In 1988, we had "War and Remembrance," which gave us a graphic and multi-faceted tale of the Nazi's genocidal program. In 1993, we had Schindler's list, which gave us a less panoramic but equally explicit display of what went on in the death camps.
"Holocaust" was shown in 1978, preceding the others, and is the least careful about the material. It's budget must have been small because there are no epic scenes of the nightmarish conditions and events. It looks like the TV movie it was, even the credits.
The performances are mostly fine. Michael Moriarty could hardly be better as the baby-faced, imaginative SS officer. Tovah Feldshuh is perfect as the pretty but tough Czech resistance fighter, and Sam Wanamaker with his gray hair and rugged features does a good job as the pharmacist who finally realizes what's going on. Sam Bottoms disappoints. He looks hardy enough but isn't much of an actor. I've seen better on the stage of a community college in St. George, Utah. Meryl Streep doesn't really have much to do but she certainly looks the very Aryan part, and she's sexy too.
The writing doesn't do Moriarty any favors. Unemployed, the non-political lawyer applies for a job with the SS and gets it. Next time we see him, he's fully committed to his awful task. It takes him about ten second of screen time to convert from human to beast. He does away with himself at the end, but I don't know why, and neither will you. Some of the film was shot in the spring and summer, which is a relief because, judging from most other depictions of the events, everything seemed to take place under gloomy skies and in muddy fields with patches of snow.
If there's a message, it's that absolutely nobody -- not Nazis, not anti-Nazis, not nationalist partisans, not Christians, not foreigners -- has any interest in the plight of the Jews who are being systematically swept up and exterminated. Their only recourse is to stick together, fight before they die, and hope to reach Palestine some day.
The people who put stories like this together have to be careful because they are dealing with one of the more horrible events in recent history and the narrative is extremely emotional, especially to Jews and others who lost family members in Europe. It's rather like the crucifixion is to Christians. The very subject deserves delicate treatment. "Holocaust" reads more like a primer, full of stereotypes.
Yet I'm glad it was made. People forget rather easily. And they seem to forget most quickly those things that make them uncomfortable to think about. Moreover, an astonishing number of younger people don't know what happened before and during the war. A survey of high school students about five years ago showed that many of them didn't know who fought against whom. A survey by the Chicago Tribute revealed that almost 25% of 17-year-olds couldn't identify Adolf Hitler. In 2010, a survey showed that one in five Americans didn't know which country the United States had won its independence from. Collectively, we don't seem to show much curiosity about anything that doesn't directly affect our body sheaths.
If this was an artistic disappointment, it was a valuable history lesson. It took another ten years for "War and Remembrance" to bring us another, more polished, reminder, and five years more for "Schindler's List." For elderly Jews, history may be a nightmare from which they are trying to awake, to quote another derided ethnic, but for the satisfied kids skateboarding on the quiet residential street of No Problem Drive, and playing video games and watching "World's Wildest Police", it's all becoming as remote as Nova Zembla.
"Why should I have to know anything about what happened so long ago, and why do I have to memorize the names of all fourteen planets?" Well, I suppose it's because if your mind finally becomes a complete blank, you'll all follow World War II down the memory hole.
"Holocaust" was shown in 1978, preceding the others, and is the least careful about the material. It's budget must have been small because there are no epic scenes of the nightmarish conditions and events. It looks like the TV movie it was, even the credits.
The performances are mostly fine. Michael Moriarty could hardly be better as the baby-faced, imaginative SS officer. Tovah Feldshuh is perfect as the pretty but tough Czech resistance fighter, and Sam Wanamaker with his gray hair and rugged features does a good job as the pharmacist who finally realizes what's going on. Sam Bottoms disappoints. He looks hardy enough but isn't much of an actor. I've seen better on the stage of a community college in St. George, Utah. Meryl Streep doesn't really have much to do but she certainly looks the very Aryan part, and she's sexy too.
The writing doesn't do Moriarty any favors. Unemployed, the non-political lawyer applies for a job with the SS and gets it. Next time we see him, he's fully committed to his awful task. It takes him about ten second of screen time to convert from human to beast. He does away with himself at the end, but I don't know why, and neither will you. Some of the film was shot in the spring and summer, which is a relief because, judging from most other depictions of the events, everything seemed to take place under gloomy skies and in muddy fields with patches of snow.
If there's a message, it's that absolutely nobody -- not Nazis, not anti-Nazis, not nationalist partisans, not Christians, not foreigners -- has any interest in the plight of the Jews who are being systematically swept up and exterminated. Their only recourse is to stick together, fight before they die, and hope to reach Palestine some day.
The people who put stories like this together have to be careful because they are dealing with one of the more horrible events in recent history and the narrative is extremely emotional, especially to Jews and others who lost family members in Europe. It's rather like the crucifixion is to Christians. The very subject deserves delicate treatment. "Holocaust" reads more like a primer, full of stereotypes.
Yet I'm glad it was made. People forget rather easily. And they seem to forget most quickly those things that make them uncomfortable to think about. Moreover, an astonishing number of younger people don't know what happened before and during the war. A survey of high school students about five years ago showed that many of them didn't know who fought against whom. A survey by the Chicago Tribute revealed that almost 25% of 17-year-olds couldn't identify Adolf Hitler. In 2010, a survey showed that one in five Americans didn't know which country the United States had won its independence from. Collectively, we don't seem to show much curiosity about anything that doesn't directly affect our body sheaths.
If this was an artistic disappointment, it was a valuable history lesson. It took another ten years for "War and Remembrance" to bring us another, more polished, reminder, and five years more for "Schindler's List." For elderly Jews, history may be a nightmare from which they are trying to awake, to quote another derided ethnic, but for the satisfied kids skateboarding on the quiet residential street of No Problem Drive, and playing video games and watching "World's Wildest Police", it's all becoming as remote as Nova Zembla.
"Why should I have to know anything about what happened so long ago, and why do I have to memorize the names of all fourteen planets?" Well, I suppose it's because if your mind finally becomes a complete blank, you'll all follow World War II down the memory hole.