Janowitz and Mayer’s original version.The original story, by Janowitz and Mayer, tell the story of certain murders that happen in a fictitious town called Holstenwall. It ends with Caligari being strapped into a strait jacket. “Janowitz and Carl Mayer half intentionally stigmatized the omnipotence of a state authority. Manifesting itself in universal conscription and declarations of war” (Kracauer, 349). Kracauer states that Janowitz and Mayer feel that the German war government fit the prototype of that authority. Their character, Caligari, worships power and wants to satisfy his desire for domination. So Caligari stands for an unlimited authority. Cesare functions as a tool for Caligari’s murders. “Janowitz, they had created Cesare with the dim design of portraying the common man who, under the pressure of compulsory military service, is drilled to kill and to be killed” (Kracauer, 349). The original version of the story is about real horrors. The version by Weine changes the story into a created illusion by a mentally insane Francis. The body of the original story is put into a framing story. Francis is introduced in the beginning of the film talking to a man. Francis tells his story to that man, the story of his experience with Dr. Caligari. The film goes into the telling of the tale as Francis sees it. At the end of the film, instead of just seeing Caligari put into a strait jacket, Francis is seen finishing his narration of his experience and entering an asylum. In the asylum he encounters some other patients among them is Cesare. He also encounters a doctor who he believes is Dr. Caligari. The doctor learns of this so he now has a way to cure his patient, Francis. The two authors hate the idea of their story being framed because it corrupts their intentions. “While the original story exposed the madness inherent in authority, Wiene’s Caligari glorified authority...
