Michael Haneke Quotes
And if there was one title that could be applied to all my films, it would be 'Civil War' - not civil war in the way we know it, but the daily war that goes on between us all.
Haneke, Michael. Interview by Serge Toubiana. Michael Haneke: Interviews, edited by Roy Grundmann, University Press of Mississippi, 2010, p. 45.
He was referring to Bosnia and other nations where civil war seems to break out over and over again—albeit much stimulated by outside forces.
This is an important quotation because it helps to dispel a myth that the Civil War was not about slavery. That was the reason that the rebelling states gave for secession, but apologists for the Confederacy have claimed that the average soldier on both sides did not care about slavery. (Two thirds of the Southern Soldiers came from families that did not own slaves; nonetheless it was clear that the main motivation of the Confederate Soldier was to protect the institution of slavery, while that of the Union soldiers was to destroy slavery.) Professor Manning found this in her book: What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War.
More new technology was deployed in the Civil War than any other war in history and Moltke did not realize that the classic European military tactics were obsoleted. However, neither did most of the Southern Generals and many of the Union Generals. Lincoln, Grant and Sherman were the ones who developed strategies and tactics to function in the new world of warfare.
This quotation is important because it is one of the few judgments and predictions Lincoln made that turned out to be very wrong. Even into the 21st century there are Americans with bad feelings and hostility about the Civil War.
Some southerners had gotten out of the Confederate chain of command and were attacking civilian steamboats killing Southerners as well as “Yankees”. See {633900} . While Sherman had trouble with some of his own men on parts of his March Through Georgia, at this time, it was Southerners who were acting independently and improperly. Legally, the Confederates were responsible for any people committing terror. Sherman tried to persuade the Confederate commanders with letters like this, but was very quick to retaliate for every violation. He also complained to some Union officers that they were not moving quickly enough to retaliate and prevent future behavior--{584048}
The Confederates were very clear that slavery was the cause of the war. Revisionists later tried to add other motives to the Southern cause, but Grant and all the contemporaries on both sides knew slavery was the crux of the matter. So the Confederate cause was the right to brutalize, torture, and even kill an unwilling labor force that was unpaid. No war in history had ever been fought for such a lowly cause and the Confederate leadership skills were amazing in keeping up morale without a decent cause to fight for.
Michael Haneke is an Austrian film director and screenwriter. His work often examines social issues and depicts the feelings of estrangement experienced by individuals in modern society. Haneke has made films in French, German, and English and has worked in television‚ theatre, and cinema. He also teaches film direction at the Film Academy Vienna.
