Prisoners Bathroom Scene Explained
One of the most talked about moments in the 2023 movie Lee happens in a bathroom that once belonged to Adolf Hitler. This scene shows photographer Lee Miller taking a bath there on April 30, 1945, right after World War II ended in Europe. Lee Miller, a real-life war photographer, and her friend David Scherman had been traveling for weeks without a proper wash. They reached Hitler’s apartment in Munich, which the US army had already taken overhttps://www.myfrenchlife.org/p/lee-miller-an-extraordinary-life. The bathroom had hot water running, so they decided to clean up.
Lee saw a chance to make a powerful photo. She got into the tub and had David snap pictures of her. The image shows her looking calm in the fancy bathtub, with her dirty combat boots placed on Hitler’s bathmat. A photo of Hitler sits on the edge of the tub, and a nude sculpture appears in the background. Lee had wiped mud from Dachau concentration camp onto the mat with her boots before this. The setup was all planned by Lee to send a message. The boots stand for the war’s horrors, the Hitler picture hints at his fall, and the sculpture mocks Nazi ideas of perfectionhttps://www.myfrenchlife.org/p/lee-miller-an-extraordinary-life.
Years later, in 1977, an interviewer asked Lee if the photo was a spur-of-the-moment idea. She said no, because she already knew Hitler and Eva Braun were dead in Berlin. The scene captures Lee’s bold way of mixing her personal relief with a jab at the enemy she fought through her camera. In the film, this moment ties into her hard frontline work, like driving through the night with drinks and pills to stay sharphttps://www.myfrenchlife.org/p/lee-miller-an-extraordinary-life.
The real photo became famous and shocked people at the time. It showed how Lee turned a tyrant’s private space into a symbol of victory and defiance.
Sources
https://www.myfrenchlife.org/p/lee-miller-an-extraordinary-life
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Hard
https://hollywoodauthentic.com/category/cover-story/
https://lawndaleartcenter.org/exhibition/7-days-in-december/
https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/jammechanicspodcast/episodes/Jam-Mechanics-Launch-Preview-e2aroba
https://www.navymwrnavalstationnorfolk.com/modules/media/?do=inline&id=f2e0147e-201e-470a-9982-2f0051dd350d
