Reactions to Films

by

Cliff Lazar

Paula and I just saw "Gangs of New York" and "The Pianist" and we couldn't disagree with the critics more.  Ken Turan of the LA Times hated "Gangs of New York".  He was so wrong.  It is an epic picture.  Daniel Day Lewis is a force of nature.  The settings and the cinematography are fine.  Leonardo diCaprio just brooded.  Still, if you see it you will enjoy it.

The "Pianist" has been raved about as putting "Schindler's List" to shame.  To the contrary.  I think Yassar Arafat would think that The Pianist was the feel-good picture of the year.  Imagine glorifying a passive victim who watched his family and neighbors murdered and endangered his protectors while only worrying about his next meal.  500,000 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto were reduced to maybe a 1000 survivors.

A few fighters in the Warsaw ghetto uprising stalled the German war machine for 6 weeks.  Most were killed, but at the mutual casualty rate, 6 million Jews could have killed one million German soldiers and hurried the end of the war.

The German policy was to give their future victims hope.  The lesson of the holocaust is "Hope is your enemy; desperation is your friend"

Jews can't just give docile victims to Germans, Cossacks, or Palestinians.  We should give them second and third thoughts and fear of immediate self-sufficient retribution.