Reuters reports on an upcoming Steven Spielberg film about the murder of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
To give us a little background on Spielberg, Reuters helpfully provides the following description of some of his past work:
Best known in Israel for "Schindler's List," a Holocaust epic that ends with a pro-Zionist message, Spielberg...I remember the end of Schindler's List. If you've ever seen it, you do, too. Roger Ebert described it perfectly when he included Schindler's List in his series of essays on the greatest movies of all time:
The film's ending brings me to tears. At the end of the war, Schindler's Jews are in a strange land — stranded, but alive. A member of the liberating Russian forces asks them, "Isn't a town over there?" and they walk off toward the horizon.This incredibly moving scene is a celebration of life and of the human spirit. Necessarily, it is set in the Christian cemetery in Jerusalem where Schindler was buried, and so Yerushalayim Shel Zahav ("Jerusalem of Gold") is sung in the background. It's safe to say that 99.9% of the people who watched the movie didn't even understand the lyrics, which are pretty innocuous anyway. But for Reuters, that's enough to turn the sight of a few Jews fortunate enough to escape Hitler's madness into a "pro-Zionist message".
The next shot fades from black and white into color. At first we think it may be a continuation of the previous action, until we see that the men and women on the crest of the hill are dressed differently now. And then it strikes us, with the force of a blow: Those are Schindler's Jews. We are looking at the actual survivors and their children as they visit Oskar Schindler's grave.
The movie began with a list of Jews being confined to the ghetto. It ends with a list of some who were saved. The list is an absolute good. The list is life. All around its margins lies the gulf.
Unbelievable. Apparently, to Reuters, a movie is pro-Zionist if some Jews are still alive at the end.
FOLLOW-UP:
Reuters may already be trying to pull its foot out of its mouth on this one. The same story, via Drudge, originally appeared here, with a Reuters byline. Although less than a day old, it's already disappeared. Via Google News, I was able to find the same story on the Stuff.co.nz site, as linked above. (I've saved a screenshot in case it, too, falls down the memory hole.) The Stuff version of the article has no byline at all, which appears to be the way that site usually runs wire stories. However, Reuters is still mentioned in the text of the article itself.
ANOTHER FOLLOW-UP:
Pro-Zionist messages may be subtle, but the anti-Zionist ones are usually pretty easy to spot. (Via Solomonia)
7 comments:
interesting blog :)
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Posted by Anonymous
GB: what's wrong with having a pro-Zionist message?
Posted by Amanda Reckonwith
Nothing... although if you think you see one lurking around every corner, it really says something about your opinion on whether Jews deserve to be in Israel at all.
Posted by GaijinBiker
You're mixing up anti-Zionist and anti-Semetic.
Anti-Zionists are non-Iraeli Jews that don't believe in Israel as a 'Jewish State,' for one of several reasons. Many ultra-orthodox Jews in the US are anti-zionist because they believe in waiting for the Messiah before re-establishing the Biblical Israel, and many secular Jews outside of Israel are anti-zionist because they aren't comfortable with the country's mixture of church and state-a view that should come naturally to many Americans.
As a secular American Jew I don't remotely consider myself a Zionist. I certainly believe that Israel should exist, but I also don't believe that the laws granting preferential treatment towards Jews have served their purpose, and the government should be secularized.
I will concur that seeing Schindler's List as being especially pro-zionist is a little bit absurd though. It's years since I've seen it, but I don't believe that there was a single reference to a Jewish homeland, Jewish state, or Israel in the film.
Posted by Mutantfrog
Sorry, in this case anti-semetic is completely the wrong term, since 'semites' include both Jews and Arabs. I meant to say 'you're mixing up anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish'
Posted by Mutantfrog
Damn! There needs to be a way to edit comments you've posted.
" but I also don't believe that the laws granting"
should be
" but I also believe that the laws granting"
Posted by Mutantfrog
Watching Schindler's List literally made me nauseous, and much of the hoopla surrounding it was disgusting in its own way.
You'd have to be sick to consider that film entertainment and ignorant to consider it educational.
Director Steven Speilberg overruled the holocaust history consultant he hired who insisted that the tortures were worse, the screaming and agony more louder and more pervasive than in the scenes the director composed.
The tougher question is: is the film edifying? Is it a kind of cultural talisman against a repeat performance by militant, white, right-wing nationalists? Somehow I doubt it.
Perhaps much of the drooling accolades the film received comes from one of its subtlest messages: no matter how evil you or your country may be, they've a long way to go to catch up with Nazis, so don't worry, be happy; it can't happen here.
Posted by Amanda Reckonwith
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