of war twisted their minds forever. I hope this movie will make us think more deeply about the effect war can have on people―physically, psychologically, and emotionally―and how war can be stopped.

The acting was well done and convincing and the cinematography contributed to the feel of Hungary at that time. This movie deserves to be watched.

I'll end my review by saying what I said as a wrap-up in 12 Years A Slave. It's not for everyone.

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