In a pale attempt to calm my freneticsm over the election, I decided to take a trip down memory lane and go rent the new Indian Jones movie. So now I’m fresh off the trail with the good doctor, who, on this particular outing, was searching for skulls or aliens or his ex or his son or Chrystal meth or tenure or whatever the hell that movie was about. I now sit here, relegated to a kind of creepy delight in memories of childhood.
I must have seen Raiders of the Lost Ark 100 times and I can tell you it has a very special place in my heart (the other 3 movies in the franchise amount to little more than slightly entertaining kitsch). In my opinion, Raiders wasn't awesome because it was well made or had better acting, but because of its realism, and I say this, (not because I am Jewish) because it is true. We do live in a “Judeo-Christian” society, and…seriously, who’s gonna fuck with YHWH. Alas, people often do, and many millions have, before the arrival of Constantine and well after his death. Sometimes the problem comes from within. This is not one of those times. If it seems our somewhat opaque dialectic has taken a turn toward Hymie-Town, it is because it has.
Raiders rang true for me because even at a very young age I was able to experience first hand the stinging right-cross of Jew-hating. The occasional spit in the face by an equally young boy (maybe 7 or 8-years-old), who, more often than not, was a friend. In life it seems it is “friends,” that wound. It would seem that Anti-Semitism has friends in all places and for many reasons. For me, it was a bad hair cut, portly demeanor and an odd name. For others, there is a discomfort with their own Judaism that extends much deeper.
At this point I must tell you that I am NOT a big Steven Spielberg fan, probably because I am Jewish and feel he gets it wrong most of the time. There is some odd, fetishistic focus on frailty. The Spielbergian paradigm seems to me inextricably wound with that of the Church, it is an ideology and portrayal that says – here is a people that will operate at any level to survive. There is nary a showing of strength or honor in the true Masada or Maccabean sense. His depiction of the IDF and Mossad, while perhaps commendable for what could be viewed as layered and reasoned analysis of the high-level, realistic and nuanced intricacies of human emotion operating within such a potentially vicious and lethal penumbra, still leave the audience devoid of that singular-potent and romantically powerful imagery conjured so often with most other areas of movie-magic. These images are powerful representations that latch themselves inextricably not merely to Americans, but to the world.
And so, Spielberg, as such a huge, and influential success in the arena of human communication, owes a duty not just as a Semite but as a human being, to be concerned with the images he leaves us with. We, as a race of people, do not boil down to Judas Iscariot, a symbol of persecution and hatred almost certainly attributable to the vast and sustained alchemics of Christianity to smear and obscure the legacy of a people. It is this insidiously inserted architecture, gifted by our progeny no less, which stays with us to this day. And that is why Jew, Judas, Jude and Jewish are all seemingly innocuous words that bare an uneasy tinge for Semites. The usage of the word is largely irrelevant, there is an imbedded target that has been fostered for two thousand years, it is, invariably, to conjure the “traitor”.
His movies convey some bizarre preoccupation with Jewish weakness- there exists a deliberate hesitance on his part to display a Hebrew character as swaggering or brutal or stupid or violent (even when his subject matter demands it) and when he has(Munich comes to mind)those he casts as Jews (Daniel Craig- are you fucking kidding me, the most nazi-looking-dude ever) seem to be quite, un-Jewish.
Saving Private Ryan was a perfect opportunity to introduce a deviation from the standard meek Jewish archetype offered so frequently by Hollywood. I am reluctant to even mention Shindler's List because it would belabor my point and I am sure one could argue that capturing the essence of Jewish vulnerability in our darkest hour was pertinent. However, why not make a movie about the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto and their fierce resistance to that murderous regime?
Spielberg had a character in Pvt. Stanley Mellish (Adam Goldberg) that could courageously represent the heroic military contribution of American Jews. This simple Jewish infantryman was doing his part as an American to help liberate the world from tyranny. So why did Spielberg cast the most Seinfeldian actor he could find? I thought this guy was Sarah Silverman's brother.
Yes, yes, there may be a historical, lingering distaste for Jews- So what, and more importantly what the hell does this have to do with the election tomorrow? Even the most cinematically averse can remember the gruesome destruction of the nazis at the finale of Raiders of the Lost Ark. The melting faces and imploding bodies that represented the wraith of the Hebrew God. Lightning, fire, demonic apparitions, par for the course when you fuck with YAHWEH. Please do not confuse my words as some desperate attempt to comingle the Republican Party with the National Socialists of Germany’s sanguinary past. We must be vigilant in our perception of the facts, the truth demands a refrain from any impossible mention of a connection between Prescott Bush, Standard Oil, IBM and numerous other corporations and personalities who may have been cleared of any nefarious involvement with that unsavory and long forgotten appendage of historical dust.
And now, as promised, my point. Prepare to be underwhelmed. The majority of Americans have been suffering from a systemic malaise. This was brought forth not by Allah or al Qaida but by a dim and untrusting view of the populace by those who were charged with its protection. The hapless have a commonality that is undeniable. Jews, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, whatever your belief or color or country of origin, we have all been forced to suffer numerous indignities under this administration. Whether they were controversial (to be kind) expansions of executive privilege or extremely dangerous invasions into our most cherished civil rights, this party has miserably failed to curb the tentacles of its most preeminent figure, and we have been led into extensive world conflict and devastating economic ruin. The most basic tenets of accountability demand a change of the incumbent political party. The people will strafe this errant polity with a clear demand for change. Regime change is now imminent.
Good luck GOP- mazel,mazel.
