"Ha-Makah Hashmonim V'Echad" is an Israeli documentary from 1974, so this film has its 45th anniversary last year and maybe the 50th birthday has already happened as well depending on when you read my review. There are several people in charge here, but the one at the center of it the most is David Bergman and this was in fact his first filmmaking effort (according to imdb). Little is known about the man (is he still alive?) as well as this movie too be honest because looking at the number of votes it has here on imdb, it is definitely not a lot and you can almost call it a forgotten film, not a lost film though. I had the chance to watch this here in Berlin today at a theatre that belongs to the German Historic Museum. But how little people seem to care about this film today can be seen not only by the number of votes, but also by the running time stated here on imdb. The version I watched ran for almost two hours, 115 minutes in fact, so considerably longer than it says here on imdb, although it is of course possiblie that there are several versions in existence. Also another reason why most people have never heard about this film and probably never will is the language. or languages. You will need definitely subtitles unless you are from israel or very versatile when it comes to languages. By the way, there are also German parts in here and that language is also missing on imdb. But who knows, the room today at the theater was fairly full (with pandemic restrictions, empty seats and so on), so maybe more people will watch this film in the future. At least it will always be remembered as an Oscar nominee. It lost, however, to another war-themed film. Then again, the focus here is on the Holocaust and not on war, so there is not much of a parallel, only that both documentaries focus on times of war. And this one here is a black-and-white movie must be said as well because it probably is not a given for a film from the mid-1970s already. Just take "The Godfather 2" because these films came out at the very same time and the latter is of course in color, so now you know how old this documentary is. Bergman made two other documentaries on similar subjects about a decade later and these are listed as sequels here on imdb and I find that a bit questionable. The subjects may fot yes, but a lot of time is in-between and honestly, if a filmmaker makes several movies on similar issues, those are not automatically sequels. Oh well, not too important anyway and probably only Bergman (obviously not related to the Swedish directing legend) himself could answer this question.
There is a bit of a clean structure in here. The first half or slightly less than that depicts the offenders, probably more. We see random shots of the German population and, most of all, recordings of many high-profile German politicians (Heß, Göring, Goebbels and Hitler himself among others). We also find out how hatred against Jews constantly increases, step by step. Be it people with signs telling others not to buy from Jews, be it Hitler's speech about how he will eradicate all Jews when they dare to start a new world war (the irony!) or bei it Jews actually getting killed on many occasions later on, especially in the second half that focuses more on the victims then. You could say that the moment the perspective changed was perhaps when they elaborated on and depicted the ship voyage from Germany to Cuba. I am not sure what Cuba was like politically back then, but I would be surprised if it as anything other than far left what tehy are known for and still they did not allow the Jews to enter their country. One of the most memorable moments for me that, after this long travel, they were forced to return because even a country on an entirely different political spectrum than Nazi Germany would not want to have them. Another sequence that stayed in the mind for me was the woman telling us about how everybody close and dear to her got killed and murdered by the Nazis, including her own really young child. But she somehow survived and she asked what had she done wrong that they would not kill her. She just wanted to escape this misery. No will to live anymore. Well, we on the other hand should be glad that she lived and could share her memories with us. There is very little narration in here, no interviews or anything. Instead, we see scenes and recordings (the videos were more haunting than the photos for me) from back then and the tragedy linked with it all. We hear the reports from those who survived it all. They are talking. There is also a singer who narrates in a musical form about all the horror. This was especially haunting for me. I really liked the singer's voice. But there again you need subtitles to understand it all. And don't worry, it will still be as touching with subtitles if you don't understand the language. The emotion is not lost at all. Okay that is pretty much all i can say about this documentary. Maybe you can argue that there is not too much in here that you haven't seen in other documentaries, but keep in mind that the stuff you watched before was probably done much later than this documentary in fact. The one we have here was first. It is a collection of reports coming from Jewish people that survived the Holocaust. There are many sad moments, also moments that felt really absurd like the idea that there was this area only for Jews because apparently they all had diseases and they should not spread on the German people. Alrightey, finally a few words on the title. I am not sure if the translation is literal here from the original title, but the idea behind "The 81st Blow" is one that is very easy to remember ith the boy who was hitten so many times by the Nazi officer with the name that is easy to remember and still he survived it somehow and the 81st blow is the disbelief the victim of this beating encountered when he tole people this story. This is by the way also first depicted in writing and immediately afterwards at the very beginning of the film presented as a story by the singer I mentioned earlier. Overall, this one here is definitely very much on the underseen side, even if I would not say it is a defining documentary when it comes to this darkest hour for humanity of the 20th century. Overall, no hesitation though for me in giving this one a thumbs-up. Go check it out if you get the chance!
There is a bit of a clean structure in here. The first half or slightly less than that depicts the offenders, probably more. We see random shots of the German population and, most of all, recordings of many high-profile German politicians (Heß, Göring, Goebbels and Hitler himself among others). We also find out how hatred against Jews constantly increases, step by step. Be it people with signs telling others not to buy from Jews, be it Hitler's speech about how he will eradicate all Jews when they dare to start a new world war (the irony!) or bei it Jews actually getting killed on many occasions later on, especially in the second half that focuses more on the victims then. You could say that the moment the perspective changed was perhaps when they elaborated on and depicted the ship voyage from Germany to Cuba. I am not sure what Cuba was like politically back then, but I would be surprised if it as anything other than far left what tehy are known for and still they did not allow the Jews to enter their country. One of the most memorable moments for me that, after this long travel, they were forced to return because even a country on an entirely different political spectrum than Nazi Germany would not want to have them. Another sequence that stayed in the mind for me was the woman telling us about how everybody close and dear to her got killed and murdered by the Nazis, including her own really young child. But she somehow survived and she asked what had she done wrong that they would not kill her. She just wanted to escape this misery. No will to live anymore. Well, we on the other hand should be glad that she lived and could share her memories with us. There is very little narration in here, no interviews or anything. Instead, we see scenes and recordings (the videos were more haunting than the photos for me) from back then and the tragedy linked with it all. We hear the reports from those who survived it all. They are talking. There is also a singer who narrates in a musical form about all the horror. This was especially haunting for me. I really liked the singer's voice. But there again you need subtitles to understand it all. And don't worry, it will still be as touching with subtitles if you don't understand the language. The emotion is not lost at all. Okay that is pretty much all i can say about this documentary. Maybe you can argue that there is not too much in here that you haven't seen in other documentaries, but keep in mind that the stuff you watched before was probably done much later than this documentary in fact. The one we have here was first. It is a collection of reports coming from Jewish people that survived the Holocaust. There are many sad moments, also moments that felt really absurd like the idea that there was this area only for Jews because apparently they all had diseases and they should not spread on the German people. Alrightey, finally a few words on the title. I am not sure if the translation is literal here from the original title, but the idea behind "The 81st Blow" is one that is very easy to remember ith the boy who was hitten so many times by the Nazi officer with the name that is easy to remember and still he survived it somehow and the 81st blow is the disbelief the victim of this beating encountered when he tole people this story. This is by the way also first depicted in writing and immediately afterwards at the very beginning of the film presented as a story by the singer I mentioned earlier. Overall, this one here is definitely very much on the underseen side, even if I would not say it is a defining documentary when it comes to this darkest hour for humanity of the 20th century. Overall, no hesitation though for me in giving this one a thumbs-up. Go check it out if you get the chance!
