The Long Way Home (Documentary)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: B
Morgan Freeman narrates a powerful new documentary that
does not hold back on the intensity of anti-Semitism immediately as the Nazi
concentration camps are being discovered by the allies, to Jews of the world
being hugely discriminated against before the opening up of Israel after its
founding in 1948 in The Long Way Home (1997), one of the most key of the
hundreds of documentaries on the Holocaust and it is immediate after effects.
First, Allied soldiers find the camps, and from the words
of one of the prisoner/victims, they could not handle the sight they saw. Both the horror of what they immediately
comprehended and the inability to deal with in psychologically struck the
soldiers in profound ways. A breakdown
in order follows, with the soldiers and prisoner taking turns going after Nazi
soldiers. Then came the problem of how
to get the refugees back to some sort of health and find where they can go.
It reminds us of why Jewish people needed and deserved a
home of their own, like any other people.
From this show, even non-Jews can understand the necessity and
entitlement to a State of Israel from the history of the matter. This is not a propaganda film, but a well-researched
work that spells out how ugly things were not that long ago for a faith-based
group that was being exterminated systematically with the help and ignorance of
more of the world than anyone wants to think or admit to. It is a powerful, fact-filled journey that
gets to a deeper truth and will remain on a short-list of must-see works on the
subject for decades to come. At less
than two hours, it actually was not long enough.
The full frame 1.33 X 1 image is good, with film clips and
new interviews nicely edited together.
The sound has been issued in a weak Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and better
Dolby 5.1 remix that is relatively more engaging, though this is not intended
to be very sonic. Surrounds are limited
either way. The only extras are a stills
gallery, trailer, bios and the DVD starts with In Search Of Peace - Volume
One trailer, which cannot be skipped, but is worth seeing. See our review of that title elsewhere on
this site.
- Nicholas Sheffo
