This was an essay I had to write for my history class, discussing the topic "For all its show of fun and careless self-indulgence, Cabaret confronts some dark and serious issues." It's about the movie, not the play, and may give away a few key moments in the film, so read at your own risk if you haven't yet seen the movie. (Also, any constructive criticism is *very* welcome).
Cabaret, an enchanting spectacle full of good times and playfulness, manages to do what most musicals do not – it mixes its entertaining numbers with the serious and disturbing issues that were significant during the time that the musical takes place – the decadent Berlin of 1931.
From the first scene we are lured in a cabaret, the Kit Kat Club by the MC. We are told to 'leave all your troubles outside' and that 'here, life is beautiful'. Indeed, things are tempting inside the club, and we are introduced to the dancers, orchestra and main protagonist of the film – the memorable Sally Bowles. Sally revels in her 'divine decadence', falls in love with Brian and Maximilian and tries to borrow the illusion of a delightful and thrilling world from the stage into her life. Things inside the Kit Kat club might be all fun and games, but out in the real world it is not so.
Even though life in the Kit Kat Club is inviting, outside the club Germany is recovering from the effects of the Great Depression. The beauty of this film is that it uses its songs to parallel the story line while we see it unravel before us. So songs like 'Money' with lyrics claiming 'Money makes the world go around' reflect what was going on economically in Germany at the time. Other songs, like 'Mein Leiber Herr' boast lyrics like 'Farewell mein lieber Herr / It was a fine affair / but now its over' which can be interpreted as a farewell to the Weimar Republic as it makes way for Nazi Germany. 'Maybe This Time' expresses the hope felt by the German people as they picked up the pieces of their broken society and set out to rebuild, with lyrics like 'Not a loser anymore / Like the last time / And the time before'.
Because the film is set in 1930s Berlin it also deals with the issue of Nazism, and namely its growing popularity at the time. Towards the start of the film the Nazis aren’t yet the dominant political party; a Nazi donation collector being thrown out of the Kit Kat Club demonstrates this. We are then exposed to Nazi brutality as the owner of the club is beaten to death. But the display of ruthless Nazi cruelty does not stop there. Brian is later beaten up for telling a group of brown shirts (i.e. Nazi party supporters) that their party is 'crap'. Finally, in the closing scene of the film, we are shown through a distorted mirror that the club is full of Nazis. This paints the picture of a society that has gradually allowed itself to be swallowed up by the party and their racist ideals.
Interestingly, Maximilian’s character and betrayal can be seen as a metaphor for the Nazis and their betrayal of the people of Germany. His blonde, blue-eyed Aryan appearance was the same as the stereotypical pureblooded German. He treats people as objects and disposes them at will — as he does with Sally and Brian — and after seducing and ‘corrupting’ them, he abandons them.
The disheartening Beer Garden scene furthers the issue of Nazism in the film. In this scene, a young blonde Aryan boy starts singing 'Tomorrow belongs to me' and is quickly joined by a large number of Germans in the beer garden. As the boy starts singing he seems innocent enough, but the camera descends and we are shown the swastika armband he wears — revealing he is a member of the Hitler Youth. With this image and lyrics like 'A morning will come when the world is mine / Tomorrow belongs to me', we come to realise this is innocent tune is actually a prophetic song about Nazi world domination. To add to the disturbing nature of this scene, an elderly man makes a point of not singing. We can assume that he is either Jewish or does not agree with the Nazis, and because of this, tomorrow does not belong to him.
Where there are Nazis, there is anti-Semitism, and that too is a dominant issue in the film. There are some subtle references to the feeling towards Jews at the time, like the dead body in the street which Sally walks past without a second thought, and the people making racist comments about Jews and the discussion of an ‘international Jewish conspiracy’ in the guesthouse.
There are some more obvious examples of the prevalent feeling towards Jews. Natalia, a Jewish heiress, finds her dog murdered and dumped at her gate, as well as the words ‘Juden’ scrawled as if a taunt. The relationship between Natalia and Fritz comes to a halt when Natalia tells Fritz she cannot marry him because she is a Jew, which leads to Fritz revealing he is a Jew as well, and he stops hiding it. This was a hard thing for Fritz to do considering the political climate in Berlin. Finally, one of the more nasty anti-Jewish moments in the film was when the MC was performing the gorilla song, 'If you could see her through my eyes'. During this the MC is dancing on stage with a Gorilla in a dress and sings what seems a pretty harmless song, until the lyrics at the end 'If you could see her through my eyes / She wouldn’t look Jewish at all'. That cruel final line expresses the general feeling amongst Nazi Germany, where the Jewish were seen by most as nothing more than animals.
In addition to the political issues Cabaret raises, it also brings up some serious social issues, too. Cross-dressing, bisexuality, homosexuality, promiscuity, decadence and abortion all emerge in the film, which was quite a thing for a movie made in 1972.
In conclusion, beneath all the good times and fun, there are serious points that the movie tries to make. When we watch the movie for its songful exterior, we see a dazzling musical mixed in with a few romances and heartbreaks. But really this is an illusion, a cover-up, for when we delve deeper into the story we are presented with numerous issues – the rise of Nazism in Germany, Anti-Semitism, promiscuity, decadence, identity – all which were prevalent issues in Nazi Germany at the time.