Stellar Soundtracks: Jojo Rabbit

Director Taika Waititi’s 2019 satire of Nazi Germany, Jojo Rabbit, is a bit of an irreverent take that’s funny, smart, and poignant, but admittedly probably not for everybody — although you should give it a shot anyway. Like any movie, part of what makes it is its soundtrack, and Jojo has two standout sequences in particular.

The first is the opening credits. After an opening sequence in which an imaginary-friend version of Hitler, played by Waititi himself, encourages young Hitler Youth Jojo to get just the right tone for his, “Heil, Hitler!” salute, The Beatles’ “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand” — or “I Want to Hold Your Hand” sung in German — begins as footage from Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will plays, in particular shots of excited, cheering crowds. The result is all at once funny, brilliant, and haunting. While on the outset, the upbeat, innocent Beatles love song is a stark contrast to the horror of Hitler and the Nazis, it also brings to mind the fanaticism people had for both the band and the dictator. The comparison is intentional, of course, as it was something Waititi noticed.

“It struck me, the similarities between the crowd at Hitler’s rallies and the frenzy at Beatles concerts,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.

Securing the rights to a Beatles song, and for a Nazi satire, no less, is no easy task, but composer Michael Giacchino used his previous work with Beatle Paul McCartney as an in. “Once his people saw the film and understood, they made it happen,” he said.

But perhaps a more poignant and emotional moment comes at the end of the film.

Over the course of the movie, Jojo discovers that his mother is hiding a young Jewish woman in their home, and interacting with her challenges the opinions the Nazi regime has planted in his head. In the end, of course, Germany loses the war, and while Jojo lies about this at first, he takes her outside to streets that are now safe for her to walk in. As she stands and watches American troops drive by triumphantly, she begins to dance slowly while in the background, the beginning of David Bowie’s “Helden,” or the German version of “Heroes,” starts to play so softly you can barely hear it at first, before the familiar chords take over.

The scene is beautiful, illustrating the connection the two characters share — even if it took a while to get there — and while powerful in its own right, “Helden” makes it even more moving with its themes of two people being able to overcome anything. That theme is carried over just before the end credits roll with timeless lines from poet Rainer Maria Rilke.

Let everything happen to you
Beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final

The history and legacy of “Heroes” adds to the poignancy — it was inspired by two lovers embracing at the Berlin wall and was famously performed as part of a concert series at the wall in 1987, just before it ultimately came down.

The soundtrack to Jojo Rabbit also includes a lovely score from Giacchino and tracks from the likes of Mott the Hoople and Manfred Mann, but it’s “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand” and “Helden” that contribute to the film’s effectiveness and, in turn, its hopeful, anti-hate message.