My life has become excrement for having walked with them

Rating: 10/10 (29 June 2008)

This great film reaffirms the importance of cinema to the world. As we ignore the cries of a suffering world be it the unwanted of Africa's war torn continent or the voiceless who find themselves but chess pieces in a power struggle over oil in the middle east or those who have no worth to a world which only finds worth in one's ability to consume, the simple truth that all of the world's ills and guilt can be found in the degeneration of a single human life is as sadly true today as it was when the world's first victim's cries went unheard by the "decent" who watched on in silent self satisfaction.
Judy Garland's is a stunning portrayal of a victim whose voice speaks for all victims, her character's willingness to stand for the truth both in the past and to stand for the decency and innocence of a decent human being in the present is not only an example of courage but one of true gratitude to a person who extended to her, benevolence. Hers was a performance which has helped in its small way to make me a better person and to truly appreciate what a wonderful actress she truly was. The pain we see in her character is also her pain as a human being. Burt Lancaster's acceptance of responsibility for his crimes and Spencer Tracy's bottom line belief that while the world may all share in the guilt that was Hitler, in the end, it is each one of us who must give account for what we did in the face of evil.
Today, as my voice remains silent in the face of so much despair, suffering and depravity, I must share in Janning's condemnation of his participation in what was Nazi Germany. My life has become excrement for having walked with them, for having known the truth and stood silent finding excuses in the face of the shadows of hate and greed which will one day consume the light I have basked in.
The horrors of Nazi Germany continue to this day. Someone, somewhere is being beaten, killed, starved and oppressed for one or all of the things the good people of Nazi Germany found abhorrent in a human being. The fact that a movie such as this has 107 comments and Iron Man has too many to count, the fact the Hulk can be made twice in a decade and this film couldn't in today's America is a sad commentary and does not bode well for the fate of the world's dispossessed. Perhaps the best that can be done is to try to show this movie to our friends and loved ones and to in some small way try to make a difference. At the very least we can lift our voices with those who cry out from the present and the past and realize that we are not immune to scourges that made Judgment at Nuremberg necessary.