Troubling To Some
It didn't happen, although the very
idea of a young Hitler movie has since
troubled some Jewish leaders.
"A film about the young Hitler is
only half the story, which isn't truthful
history," said Rabbi Marvin Hier,
founder and dean of the Simon
Wiesenthal Center and its Museum of
Tolerance. "Next we'll have the young
Saddam Hussein, which won't bother
to mention the Gulf War."
Rachel Jagoda, director of the L.A.
Museum of the Holocaust, said the
film's conceit confused her survivor
constituents.
"They'd say, 'Why should I see a
movie about the young Hitler?"'
Jagoda said. "They don't care that he
was once an artist. They just care that
he killed everyone they knew and
loved."
Cusack, however, insists Max has an
important message, one that resonates
today.
"It would be much easier for me if
Osama bin Laden didn't have a moth-
er or father," he said.
"It would make the world a lot sim-
pler if he arrived on earth in a pink
vapor, did his business and disap-
peared in a puff of smoke.
"But the reality is more painful.
He's a human being like you and
me."
❑
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Max, rated R, opens Friday, Feb.
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(248) 644-FILM, and in Ann
Arbor at the Michigan Theater,
(734) 668-TIME.
audio- and video-taping the family
ment for those who appreciate the
when the story broke — we see an
ironic.
outwardly normal Jewish family turn
In another "comic" turn, drag queen
on itself as the community and world
Charles Busch ( Tale of the Allergist's
turn on its members.
Wife), winner of a Special Jury Prize
Darkness also reigns in Levity, the
for Outstanding Performance, plays
Ed Solomon feature about a murder-
has-been singer Angela Arden, the wife
er's (Billy Bob Thornton) quest for
of Jewish Hollywood movie mogul Sol
forgiveness. While the film is not out-
Sussman, in the campy spoof Die
wardly Jewish — it's set in a nameless
Mommie Die.
impoverished city with a Christian
In a political vein, Klinghoffer, which
preacher (Morgan Freeman) —
explores the making of the 1991 opera
Solomon admitted
that was based on
in front of the film's
the 1985 Palestinian
2,000-member audi-
hijacking of a cruise
ence that the con-
ship, combines fic-
cept of redemption
tional narratives,
running throughout
archival footage and
the film was based
flash forwards as
on the teachings of
director Penny
Maimonides.
Woolcock brings to
Darkness turns to
the screen the ever-
light with
present Middle East
Sundance's Dramatic
conflict and issues
Grand Jury Prize
still unsolved decades
winner, American
after the hijacking.
Splendor, the absurd
Finally, in The
tale of Jewish comic-
Weather
book artist Harvey
Undergrounch the
Morgan Freeman stars in
Pekar.
Sam Green/Bill
"Levity"; filmmaker Ed Solomon
A file clerk at a VA
Siegel documentary
based
the concept of redemption
hospital in
about American rad-
running throughout the film on
Cleveland, the
icals who wanted to
the teachings of Maimonides.
bizarre and pes-
overthrow the U.S.
simistic Pekar
government in the
(played at times by Paul Giamatti)
1970s, good, Jewish, Ivy-League kids
turns his pathetic life into an under-
— including Bill Ayers, Mark Rudd
ground comic hit, and finds — well,
and David Gilbert — lead the group,
not a happy ending, because this
which was on the FBI's most wanted
gloomy Jew can never be happy. But
list for bombing dozens of American
he discovers he can create entertain-
government buildings. ❑
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2003
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