THE WALL
US, 1982, 150 minutes, Colour.
Tom Conti, Lisa Eichhorn, Rachel Roberts, Philip Sterling, Eli Wallach, Rosanna Arquette, James Cromwell, Griffin Dunne, Diane Weist, Ben Piazza.
Directed by Robert Markowitz.
The Wall is the story of the Warsaw Ghetto and the uprising of the Jews in 1943. It is based on a story by John Hersey, adapted for the stage and for television by Millard Lampell. The film is lavish in its re-creation of the ghetto, the atmosphere of the period, the transportation of so many
of the Jews to Treblinka.
The film has an international cast led by Tom Conti and Lisa Eichhorn. Unfortunately, some of the American actors sound far too American, especially Griffin Dunne (who was to appear in After Hours, Who's That Girl) and Rosanna Arquette. Diane Weist appears as Conti's wife.
The film is in the vein of mini-series about the war, especially Holocaust.
1. The film as a memoir, the original story, adaptation-for stage and for screen?
2. The impact of the film for a television audience? Its scope, treatment of characters, situations? For the widest audience?
3. Poland, Warsaw, the ghetto, Nazis, war and suffering? Musical score?
4. The structure of the film and its names and dates? The development of the war? The progress of the Jews, the build up towards the uprising? The technique of focusing on a group of characters, especially the family?
5. Audience response to the plight of the Jews, the Nazis, the Poles? Racial prejudice, suffering, deportation and camps, escapes? The Jews being police to their own people? The emotional background to the uprising? A tribute to the Warsaw Jews?
6. The focus on Dolek, Tom Conti's presence and style? Background of his life, relationship with his wife and her illness, getting the medicine-' His relationship to the family? His being a negotiator, having to go into hiding? Becoming more involved, spying on the train and the concentration camp? His moving into the apartment and the encounter with the landlady? Arms deals and sales? Links with the underground? The build-up to the uprising? His involvement in the action? in the sewers? The plan for the escape? His death?
7. The family and the typical Jewish group of the ghetto? The father, his business contacts, his wanting to leave, his card, his being returned, the family feeling that he betrayed them? The children turning their backs on him? Rachel and her leadership, hold over the others, the younger sister's resentment? Her presence, into act-ion? Determined, relationship with Dolek, seeing him, die? Mordechai and his place in the family, his love, the wedding, his father's departure? In action? His sister, the singing of the Hollywood song in the cafe? Love for Steffan, leaving the ghetto? Steffan and his work for the police, wanting his father to go in his place to the camp? His being executed? Mordechai's wife, her activities, the baby crying in the sewer, the grimness of its death? The escape to the woods?
8. The Rabbi and his help, his hold over the group, relationship with Stefan, Stefan wanting him to go in his place, his daughter and the marriage?
9. The leaders of the underground, the uprising, arms deals, the skirmishes, the fights and explosions, the ruthlessness of the death of the baby?
10. The scenes in the streets, the old and the young, the massacres, the Nazi interrogations and barriers? The food, starvation, the trains to Treblinka?
11. The meaning of the Holocaust, the visual impact, emotional?
