“Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust” (2004,
directed by Daniel Anker) is most interesting in its presentation of the early
days of the issue.
In the 1930s, the production code prevented Hollywood
studios from presenting any country in an unfavorable light politically,
because Hollywood wanted to be able to sell its films overseas. Warner Brothers broke the ice slightly with “Confessions
of a Nazi Spy” and MGM followed with “The Mortal Storm”, which did not
specifically mention Jews. Nevertheless, MGM got what it wished for, a ban on
all its films in Germany.
Charley Chaplain broke the ice because he was rich enough to
produce his own film with “The Great Dictator” (1940), in which he shows a
caricature of Hitler holding a translucent globe of the world and tossing it in
the air like a beach toy.
The war and early post war years were marked by the way the
US government tried to enlist Hollywood to send the right message, to support
the war effort. After the war, the
government sponsored a tour by some of Hollywood executives of the concentration
camps. Film was seen as the ultimate medium to communicate a political or moral
message, but it would be a long time before artists and filmmakers could say
what they wanted (like I expect to).
Over the years, the treatment of the Holocaust, and the
nature to show it as an absolute evil, became more intense. The documentary discusses many important
films, including “The Diary of Anne Frank” (or “Dairy of a Young Girl”), “Judgment
at Nuremberg” (which was first a TV series), the miniseries “Holocaust” (which
persuaded Germany to end the statute of limitations on war crimes), “Sophie’s
Choice” (with the bloodless horror of the “choice” scene which I remember seeing
in Dallas), and “Schindler’s List”.
The film (distributed by Koch Lorber) can be viewed on
Netflix Instant Play.
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