Fascinatingly enough, Der Kaiser von Kalifornien can be seen as a completely different film with each different perspective. Each scene and image of the film stands for something different in one perspective, and possibly stands for nothing significant at all in another. For example, as a Nazi film, the political dynamics are undoubtedly at the forefront of the movie's plot and set-up. The environment of the West then becomes merely a medium that is used to support the delivery of the political messages throughout the work, particularly as a place to where Sutter flees from the political troubles towards the beginning. As a Luis Trenker film, we see the distinct, recurring theme from several of his other cinematic creations of idealization in relationship to one's homeland, as well as the dynamics or comparisons between city life in modern civilization and life out in rugged nature. However, city life may have much less significance in the film when it is viewed as a Western. The open West is simply more prominent as a characteristic environment in such films, and Sutter's start and end in the cities are only bookends to the volumes of a greater story that happened out in the West.
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