#finkel

Captain K is a man that desires to be recognized as a hero but doesn’t have a way to earn it.  He is stuck at home station and can’t be in the frontlines of war.  He is stuck monitoring the town and strumming up support for Nazi Germany.  He sees this as a waste and expresses his frustration about this.  The thing is Captain K isn’t being true to himself and that is hinted throughout the film with his interactions with Finkel.

Finnkel is Captain K’s subordinate and is hinted throughout the whole movie to be his lover.   You can see just how close they were to each other in the film.  Captain K and Finnkel never come out of the closet in the film because it does not make sense for two gay men to come out in Nazi Germany.  From the seat of the viewer you are put into the notion that you are a civilian during this time and you can’t really be trusted.  This is a great move on Taika’s part. 

As we see more of Captain K we see that he is loosen up and enjoying his time at homestation with Finkel.  This is important because during the first part of the movie you think that Captain K is the main villain as Scarlet Johansson’s Rosie is a spy.  We get the sense that she is operating underneath Captain K nose but in reality he knew Rosie is a spy.  

This is never really confirmed in the movie either because an acknowledgement of her being a spy would lead to his death and his team’s death. Captain K sees Rosie as this all accepting person and knows that Rosie would accept him and Finkel for who they are.  However he can’t always protect Rosie.  The secret police has come rolling in looking for all those that oppose them and all that are different.  They start destroying the characters lives and are investigating Rosie’s son, Jojo closely. They go into JoJo’s house looking for Elsa, the jewish girl that is hiding out there.  Magically Captain K also shows up during this time to help look.

The above shot perfectly shows how stifling this group is and how powerful they are.  JoJo is panicked and doesn’t know how to protect Elsa. Elsa fakes being JoJo’s dead sister and Captain K orders her to hand over her papers.  During this time Elsa gets the information wrong and Captain K says she is correct.  However this isn’t confirmed until after the Nazi’s leave.  

This is a mind blowing part because if you think about it Captain K most likely knew the whole time about Elsa.  He knows Rosie well and knows about the loss of their eldest daughter.  He went out of his way to protect JoJo and Elsa from the death.  Captain K starts embracing the one thing he always wanted and that is to be a hero.  He protects those that are different like him.

Later the War storms through town and Captain K joins the fight.  They end up losing and the allied forces are rounding up the remainder of the Nazi’s to execute them.  JoJo gets captured and finds Captain K.

Captain K finally gets to do the one thing he always wants and that is die as a hero.  He knows what he must do and that is protect JoJo they have a final goodbye before he screams get this Jewish kid away from me.  This is saving JoJo and JoJo is no longer seen as part of the Nazi army.  JoJo is walking and way and hears the gunfire that ends Captain K.  

Thank you for reading this far.  I hope you enjoyed me nerding out over Captain K.  Let me know if you liked it and hopefully you will get to enjoy this masterpiece of a movie and my love for Captain K.