On Avoiding Racism

The disclaimer for this post is that anti-Israeli sentiment often gets mistaken for anti-semetic rhetoric. With that in mind, how do images of the modern Jewish male not reflect actual Israeli diplomacy? Spielberg's Munich may try to set the record straight, but Woody Allen has spent his career defining the post war Jew as neurotic, inept, and weak. Perhaps, Woody Allen's on-screen performances can be taken as a caricature of Phillip Roth's Nathan Zuckerman. Allen's heirs seem to be Zach Braff and Judd Apatow whose recent film work depict the plight of the modern American male as a series of compromises, concessions and settlings.

Juxtapose this with the modern Jewish female in the performances of Sarah Silverman and maybe Regina Spector (for lack of a better example, Madonna isn't really Jewish right?) or even their ancestors Barbara Streisand and Joan Rivers and you have strong images of female artists not afraid to do or say anything. If one were to not take into account Streisand's stage fright.

It is interesting considering Israeli Defense Forces are considered a powerful military source. And also that service is mandatory for both men and women.



MOVIE LIST:

Sweeney Todd - 2007 (Becomes worse not better by fast-forwarding through all the songs)
Material Girls - 2007 (Haylie and Hilary Duff played each other's part. This never happens with the Olson Twins)
My Blueberry Nights - 2008 (Tom Waits divided by Ethan Hawke equals Silk Stalkings minus sex)
They Live - 1988 (Ideology: a monster or more scary than monsters? You discuss)
Shampoo - 1975 (What’s it all about Beatty? The Kierkegaardian Narrative strikes again)
Alien 3 - 1992 (Rethinking Fincher's oeuvre, Se7en is his first film, Alien 3 is just a 2 hour music video)
Forgetting Sarah Marshall - 2008 (disappointing that in the U.S. Russell Brand is now more famous than Noel Fielding)
Atonement - 2007 (Proof, that there are still stories left to be told in the world)