A Theme Of Media Manipulation in The Film The Lost Honor

The 1975 film The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum tells the story of an ordinary girl living in Germany whose life changes drastically because she meets and spends the night with a bank robber and suspected terrorist. It is based on the novel written by Heinrich Böll. The film shows the role that the press played at this time in Germany and how the media manipulated and changed Katharina’s life greatly. The role of the media in marginalization of Katharina is prominent throughout the film.

It seems that the police interrogating Katharina work in connection with the journalists in the film to update the public on what is happening with Katharina and Ludwig Gotten, who is deemed very dangerous. Katharina never asked for any of this to happen and the media’s coverage about who she is and the events occurring make it very difficult for her to have a normal life.

One moment where the role of the media is shown is when the police officer rips Katharina’s hair out of her face, forcing her to show her face for pictures.

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The officer responds to this by saying “The duty of the press is to inform the public. ” Throughout the film, the lead journalist Totges constantly digs around to find information and quotes to use in this story to become more famous and established as a journalist. One example of this is him sneaking into Katharina’s mother’s hospital room, questioning her and when she is too sick to respond anything but “why” he twists her words and publishes another story.

Another journalist from “The Paper” questions Dr. Blorna, Katharina’s employer, while he is on vacation. He has only nice things to say about her but the journalist ends up taking his words “Anyone is capable of committing a crime” and placing this on Katharina to make her look guilty. The reporters in this film are mostly responsible for Katharina losing her mind and she feels like she needs to stop them at the end of the film. Her reputation was completely tarnished and she was receiving inappropriate mail and phone calls daily.

At the end she meets with the lead reporter Totges and shoots him as he tries to make a move on her. At the end of the movie at his funeral it is stated in the speech that this was “an attack on the freedom of the press. The freedom of the press is everything. ” By murdering him Katharina may have felt like she could punish the press for what they had written about her. The role of the media in the film is key and the way the journalists twist the truth is wrong and definitely deemed as illegal today. The role of the state and state officials in the marginalization of Katharina is also important to discuss. Though the state officials did not have evidence that Katharina knew Ludwig before the evening they met, they still invaded her home without permission, treated her like a criminal, and arrested her. She is interrogated and questioned throughout the film about her life and ends up feeling very uncomfortable. Katharina spends a short time in a jail cell because she does not want to continue answering questions.

When released to her home, she is constantly followed and watched and her phone is monitored for any contact with Ludwig. The state officials and police try to be thorough in their investigation but they treat Katharina very poorly when they have not given her a chance to explain her short relationship with Ludwig. The state officials end up finding Ludwig because he tried to contact Katharina and they tracked his location to the house Katharina gave him the key to. The state officials do not do anything to protect her from the hateful mail and phone calls she receives, instead they treat her like a criminal because she was involved with Ludwig. At times the role of the state and state officials was just them doing their job to solve the case and find Ludwig but their actions harmed Katharina immensely. As previously mentioned, the state and the media were very connected throughout the film and worked together to try to find the truth in this case and the location of Ludwig.