Liability Crisis
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: B- Film: B-
Richard
Brody’s Liability Crisis (1994) joins
a cycle of films where the white male lead finds himself overly fascinated with
Judaism and the Holocaust in disturbing and uncomfortable ways. Bryan Singer’s film of Stephen King’s Apt Pupil (1997) had a teenager (the
underrated Brad Renfro) who is already too interested in the Holocaust when he
discovers that his neighbor (Sir Ian McKellan in one of his boldest roles) is a
former Nazi in hiding. The Believer (2001, reviewed elsewhere
on this site) had a young Jewish teenager (Ryan Gosling) deciding to become a
Nazi Skinhead. The other thing all three
films have in common is that they are all solid works of filmmaking.
This film
is not as violent or physical, but the dialogue is very challenging and racy,
throwing around controversial ideas about Judaism and anti-Semitism like Woody
Allen throws out one-liners. That does
not necessarily make this a comedy, but it should also be noted that there are
two versions of the film. The main
version is not bad, while the shortest alternate version with 58 more minutes
originally existed, all 58 of which are in the supplement section. There were two other versions at 135 and 119
minutes and they might have been better compromises than this cut.
In both
cases, the idea is to challenge the casualness in which the Holocaust has been
relegated to a denial of mortality when intellectualized and how middle to
upper-class living causes a “Finzi-Continis-like” immunity to the plight that
never goes away. The Woody Allen
approach is appropriate and not necessarily a critique of Allen’s filmmaking or
work. Allen has made great jokes and
delved into very dark territory on the subject, but does this cause at least
some extent of desensitizing due to his success and iconic position as a comic
actor?
That is
for another essay, but the extra footage does add to Brody’s thesis and some of
it should have stayed, if not all of it.
In total, you do not have to be Jewish to understand what Liability Crisis is trying to say. Forgetting history includes allowing it to
synthesize into something it should not and in all these versions, it does
manage to make that point, shocking its audience for good reason.
The full
frame filmed image is average, offering what looks like an analog transfer of
some kind, which dulls the color and detail of what looks like some good work
by cinematographer James Maxtone Graham.
This is even more so a problem in the 58 extra minutes. Both sections have Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono,
but the extra footage has especially muddy audio. Maybe Brody will get his full cut in a
digital High Definition release. The
other extras are three text sections that offer a statement and interview by
Brody, plus three biography sections on Brody, and actors Jim Helsinger and
Mirjana Jokovic.
The box
says that Jokovic was in Underground,
but for those who saw the recent vampire vs. werewolf mess and do not remember
her can relax, as the box is referring to the 1995 Serbian film New Yorker just
issued on DVD, which I reviewed elsewhere on this site. Liability
Crisis was made around the same time and is certainly as compelling.
- Nicholas Sheffo
