Arts & Entertainment

Coming To Terms With Evil

Facing extermination at Auschwitz, a group of
prisoners weighs the case against the Almighty.

Michael Fox
Special to the Jewish News

G

od's existence and his respon-
sibilities to the Chosen People
are abstract concepts to some
people. For others, faith is a matter of the
greatest importance.
Both ends of the spectrum have been
represented at every dark juncture in his-
tory. In our own time, when the survival
of the Jewish people is not in question,
the fundamental spiritual dialectic still
applies.
The audacious, riveting and alto-
gether first-rate BBC-TV production
God on Trial, part of PBS' Masterpiece
Contemporary drama series and airing on
PBS stations nationwide on Sunday, Nov.
9, places the debate in that most freighted
of locations, a barracks at Auschwitz. The
charge levied against God is breach of
contract, said contract being the covenant
He made with the Israelites.
British screenwriter Frank Cottrell
Boyce's pithy script, abetted by the kinetic
direction of Andy DeEmmony, merges the
gravity of history and timeless, universal

questions into a tour de force of intellec-
tual prowess and emotional immediacy.
Line up your libations beforehand because
you'll be far too engrossed to leave your
seat for even a moment.
The 90-minute piece makes a calculated
effort to transcend the limits of a TV play
as well as to bridge the gulf of 60-some
years. It begins with a tour bus pulling up
to the gates of Auschwitz and disgorging
its passengers.
The film periodically cuts back to their
trip through the camp, providing a point
of identification that is more accessible
to most viewers than the prisoners in
Auschwitz — a shrewd bunch of beaten-
up but not-quite-beaten-down Jews. The
veterans face their inevitable fate with
pragmatism and dignity while the new-
comers quickly discern that illusions are a
luxury no one in Auschwitz could afford.
The trial is really a debate that logically
and artfully encompasses almost every
philosophical, theological, spiritual, his-
torical and practical implication. A scholar
quotes and interprets Scripture, for exam-
ple; but that evidence is balanced both
by the emotional experience of a Russian

Jew forced by
an SS officer to
choose which
of his three
sons would
live and by a
Parisian physi-
cist eloquently
representing all
secular, rational
and scientific
Jews.
God on
A scene from PBS's God on Trial: Stephen Dillane as Schmidt, a
Trial likewise
rabbi; Stellan Skarsgard as Baumgarten, a professor of law; and
grapples with
Rupert Graves as Mordechai, God's chief accuser.
the notion of
Jewish identity from several points of
just or good God but only happened to be
view."We are not being martyred for our
on our side — until 1933.
faith but for our race and our ancestry:'
One man makes the case that the Jews
one character argues, with an unflinching
broke the covenant. And another man pro-
clarity characteristic of the dialogue.
poses that the sacrifice and "purification"
The marvelous script doesn't shy away
of the Holocaust is a requisite for the Jews'
from all kinds of tough-minded argu-
return to the land of Israel.
ments, such as finding precedents for
It is a tribute to Boyce's writing and the
God's destruction in the flood that only
first-rate, committed cast — including
Noah and his family escaped or the anni-
Stellan Skarsgard, Antony Sher, Stephen
hilation of the Egyptian soldiers in the
Dillane, Rupert Graves, Eddie Marsan and
Red Sea. In fact, perhaps He was never a
Dominic Cooper — that we consistently

Jews

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Nate Bloom

Special to the Jewish News

Douglas Feted

As reported by JTA, on Oct. 22,
legendary actor
Kirk Douglas, 91,
I was honored at a
Los Angeles din-
ner benefiting
the University of
Southern California
Shoah Foundation
Institute. Steven
Kirk Douglas
Spielberg created
the foundation fol-
lowing the making of Schindler's
List; it is the home of 52,000 video
testimonies of Holocaust survivors.
Spielberg said, "There were Six
Million who left their footprints
in the ashes. On our watch, these
footprints will never blow away."
Spielberg praised Douglas as a

November 6 • 2008

"great American, a great Jew, who
stands up for what he believes in."
Billy Crystal, who hosted the din-
ner along with Bette Midler, added a
light touch to the evening by noting
that Kirk had the "best hair I've ever
seen on a Jew." He added, "Why
was there never a part for me in a
Spielberg movie? How about a juicy
part in Indiana Jones and the Temple
of Beth Shalom or Saving Private

Mishkin?"

Also attending were mega-pro-
ducer J.J. Abrams and actor Tobey
Maguire, whose wife, jewelry design-
er Jennifer Meyer, is Jewish.

Film/TV Premieres
The new season of Law and
Order: Criminal Intent begins on

the USA Network 9 p.m. Friday,
Nov. 7. The first episode introduces
Jeff Goldblum, 55, as Detective
Zack Nichols, the new partner of

Detective Megan
Wheeler (Julianne
Nicholson).
Goldblum
replaces actor Chris
Noth as Wheeler's
partner. Nichols is
a cerebral cop, the
Jeff Goldblum
son of two psychia-
trists, who left the
force after Sept.
11, 2001, to "find the meaning of
life." He brings a quirky "Socratic"
approach to crime-scene investiga-
tion.
The 2005 animated film
Madagascar, about a group of
Central Park Zoo animals escap-
ing to the big island off the coast
of Africa, was a huge box-office
hit despite lackluster reviews. The
whole (voice) cast is back for the
sequel, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa,
opening Friday, Nov. 7. Ben Stiller

is the voice of Alex, the gentle lion;
David Schwimmer voices Melman,
the hypochondriac giraffe; and
Sacha Baron Cohen can be heard as
the voice of King Julien, a lemur.
Comedian David Wain is the direc-
tor and screenwriter
of Role Models, also
opening Nov. 7. A
comedy in the mold
of Judd Apatow
flicks like Superbad,
it stars Seann
William Scott and
Paul Rudd, who play
David Wain
two salesmen who
trash a truck after
drinking too many energy drinks.
They agree to a court-imposed
community service sentence that
has them mentoring two troubled
teens. Elizabeth Banks has a sup-
porting role as Rudd's sometimes
girlfriend. ❑