January 29, 2015
Some time ago a neighbor got himself a job as an intern for a movie being made here in New York. He’s still a young kid.
“Guess who came on the set?” he phoned, gushing.
“Julia Roberts.”
“No! Steven Spielberg. Should I tell him I know you, the author of ‘Indecent Proposal?’ He’ll go nuts.”
“Yes he will,” I said, “and that’ll be the end of your career in the movies.”
Earlier, I had written my thoughts on his film “Munich.” I wasn’t polite and neither was he in response. Made headlines.
If you understand terrorists, was my conclusion, you are a terrorist. To understand is to justify. If you do not hate evil, you are evil.
At the time, and maybe still today, Spielberg was the most powerful director in Hollywood, and though writing novels is my business, it does not hurt when Hollywood makes an offer you can’t refuse. Trifling with a force like Spielberg can prove ruinous but fortunately “Indecent Proposal” had already been done and done up big by Director Adrian Lyne. So I was safe for that page to screen.
Next in line I have “The Bathsheba Deadline” and it will be done by someone soon, but not by Spielberg, unless he wants to try me on this book’s uncompromising take on Radical Islam. Much too pro-Israel, this novel, to be sure, and much too tough on leftists in Hollywood and elsewhere.
The movie “Munich” was about Israelis going after the Islamic monsters who committed the atrocity at the 1972 Munich Olympics. In cold blood they murdered 11 Israeli Olympians. Israel tracked down these beasts one at a time. If you loved justice, you cheered.
Not so in “Munich.” This was the worst movie Spielberg ever made and maybe the only bad movie he ever made. From the script mostly done by Tony Kushner, the movie gave us views of justified Arabs and dubious Israelis – “both sides of the story” in other words.
Or in the words of Kushner himself, through interviews: “I have a problem with the idea of a Jewish state. It would have been better if it never happened.”
Thus did this Jewish screenwriter avail himself of literary license to twist and malign a triumphant story to suit his personal prejudices.
Kushner is on record accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing – and THIS is the man Spielberg chose to write the script for a film that should have been about Israeli heroism. This should have been like “Entebbe “– Jews browbeaten and down beaten over the centuries, finally capable of avenging their tormentors.
Not here with Spielberg and the man he says he trusts more than anyone else when it comes to Israel – Kushner.
30 million watched “Munich” (though still a box office flop) and came away no friends of the Jewish State, no fans of Israel.
Here’s what set off my public spat with Spielberg, when about “Munich” I wrote elsewhere: “Jews pioneered Hollywood. If, as our enemies say, we own Hollywood, well, here's the plot twist - we have lost Hollywood, and we have lost Spielberg. Spielberg is no friend of Israel. Spielberg is no friend of truth.”
I would write it again, even though maybe I have mellowed. Spielberg is a good man. Just this morning I heard him say how worried he is about the rise of anti-Semitism. Nice. Then I saw him taking part, again this morning, at the memorial services at Auschwitz for Holocaust Remembrance Day, where he appeared to be truly stricken by the testimonies among some of the 300 survivors present.
I know about the archive he has built for remembrances of the Shoah. I think it cost him millions. But how many people will see those archives? Thirty thousand?
But 30 million watched “Munich” (though still a box office flop) and came away no friends of the Jewish State, no fans of Israel.
Spielberg is a great director. Think of his power to persuade and to move emotions.
Imagine if he were to use his genius to light up the screen with the adventure that is Israel, a nation raised from the ashes to proclaim liberty for all.
Imagine this place where Jews can dream, live unafraid and provide the world with the most glorious wonders in science and technology.
Where is that movie?
Where is the Jewish heart when it comes to the Jewish State?
What’s wrong with these people who only love us after we are dead?
Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. The new thriller from the New York-based novelist, The Bathsheba Deadline, a heroic editor’s singlehanded war on terror and against media bias. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller Indecent Proposal that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Website: www.jackengelhard.com
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