184
PARTISAN REVIEW
and found guilty. The rest of the film is about the best argument against
the death penalty I have ever come across. As Selma refuses
to
accept a
new lawyer and
to
change her testimony, and as we witness the drawn–
out procedures and Selma's emotional state, the audience is more and
more revulsed. That in the end Selma again imagines herself as dancing
to
the
Sound of Music,
while we watch her endure last minute reprieves,
botched attempts
to
execute her, and her final walk to the gallows, is
more than overkill. Yes, as in Selma's Song, "I've seen it all," the audi–
ence too got
to
see it all, but did not have
to
see every derail in order
to
turn against the death penalty-or to di criminate between guilty crimi–
nals and innocent victims, circumstantial and incontrovertible evidence.
This is nor the only film with a covert political message, or with fash–
ionable multicultural overtones. Why else, for instance, did the press
receive releases announcing the ten languages of the sixteen films that
had been chosen; and why was so much time during press conferences
spent on questions of photography, techniques of filming and acting, and
so little on political content-either on repression in Cuba and China, or
on the cultural differences we want to overlook? Certainly, the films I
saw-whether about dire poverty, homosexual or heterosexual love,
communist repression or overt violence-mostly expressed traditional
values in Asian milieus, and postmodern ones in Western cultures.
Kippur
alone among all these films deals directly with war-with the
surprise attack on Israel by Egypt and Syria in
197),
on Yom Kippur.
It
is upsetting to see the reenactment of the earnest Weinraub's (Liron Levo)
experiences. The film begins while he and Dina (Liat Click Levo), are
making love. After hearing alarm sirens, he joins a medical rescue squad.
We see many dead and injured; evolving friendships among the men who
fight together to save the wounded, and who soon part when their heli–
copter is destroyed-after they themselves have been hit by shrapnel, and
worse. No matter where we stand politically, we end up pondering the
futility and terrible consequences of wars, especially as Israelis and Arabs
are fighting once again. And we understand better why so many Israelis,
who cannot expect Palestinians who are teaching their young to hate
them-along with all other Jews-seem to want peace at a ll coSts.
Kip–
pur
is an existential anti-war movie, not via demonstrations, but via the
showing of blood, sweat and fire bombs, the traffic jams, and the help–
lessness of even the most courageous and duty-bound individuals who
shoulder their obligations
to
their fellow men.
Brother
as well demonstrates such obligations, but restricts these
to
the brotherhood of gangsters-from Tokyo to Los Angeles-who are
ruled by their own code of honor. The director, Takeshi Kitano, who is
