Culture Blues

The Instant Movie Club: Flame and Citron

Every week, your friends at Culture Blues get together to watch a movie from their Netflix Instant queue. Then, they sit down over Molotov cocktails to discuss what they’ve just been through. This is The Instant Movie Club.

This week we'll be discussing Ole Christian Madsen's 2008 film Flame and Citron. If you haven't seen it yet, you'll probably want to turn back now. The below discussion contains heavy spoilers!

Next week: Frozen River - a 2008 film about drug smuggling Native Americans that got Melissa Leo nominated for an Academy Award (which Jeff predicted, suck it).

SPOILERS (and shootings) BELOW!

Jeff Hart: LET'S! KILL! SOME! NAZIS!

Sorry, but I'm still pretty hyped up from Flame and Citron. Danish director Ole Christian Madsen's 2008 action drama focuses on the titular characters, Flame (Thure Lindhardt) and Citron (Mads Mikkelsen, the bad guy from Casino Royale), a pair of Danish freedom fighters/assassins/murderers/heroes as they kill both Germans and defectors alike in occupied Denmark. There's a lot going on here - masterful performances, beautiful cinematography, complicated moral themes - and while I'm sure that we'll get to all of that, right now I just want to talk about how badass Flame and Citron are.

Really, really fucking badass.

These dudes (who, by the way, look awesome, like nazi hunters pulled from a Vertigo comic) are pretty much killings nazis and doing other crazy shit from the opening scene. I'm not sure ten minutes of this movie went by without me chuckling in appreciation for some badass thing Flame or Citron just did. Yes, I laugh when nazis get shot in the face. I'm desensitized.

High points? How about Citron smashing his beer bottle in the middle of a tense meeting? ("I'm sorry, that was a mistake. And in five minutes, when I shoot you, that will be an accident.") How about Flame's cat-and-mouse game with the head of the Gestapo? How about Citron's last stand (in his pajamas!) against pretty much an entire battalion of nazis? I could go on.

Don't get me wrong, Flame and Citron isn't some mindless action movie. It probes emotional depths that comparable films like Inglorious Basterds don't even begin to scratch. All the thrills are for naught without the taut performances of Lindhardt and Mikkelsen. They're excellent and lend a consistent emotional gravity to the film's many, many shootings.

Let me close with this: Flame and Citron is easily the best WW2 flick to come out since Black Book, and probably surpasses that. It may in fact be one of the best WW2 movies ever made.

Certified badass.

Jeremiah White:  I loved Flame & Citron, and I could easily gush about my love for the two main characters but Jeff did a pretty good job of that, so I'd like to talk a bit about the "emotional gravity" he mentioned.

It's a common action movie ploy for the protagonist(s) to at some point realize that they're being used, that they've been duped by their superiors. It generally sets up the movie, or is used as a late twist that reveals the "true enemy" to our hero. But this development has never evoked a genuine emotional response from me like it did in Flame & Citron.

I felt bad for these two characters. It’s established very early that these men are not hardened killers. That they have boiled their own lives down to what they consider the good fight, and that it’s taking a pretty serious toll on them as well as those close to them. When it’s revealed that they’ve been taking orders from someone with a hidden agenda and that they may have been killing people who were not at all what they’d been told, I felt like I’d personally been duped (even though Winther seemed a bit slimy the whole time).

From then on I feel like the movie focuses on the confusion created by war. Flame and Citron quickly accept that they are no longer going to trust anyone, that they will no longer take orders. They will choose their own course of action despite the wishes and protests of others. They know that they are in over their heads and overpowered as soon as they start down this path, but they are too intent on doing something to stop.

Black Book was called to mind as soon as I read a description of Flame & Citron, and the films certainly have a lot in common. The most fundamental difference to me is that I felt a sense of satisfaction after watching Black Book. I felt like justice had been done. At the end of Flame & Citron, on the other hand, I felt the opposite, and I wondered if justice is even possible in war. I’m not sure which is better (I loved them both), but I think Flame & Citron is more cynical, depressing, and, ultimately, honest.

Get him!

Jason Arican: I don't like coming out of a movie confused, and I certainly don't like admitting it. Don't get me wrong, I liked Flame & Citron for all the reasons that Jeff and Jeremiah already mentioned (I clapped and shouted "Let's go!!" as Citron loaded up for his last stand, an awesome moment). I just felt there were parts that were either not explained very well or, I guess, over my head.

Why didn't Flame kill Hoffman? This scene reminded me of the last scene in Hero (you HAD to know I was going to make that connection- it's actually legit though), except I was waiting for a big revelation or convincing philosophical reason as to why Hoffman's life should be spared... and it never came (or I missed it).

Were they actually running around killing innocent people? If so, how are they heroes?

How did Flame just walk away when they were supposed to be sent off to a concentration camp as members of the Corps?

As far as things I actually did understand, I have to say that I was fascinated by Citron's arc. He goes from someone who has never killed anyone (and in fact runs away like a little bitch after he shoots that woman in the shoulder), to a certified badass tossing grenades at Nazis. Rather than murder the man who is sleeping with his wife, he steps in like a boss and tells the guy that he better take care of his daughter. I thought this was an honest moment and a nice touch.

All in all, I did enjoy the movie... and in fact, feel like I should watch it again. I'm sure you guys have some insight to my questions, so I'm interested to hear what you think.

Their car runs on bullets.

Zach Falk: I can't comment on the Black Book comparison. I haven't seen it, though I'll be adding it to my queue. However, I didn't feel as ultimately depressed as Jeremiah did at the film's conclusion. I felt satisfied for Flame and Citron, as it seemed they had achieved what they set out to do: kill as many Nazis as possible before they got killed themselves. I didn't want them to make it, because they seemed destined to die for their cause, even though that cause got blurry along the way. (But I will say Flame's pill cop out was bullshit. You think he would've gone that route if he saw how Citron went down?)

Don't get me wrong, in real life, you want your fighters to live. But these two were meant to be heroes in death all along. Although they were at more of an emotional peace before they realized they were killing some innocents along the way, they still knew they were in over their head even when they felt part of a reliable chain of command. Flame's statement that there's nothing he can do in the war besides eliminate one Nazi at a time is certainly badass, but you have to think he knew he wasn't going to outlive the war. I mean the guy hesitates to make future plans aside from killing more enemies in Japan. Meanwhile, Citron doesn't argue when his wife comes to the eye-opening revelation that he's not a family man. He responds by doing what he does best, he intimidates the shit out of people. He robs a store to provide food for the family, and he makes his wife's lover shit his working man's pants with a directive to take good care of his daughter. Citron knows his demise is inevitable.

What the two protagonists didn't realize was inevitable was the confusion along the way. This movie effectively highlighted that emotionally wrenching aspect of war. When Citron tells Flame that there's no just or unjust anymore, there's just picking an enemy and going after him, I basically wanted to kill myself. When the war devolves into that approach for a soldier, uniformed or civilian, the suffering is unbearable. Madsen's drama really allows us to focus on that. Historical context is kept at a minimum. A fairly simple web of characters doesn't distract us from the main characters, and we, as viewers, are subject to the disappointments and distrust felt by a soul enmeshed in war. Okay, I take it back. Maybe I did feel kinda depressed at the end, and it was just the quality of the film that made me smile.

Next week: Frozen River