Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh

Posted on April 19, 2010 at 3:57 pm

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	NR
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Mild
Violence/ Scariness:	Depiction of wartime and holocaust-related violence
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	2009
Date Released to DVD:	April 13, 2010
Amazon.com ASIN:	B00366E1AU

Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh is a documentary about a woman of incalculable courage and honor. Senesh, an idealist who hoped to help create a Jewish state in Israel, escaped from Hungary to what was then British-controlled Palestine. Instead of staying where she was safe, she joined a mission to rescue Jews in her home country, the only military rescue mission for Jews during the Holocaust. She parachuted behind enemy lines, was captured, tortured and ultimately executed by a Nazi firing squad. The documentary features those who knew her, including Israeli President Shimon Peres, who knew Senesh as a young pioneer in the 1940s, and two of her fellow parachutists, Reuven Dafni and Surika Braverman, along with renowned historian Sir Martin Gilbert.

Senesh is a national heroine in Israel, where her story and her poetry is well-known. Many synagogues around the world sing a hymn with lyrics from one of her poems:

My God, My God, I pray that these things never end,
The sand and the sea,
The rustle of the waters,
Lightning of the Heavens,
The prayer of Man.

This is the last poem she wrote:

Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.
Blessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of the heart.
Blessed is the heart with strength to stop its beating for honor’s sake.
Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.

Yom Hashoah, Day of Remembrance

Posted on April 11, 2010 at 2:14 pm

Today, all over the world, people of all faiths and cultures are observing Yom Hashoah, the annual Day of Remembrance for those who perished in the Holocaust. Yom is Hebrew for “Day” and Hashoah means “of Catasrophe” or “of Destruction.” At the United States Holocaust Museum people sign up to read aloud the names of those who were killed.

All families should pass on to the children an understanding of the Holocaust and the painful realization that our hopes that the sickening inhumanity of what transpired, the systemic effort to exterminate groups based on religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, would itself be enough to prevent future genocide, have not been realized. Good films to begin these discussions include Defiance, the story of a partisan and resistance movement led by three brothers; Conspiracy, a chilling depiction of the meeting of Nazi officers to plan the death camps, and Paper Clips, the story of a small-town school system whose meaningful curriculum transforms the lives of the teachers as well as the students. And don’t forget to watch the new version of The Diary of Anne Frank, premiering tonight on PBS.

Masterpiece Classic – The Diary of Anne Frank

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The Brat Packers Are In Their 40’s

Posted on April 10, 2010 at 12:54 pm

A new book by Susannah Gora takes a look at the group of young actors who appeared in the John Hughes films that seemed to define a generation — and certainly changed the way teenagers were portrayed on screen. You Couldn’t Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation is the story of Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, John Cryer, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estavez, and Anthony Michael Hall and the movies they made with Hughes and others. It was New York Magazine that termed them “The Brat Pack,” a nod to Frank Sinatra’s famous “Rat Pack” of performers who played Vegas and made movies together in between drinks and parties. Hughes’ movies include The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink (I still want Andie to get together with Duckie!), Sixteen Candles, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Gora quotes Roger Ebert’s description of writer-director Hughes as “the philosopher of adolescence” and talks about the impact the movies and their music had on the culture and on the teenagers who appeared in them. The highlight of this year’s Oscar ceremony was the tribute to Hughes from his favorite performers, concluding with Matthew Broderick’s just-right thank you: “Danke Schoen.”

You can listen to Scott Simon’s interview with Gora and the brat pack actors she covers in the book on NPR.

Autism: The Musical

Posted on April 5, 2010 at 11:00 am

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Not rated
Profanity:	Some strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Prescription drugs
Violence/ Scariness:	Tense and unhappy family situations
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	2008
Date Released to DVD:	2009
Amazon.com ASIN:	B0012XIGZ0

In honor of Autism Awareness Month, families can watch Autism – The Musical, about five families dealing with autism as they prepare for a musical performance. The film is illuminating in its depiction of the very different kids with very different abilities, a stark contrast to the one-dimensional portrayal of autism in movies like “Rain Man” or “House of Cards.” It is frank in its portrayal of the strains within the families of the children and between the families as there are clashes between and within the group. And it is deeply moving as we see the children’s courage and their evident joy. (more…)

Five Movies about College Basketball

Posted on April 5, 2010 at 8:00 am

Now that most people’s NCAA brackets are blown up and they’re getting ready to enjoy the final game, it might be a good time to take another look at some fictional college basketball teams in the movies.
1. The Absent Minded Professor Fred MacMurray plays a college professor whose accidental invention of “flubber” (“flying rubber”) gives the school’s basketball team some extra bounce.
2. Tall Story Jane Fonda’s first movie has her co-starring with Anthony Perkins (before “Psycho”) in the story of a basketball star thrown off his game by the attentions of a determined young woman.
3. Glory Road This is the true story of coach Don Haskins (Josh Lucas), who played the first all-black team in the NCAA in 1965 at Texas Western college (now University of Texas at El Paso). Lucas and Derek Luke as one of his players give beautiful performances in this stirring film.
4. Blue Chips stars Nick Nolte in a story of corruption in college recruiting, written by Ron Shelton of “White Men Can’t Jump” and “Bull Durham.”
5. “The Air Up There” A gentler college recruiting story has Kevin Bacon traveling to Africa to persuade the son of a tribal leader who has “the hang time of a helium balloon” to join his team.

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