Kracauer's central thesis and Desire for Authoritarian Leader

Kracauer’s central thesis

The point that deals with authorities in time of crisis was a deceiving part of the movie. We saw in the movie how the Police handled the problem and how the town was terrorized by the serial killer. People were not free to go out at that time because the Police would not let them do it. For instance a person that did not have a proper identification was sent to a precinct to be checked. It was possible because in 1930 Germans government was able to use the “emergency powers” which allowed the State to break civil rights laws. This promoted the dictatorial powers later on. However, it was chaos because the repercussion of the police on the population forced the beggars to react because the social crisis affected their business. At certain point the audience gets confused because you do not know if the beggars were more efficient than the beggars.  

Desire for Authoritarian Leader

Based on the three films we have watched I strongly believe that there was a need of authoritarianism because citizens were not happy when the police was searching houses and business places without warning. For instance there was a kind of a protest when the police arrived to one the bars at night and people found themselves stranded. Moreover, a woman was cursing at the police and other people were making fun of the chief of the police. Bottom line was that the population was exhausted from the oppression. At this point we can deduct that the desire for an authoritarian leader was welcome. In addition the Nazis who are criminals themselves will do anything in order to catch the killer. They argued that this was the only way for them to get the police off their back. Having criminals stage a trial in the movie confirmed that the people needed a kind of authority because beggars wanted to end the killer’s life right away, which is not the proper way to have justice. Even though the assassin himself told the beggars that he is a deranged person and he could not help it. Therefore, he asked to be transferred to the right authorities in order to get the help that he needed. Even a mentally ill person realized that the beggars did not an authority to put him on trial. In the other movies we the audience realizes that there were murders but authorities were more or less active to the crime.