Arts Entertain

Cover Story: With 'Liberty' For All

ALAN H. FEILER

Spec/a/ to the jewts News

A

round Baltimore, Barry Levinsons person al
journey is well-known andpreserved, like
an oral tradition, among locals. Sometimes it
seems like every Jew in town has either a Barry
Levinson story or connection. His success is leo-

And its all the result of a strong will, a sharp
mind, a free spirit and a streak of chutzpah, said
his 80-year-old morn, Vi Levinson.
"Even when he went to school, if he was
interested in something, that was it — he was
hooked," said N'Irs. Levinson, who lives in
Pikesville, Md., and whose husband Iry died in
1990. "\Vhen Barry wasn't interested, like with
math, he'd just stare out the window. But what
the heck, it all \vorked out."
Mrs. Levinson kvelL. over her son's incredible
success. "He's done wonderfully," she said with
obvious understatement. "I'm proud of him.
never knew things would turn out like this."
But besides his pro-
fessional achievements,
the filmmaker — who
calls his mother at least
once a week, and
brought his wife Dianna
t and their children to her
g condo last Septernber
for a traditional Rosh
HaShana dinner — is "a
tseegelost [warm] per-
son," she said. "He's a
Barry Levinson at his
bar mitzvah in 1956. real family man. He
cares for his own. Fles a
very good son."
According to the filmmaker, Baltimore is
somewhat of a storyteller's paradise, and that's
why he keeps corning back to make movies. "I
still think Baltimore's the most colorful place I've
ever been," he said. its just sort of alive in every
way."
Vi Levinson still shakes her head and laughs,
recalling the scene at the Rosh Hashanah table
some 30 years ago.
"Barry told us he'd quit his job at the T\ sta
tion and was going to California for two years to
see if he could make it in the business," she said.
"We thought he was crazy, but we helped him
load up his c2r, and he drove there alone and
called us from Howard Johnsons every night.
He starved to death for a while, and he'd
wait for us to send money by Western Union.
But he stuck with it. He wanted to be a writer."

Alan Feller is managing editor of the Baltimore
Jewish Times.

12/17
1999

90

Directions Some

With his new film, "Liberty Heights," writer/director
Barry Levinson returns to Baltimore and his Jewish roots.

NAOMI PFEFFERMAN
Special to the Jewish News

Oscar-winning director to reach back into his
Baltimore youth to create Liberty Heights, which
opens Dec. 22, exclusively at the Maple Art Theatre.
n a pivotal scene in Liberty Heights, the fourth
The movie was born after Levinson read a review
film in Barry Levinson's semi-autobiographical
of his sci-fi thriller Sphere that he perceived to be
"Baltimore" series, three Jewish teenagers
anti-Semitic in tone. The critic wrote that Dustin
crash a country club that excludes
Hoffman's character wasn't "officially
Jews.
The for mer
Jewish," but was "noodgy and mentsh-like."
Levinso n family
They tear down the sign that says, "No
"The implication is that if the character
Jews, Dogs or Coloreds Allowed" and throw home in Forest
has all these traits, he must be Jewish,"
it in the trash. Then they stride to the water Park, M
Levinson says. "And I felt really angry
and take off their T-shirts, revealing that one
about the notion that there's one kind of
boy has painted a large letter "J" on his chest; the
Jew, or one kind of anyone."
second, the letter "E"; the third, a "W" As the star-
As the writer-director mulled over the notion of
tled sunbathers look on, the teens defiantly stand
stereotyping, his thoughts turned, as they have so
together to spell the word "J-E-W."
often done before, to his Baltimore childhood, in a
It was the same kind of defiance that led the
Jewish neighborhood off Liberty Heights. "I remem-

I