The Year in Jews in Film

By Abe Fried-Tanzer
KOC Editor
New York University

It’s been an interesting year for Jews on film. Last fall, three eventual Oscar nominees for Best Picture included controversial portrayals of Jews on film. The least seen of the three was the British movie An Education, which tells the story of a teenage girl in London in the 1960s who is introduced to a whole new world by an older man. As can probably be expected, the man is not all he seems, and the character is ultimately revealed as corrupting a young, innocent girl. That character, David, it turns out, is Jewish. Charges of anti-Semitism made by some were countered by the fact that this is based on a true story, and Simon Prewalski, the inspiration for David, was in fact Jewish.

Another much-discussed film was A Serious Man, also set in the 1960s. Joel and Ethan Coen revisited their religious roots in Minnesota with this quirky tale of a physics professor tormented by continuous troubling events in his life. Protagonist Larry Gopnik turns to not one but three rabbis in his quest to put his life together as his son is about to celebrate becoming a Bar Mitzvah. Matt Creighton discusses this film at length in his article this month. While he tackles the deeper subtext of the film, many were taken aback by the over-the-top, arguably self-deprecating surface portrayal of its many Jewish characters. I personally liked the film, and wrote a positive review for Heeb Magazine.

And then there was Inglourious Basterds, the ultra-violent film from Quentin Tarantino with a warped perception of history, where a band of Jewish Americans hunted down Nazis and brutally murdered them. The general public wasn’t necessarily aware that this was a fictional feature, and concern was understandably expressed that this would be taken as fact (a similar issue emerged when Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat worried aloud about the Jews planning another 9/11, and people were afraid that his very obvious joke might not be interpreted as such). Still, the film earned praise from most critics, and I cited it as my favorite film of the year. Not exactly a shining portrait of good-natured Jews, perhaps, but an effective and, even perhaps, important film nonetheless.

The first half of 2010 has seen a handful of films with distinctly supporting Jewish characters and themes. Two documentaries have had as their subjects a Jewish criminal and an anti-Semitic film, respectively. Casino Jack and the United States of Money is the story of Jack Abramoff, a disgraced lobbyist convicted to serve several years in jail. The film briefly mentions Abramoff’s affiliation with Orthodox Judaism, and reports came out several weeks ago that the newly-released Abramoff is now working at a Kosher pizzeria in Baltimore. Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Suss explores the motivations of a famed German filmmaker who made a brutally anti-Semitic film, allegedly at the behest of the Nazi party. While Casino Jack profiles a criminal who just happens to be Jewish, Harlan examines a filmmaker and the anti-Semitism his films helped to stir up in Nazi society.

In the more independent realm, Breaking Upwards is a story written and directed by two young Jews about a couple’s experiences not quite breaking up but still taking some time apart. In addition to featuring a synagogue-based mixer, a pivotal scene takes place smack in the middle of a Passover seder. The Girl on the Train focuses on a non-Jewish girl who makes up a story about being attacked on the subway in France, claiming that her assailants found a famous Jewish lawyer’s business card in her bag. And then there’s the forthcoming Leaves of Grass, which features Richard Dreyfuss in a supporting role as a Jewish drug dealer who conducts his illegal business after going to synagogue on Saturday morning.

In summary, it’s been an interesting year for Jews in film. Three high-profile movies from last fall were all overtly Jewish and simultaneously controversial. While there hasn’t been a truly big Jewish movie this year, there are certainly some independent contenders that could be termed Jew-ish. Maybe we’ll have to wait until the end of this year to see some movies that really get Jewish people talking, but it’s more than likely that there will be at least one or two.

[Posted 7/11/10]