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Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust (2004)

Director: Daniel Anker

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From Time Out New York

Though it feels a touch small-screen (it was originally made for AMC), this solid, clip-heavy history of Hollywood’s narrative efforts pushes past sobriety to arrive at some tough ideas, particularly the Wiesel-worthy notion that representing evil poorly may, in itself, be disrespectful. All the big scenes are here, from Rod Steiger’s silent scream in The Pawnbroker to Spielberg’s inevitable little girl in the red dress. More stunning is footage from a syrupy 1953 episode of This Is Your Life with an Auschwitz survivor, or scenes from the glib 1978 miniseries Holocaust, greenlit in the wake of Roots.

Author: Joshua Rothkopf 2007-12-11 18:28:27

Time Out New York Time Out New York, Issue 637–638, December 13–26, 2007

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  • zsuzsanna said...
    Posted on Mar 15 2009 17:30 My biggesre filmexperience, heart-breaking and - sorry to say -true. Wonderhul direction phenomenal acting, specially Ralph Fiennes was extraordinary showing : evil can bear human face without humanism. He was frightening!
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Cast & crew

Director: Daniel Anker

With: Tom Brokaw, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Sidney Lumet, Liam Neeson, Steven Spielberg, Rod Steiger

Genre(s): Documentaries

Rated: NR

Duration: 92 mins

US Release: May 6 2006


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