God's Fiddler -- Film Review Glickman -- Film Review To Rome With Love -- Movie Review

God's Fiddler

Directed by Peter Rosen

  

It is a monumental task to condense a person's life of eighty-six years down to eighty-eight minutes, especially a person the likes of Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987), whose life was so full and rich and eventful.  Yet this film does about as good a job at that task as one could ever expect.  It is the first and only documentary film on Heifetz.  It draws upon films and recordings of Heifetz' performances throughout his career, interviews with colleagues and students, including Itzhak Perlman and Ivry Gitlis, a wealth of information about him in the public record as well as private photographs and amateur films made by Heifetz himself.  Heifetz liked cameras and was an amateur photographer and home movie maker.  His own photographs and films provide a rich source of documentation on his life which the film draws upon to great advantage.  This film covers both his personal and professional life.  It mentions his two failed marriages and the fact that he was not on good terms with his own children and explicitly wrote them out of his will.  One gets a feel for his multifaceted character, which was probably difficult to deal with on a close, personal basis.  He was able to relax and smile at parties and social occasions, but his approach to music was stern, sober, and very serious.  Music making was not fun for Heifetz and it was not fun for his students either.  According to the film there was an atmosphere of fear around him for those studying music with him.  People were so in awe of him that even his teachers said that he studied with God.  Only a very few people called him Jascha, and most of those went back to his days as a youngster in Russia.  Nearly everyone called him Mr. Heifetz.  He appears to have been lonely and unable to form close personal bonds with people.  His Jewish heritage is not featured prominently in the film and seems to have been more of a factor in his early life in St. Petersburg, Russia.  At that time in the early 1900s, the St. Petersburg Conservatory had a quota of Jews that it allowed to study.  The quota had been met at the time of Heifetz' application, but he was given a special exception.  The Conservatory also helped him bring his family to St. Petersburg from Vilnius (now in Lithuania).  He and his family left Russia for the United States just in time to miss the Russian Revolution.  He became a U.S. citizen in 1925, and returned to Russia only once in 1934.  He was quite proud of his American citizenship, raising and lowering the flag daily at his house in Los Angeles.  He volunteered to perform for the troops without pay through the USO in World War 2, and often performed on the front lines in dangerous situations.  Heifetz was also a composer.  He wrote pieces for the violin and transcribed and arranged many works for the violin by other composers such as George Gershwin.  He even wrote some popular songs in the 1940s under the pseudonym of Jim Hoyl, one of which became a hit recorded by Bing Crosby, among other singers.  He was one of the earliest environmentalists and had an all electric car built in the 1960s, the first of its kind on the West Coast, to combat the growing pollution problem in Los Angeles.  The film is rich in biographical information and commentary by many people who knew him, but the recordings of his playing are the joy of the film.  His playing truly is superb.  At one point there is a clip of him playing Bach's famous Chaconne in D minor.  It was moving and powerful.  I felt tears welling up in my eyes.  The pain of it cut right to the heart.  Recordings and video footage of his performances can be seen and heard throughout the film.  And what music!  His greatness as a violinist really comes across.  The film does not attempt to analyze, explain, or "understand" Heifetz.  It simply presents him as he was and does it with great clarity and comprehensiveness.  I highly recommend it to everyone, but to musicians, and especially violinists, it is a must.  Seen at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, Castro Theater, July 24, 2012.  This film is available on DVD.

Glickman

Directed by James Freedman

This is an outstanding documentary about a sports broadcaster who was very well known in and around New York, but probably not much beyond that area.  I had never heard of him before attending this film and neither did my companion, who is a sportsfan, Jewish, and a little bit older than me.  Marty Glickman (1917-2001) was probably the most influential sports broadcaster of all time, but he also had a profound influence on the nature of sports entertainment in the United States.  His style and the quality of his delivery did much to popularize sports through the (new at that time) mass media of radio and later television.  He was the voice of the New York Yankees, the New York Giants, later the New York Jets, the New York Knicks, as well as boxing, horse racing, and a number of other minor sports.  Listening to the recordings of his broadcasts presented in the film, I was impressed by the fluency of his delivery.  He was able to translate the fast moving action before him immediately into words that conveyed not only the action, but the visual experience of that action.  People called it 'watching the game on the radio.'  And indeed his crisp, concise, rapid fire descriptions enabled one to visualize the action as it happened.  It is a rare talent and he had mastered it.  It is a kind of poetry, really.  It is words used succinctly and imaginatively -- and orally -- to their maximum effect.  If you are a sportsfan, if you are from New York, or if you were born before about 1975, and whether you are Jewish or not, you should definitely find this film interesting. 

Marty Glickman was Jewish and this fact was a crucial factor at many points in his life.  He was selected for the 1936 U.S. Olympic track and field team when he was eighteen, along with Sam Stoller, the only two Jews on the team.  Off they went to Berlin to race under Nazi banners and before Hitler and the top echelon of the Third Reich.  They were scheduled to race in the 400 meter relay, in which the U.S. was heavily favored to win, but were replaced at the last minute by Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalf -- two black athletes -- over Owens objections.  Their removal was engineered by U.S. Olympic Committee Chairman Avery Brundage and the U.S. Olympic track coach, Dean Cromwell in order to appease Hitler and prevent the Nazis from being embarrassed by having to award medals to two Jews on the winners' podium.  The U.S. did indeed win, but Glickman carried the insult with him a long way.  He was not forward about it, but the wound was evident many years later upon his return to Berlin and the stadium where it occurred.  Brundage and Cromwell were Nazi sympathizers and after the Olympics Brundage's construction firm was awarded the contract to build the new German embassy in Washington D.C.  This wasn't the last time Marty Glickman's Jewish origins resulted in his being shunted aside.  He was scotched from being the voice of the NBA games on NBC because his name was considered "too Jewish." 

There is also an interesting, extremely provocative episode that Glickman and Isaacs chose to leave out of their book, a moment that might easily be dismissed as apocryphal, except for the fact of my close relationship with Glickman.  Marty and Morris (he insisted that he be called Maurice’ but his name was Morris) Podoloff, the first commissioner of the NBA, were invited to meet with Tom Gallery, the Sports Director for NBC’s television network in his office at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The intention, Podoloff told Marty, was to discuss Glickman’ becoming the “Voice” of the network’s newly acquired rights to weekly nation-wide telecasts of NBA games. Gallery was effusive in his praise of Marty’s TV work on the games shown locally on the Dumont local outlet, Channel 5 in New York. Gallery, however had one reservation; the name Marty Glickman sounded “too New York” he claimed.  Marty knew immediately what Gallery was implying. The name of Glickman was “too Jewish.” Glickman then told Gallery that he wasn’t averse to changing it. Gallery smiled and asked Marty whether he had an alternative name that he could use. “Yes,” said Marty. “And what would that be,” asked Gallery. “Lipschitz.” said Marty, Marty Lipschitz.” “Gallery’s face reddened,” Marty reported, ˇthat ended the meeting.” It also ended any intention that Marty Glickman would broadcast any NBA games on NBC.

Nat Asch, from a review of The Fastest Kid on the Block, (1999) by Marty Glickman, on WNEW website

While the film does feature the suffering Glickman endured as a result of the anti-Semitism that was prominent in American society during his lifetime, it also illustrates how Glickman was able to triumph in spite of prejudice and discrimination.  Although in a few significant cases his path was blocked, what he was able to achieve was vast and awe inspiring.  In the question session after the screening I saw, Director James Freedman remarked that one of the unintended consequences of the film was that through the life of Marty Glickman a documentation of the progress of assimilation of Jews into the mainstream of American society in the twentieth century becomes evident. 

The film is very comprehensive in its treatment of Marty Glickman's professional career as a broadcaster.  It is very superficial in its treatment of his personal and family life.  He was married and had a family.  His daughter, Nancy, does appear in the film.  Interestingly, she had been a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union.  However, his wife, although pictured, never speaks or comments on her famous husband, who is praised so honorifically by so many others.  Freedman was asked during the question session about the omission of Glickman's family life from the film, and he said it was due to considerations of space and that he wanted to focus the film on Glickman's professional career.  That is fair, but much of the film is taken up with presenting Marty Glickman as a great person, a Mensch, who helped so many people, and who was so active in community organizations and activities for children and high school athletes, in addition to being a great broadcaster.  It seems that at least a word or two from his wife would be worthy support to such a presentation and strengthen its credibility. 

After the showing Freedman chatted a bit with a few people who lingered, and I asked him about something else that was omitted which I was curious about, namely, what relationship, if any, Marty Glickman had with Howard Cosell, a Jewish broadcaster that I was very familiar with from my teens.  Freedman's answer was that they hated each other, and the reasons for the omission were again space and focus.  I was able to find the following anecdote about Cosell in Glickman's 1999 autobiography, The Fastest Kid on the Block.

"From one of my favorites, Costas, let me move on to say something about my unfavorite, Howard Cosell.  I recall in particular the occasion when he and I were inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in California in the mid-1980s.  We both spoke:  he last; I, just before him.

I spoke for about ten minutes.  I spoke about the beauty and joy of sport, the camaraderie that exists among athletes, the understanding and affection that athletes have for each other, particularly in international athletics.  The talk seemed to be well received. 

Then Cosell got up and immediately started talking about Munich in 1972.  "I saw no camaraderie," he said in that sneering tone of his.  "I saw these men shot and killed. I was there watching those desperadoes.  I saw none of that good feeling."

He equated murdering terrorists with Olympic athletes.  He went out of his way to knock the whole point I was trying to make.  He was as nasty and vitriolic about the Olympic Games and international athletics as he could be.  He scoffed at "alleged sportsmanship" among athletes. 

I was sitting there furious at what he was saying.  But I was gentleman enough not to get up and make a scene about it.  He sat down, and then, in moments after concluding, left the ballroom."

                                                            from The Fastest Kid on the Block, p. 156

I suspect that Freedman, aside from the incidents of anti-Semitism, wanted to keep the film upbeat and positive in tone.  It is an acceptable approach, but it does leave some unfinished business that I wish he would at least have touched upon.

Generally the film is a well made, well thought out, honorific presentation of Marty Glickman, who was not only a great sports broadcaster, but also a great person, a person who was not diminished by the injustices that he suffered, but who was made better and who rose above the adversity in his life to give of himself to many others in great abundance.  Anyone with a significant interest in sports should by all means see this film, but even those who have little or no interest in sports will find the human story of his life compelling.   Seen at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, Castro Theater, July 22, 2012.   

To Rome With Love

Directed by Woody Allen

Woody Allen has always been hit and miss for me.   Sometimes I like him, sometimes I don't.  I've seen many of his films and he keeps drawing me back despite my mixed feelings.   This one is a miss, I'm afraid I have to say.  It is a travel brochure for the city of Rome.  Not a lot of substance.  Several parallel narratives are going on at the same time.  Variants on similar themes.  Many traditional Woody Allen themes of upper middle class malaise reappear.  This time he particularly takes aim at the American cult of celebrity and the Italian obsession with opera celebrities.  The way he goes about it doesn't work for me, although the image of the opera star performing on stage in the shower is memorable.  Some situations are amusing, here and there is a good line.  Other people in the theater were laughing and seemed to be enjoying it.  Was I the only one bored to death?  What's the matter with people?  There was one line that stayed with me.  "Go ahead.  Walk into the propeller."  I can relate to that.  The acting is good, although there isn't anything really challenging in this.  The part that worked was Penelope Cruz and the sequences of the whore drawn into the role of the ersatz wife, shocking the new groom's family.  At the party all the men knew her.  Penelope Cruz is always a hit, even in a bad movie.  The rest was pretty lame.  But I'll probably go see the next thing he does.  He doesn't appear to be contemplating retirement.