The Grand Budapest Hotel continues to age like wine

It's funny, when I first saw the movie, I really enjoyed it, but in the 10+ yrs since its release, I feel that it's become even more important. I gotta hand it to Wes Anderson, even though it's a late Obama era film, it reaches back to the rising fascism of the 30's and 40's to feel more relevant than ever.

Obviously it's hardly a "perfect" piece of antifascist art. There's plenty of liberal self-soothing. However, I think there's three scenes that lock the fuck in to create a really lovely piece of work.

The first scene where they cross the border and Zero is about to be killed by a fascist death squad, and Edward Norton shows up to stop it. This is, in many ways, the "liberal" perspective - that fascists are just individuals who are part of a bad thing, and we can reform them individually. And the film does make it look like it "works" because Edward Norton's character is fundamentally also a liberal like M. Gustave. We are led to, briefly, believe that somehow liberalism can overcome fascism through "humanity" - whatever that is.
We then get the scene in the middle where Gustave berates Zero for being an "immigrant." This, I think, is really smart by Anderson. He shows a well-intentioned liberal so up his own ass he drops the mask of humanity. In a way, this upholds The Deserter thought - the mask has to slip to do the deed. We see the underlying potential for any subject of this world to become a fascist - even a "good" man like Gustave. The realization/regret here is also really great. Obviously this is because fundamentally Gustave still sees Zero as a human and thus can "hear" him when he replies, but needless to say, kudos to Anderson for really showing the underlying potential that anyone in a fascist regime, without proper consciousness, can become a fascist themselves.
The final scene on the train is sublime. I'll spoiler it in case you've never seen it.

spoiler

The change here is absolutely great. Obviously all the filmmaking -the black and white, etc. - pays off here in spades. The way that Gustave tries to use liberalism to save Zero again is touching, and his turn to his wealth/status as well - all of this futile in the face of a death machine - it's exceptionally powerful. His final "you filthy god damn pockmarked fascist assholes" before the cut and the final "in the end they shot him" is perhaps even more relevant at our current moment than it was when it was written/filmed. The fact that Gustave dies for his antifascist principles I think really emphasizes that no amount of institutional liberal power matters. And yet, that kind of action/sacrifice still matters and is something to be celebrated. It's touching, and I really cry every time it hits (even just pulling up the scene to get the quote right had me starting to feel things).

Obviously there's all the pleasures of a Wes Anderson film. It isn't the deepest well. But, especially since the world is so dark right now, a film that doesn't shy away from the darkness even as it gives us a pleasant illusion of "civilization" can be really enjoyable.

Watch it if you haven't! I'll be re-watching tonight.