Change Your Image
gusrabson
Reviews
The Believer (2001)
Study of a Jewish skinhead
I am amazed by the number of people who considered the movie obscure and could not understand Daniel Balint's motivation. The meaning is kristal clear to any Jew who grew up in the 1930's and could not have been more explicit. Daniel was angry at the Jews for allowing themselves to be slaughtered, ignominiously, without putting up a fight. He was also angry at God. It was worse than feeling that God allowed the Jews to be slaughtered. Daniel felt that God mandated the slaughter of the Jews -- simply as an arrogant display of His power. How could it have been made plainer. It was discussed in the conversation (mandated by the judge) with the survivors. The movie starts with Danny giving his angry interpretation of the story of Abraham and Isaac. We see it in his fantasy about the Jewish father who attacked the Nazi who had bayonetted his three year old son. I wish I understood how so many sophisticated movie goers could have missed this.
God Said, 'Ha!' (1998)
Drama without the Greek masks
This is a beautiful, honest and funny show. It breaks new ground in the way that artists treat the major events of life. I understand that the Greeks wore masks because they felt that the human face was incapable of expressing the tragedies and dramas that we all must face. Dylan Thomas wrote "Do not go gentle into that good night,\Old age should burn and rave at close of day; \Rage, rage against the dying of the light." Julia has dared to face tragedy and drama without a mask. She is a humorist and that is the face she shows death. You won't find anything like it anyplace else in any of the arts. She brings a new honesty to the arts and I hope others follow her lead. And she IS funny