BEFORE: Now I've really got to boogie, because it's just nine days until the start of the Doc Block and I've got nine films to watch to get there - so no more skip days in June, we're gonna ride this narrative train until we run out of rails.
Sally Messham carries over from "Aftersun", and I really didn't have too many options coming out of that one, I mean it was either punt and look for another Paul Mescal film, or just go with this one. This is easier, I think.
THE PLOT: Acclaimed writer and historian Deborah E. Lipstadt must battle for historical truth to prove the Holocaust actually occurred when David Irving, a renowned denier, sues her for libel.
AFTER: This is a movie about the vagaries of the British legal system, as a Holocaust denier began to make arguments in favor of the theory that the Holocaust had not happened, it was all just a big misinterpretation of the facts of World War II, he started causing disruptions during lectures given by Deborah Lipstadt, an American historian and author. According to David Irving, Hitler did not have a particular grudge against Jewish people, he only put them in labor camps, not concentration camps, where a lot of them just happened to die natural deaths, as people tend to do. According to him, Hitler put a lot of groups of people into labor camps, like gypsies, gay people, the poor and the unhoused and the physically disabled - and he only had their best interests at heart, like who couldn't use the extra exercise and the structured life that only a labor camp could provide? And the meals, I mean, don't even get me started on the free meal service, you probably can't beat the food served to you in the chow line at a labor camp, plus the feeling of camaraderie that only comes from being on a work crew with a thousand other people, working from sun-up to sundown with no breaks. Concentration camps? Perish the thought, why would a practical German man like Hitler kill all those people when he considered them a resource, he would have put all that labor to good use!
But when American historian Deborah Lipstadt labeled him as a "Holocaust denier", essentially calling him a nut and a wacko, he sued her and her publisher for libel, now ordinarily you might think that he would be seeking damages if he could just prove that her depiction of him had damaged his reputation, however in the U.K. the burden of proof in such a case would like with the defendant, in other words he would win his case unless the author could prove that her statements were true, and that he was lying about the Holocaust when he said it didn't happen. Therefore to win the case against her, Lipstadt and her legal team had to prove in court that the Holocaust DID happen, 60 years after the fact. Meanwhile Irving would have his day in court and a platform to state his own beliefs, as far-fetched as they might seem.
This all hearkens back to the infamous "McLibel" case, where the McDonald's restaurant corporation sued a couple of environmental activists who were circulating pamphlets that promoted "What's Wrong with McDonald's" listing things about the company that they did NOT want people to know, like the animal cruelty endemic to their products, the damage done to the environment, low wages paid to employees and the overall unhealthiness of their foods. McDonald's, an American corporation used to American laws, sued the activists for libel and then found itself in the unique position of having to prove that those facts about the company were untrue, in order to win the case. Yes, the company then had to prove, after filing the suit, that McDonald's burgers, fries and shakes were NOT unhealthy, and that their method of harvesting cows and tearing down forests to create more pasture land were things that were GOOD for the environment, which of course they were not. At some point McDonald's Corp realized they would NOT be able to prove these things and settled the case.
The best irony came at the end of the proceedings, when it was revealed that in a secret meeting, McDonald's said they would allow the activists to continue to criticize McDonald's privately, to their friends, but needed to cease talking to the media. The activists' response was that they would agree to these terms, but only if McDonald's would stop advertising their products and instead only recommend the restaurant privately, just to their friends.
To prepare for her defense, Lipstadt and her lawyers visited the site of the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp, along with a research team, while a historian explained the operation of the gas chambers. Armed with this information, the legal team felt qualified to present their proof to the judge in the case (a single judge was determined to be more efficient than a jury of citizens, and surpisingly, Irving agreed to this) but the legal team also wanted to minimize the testimony of the author herself, they just wanted to present the facts and felt that perhaps she would be too emotionally involved. Also she wanted to call witnesses who survived the camps to testify, and the legal team nixed this as well, which really annoyed and confused her, like wouldn't the people who were there be the best witnesses?
But since the primary goal was to discredit the arguments and evidence that Irving was using to support his claims, the legal team wanted to just focus on this, because it was the quickest path to legal victory. If they could poke enough holes in his "factual evidence" or prove that he was lying with his claims AND new it, that would be enough to win the case. As the trial concluded, the judge pointed out a paradox, that even if Irving was incorrect and the Holocaust happened as most of us believe, if he believed his own incorrect claims, then he could not have been lying as Lipstadt had asserted - meaning that he had a God-given right to be wrong, as harmful as that might seem to the Jewish faith. The defense lawyers countered that if Irving has acted in an anti-Semitic way, then that itself is proof that his falsification of history was deliberate.
Well, the judge ruled for the defense, which meant that Irving was not believable and had really fudged the facts to support his own claims, and therefore the Holocaust did happen and umm, hooray, I guess? Haters are still going to hate, of course, there's nothing we can do about that, but we should be calling out lies and deceit and alternative facts whenever we see them. Are you listening, U.S. press over the last two Trump terms? That is your JOB, to call out the B.S. when you see it or hear it, and if the President is spouting alternative facts, that needs to be reported on, every single time. Because if you let it slide a few times, then he knows he can get away with it, again and again and again, and then, where are we? Oh, right, we're in a dictatorship where the man in power gets to determine what news gets reported and what doesn't, which comedians are allowed to say things about him on late night shows. He's been chipping away at our freedom of speech for ten years now, haven't we had enough of that yet?
Directed by Mick Jackson (director of "The Bodyguard")
Also starring Rachel Weisz (last seen in "Runaway Jury"), Tom Wilkinson (last seen in "Burke and Hare"), Timothy Spall (last seen in "The Love Punch"), Andrew Scott (last seen in "Back in Action"), Jack Lowden (last seen in "Capone"), Caren Pistorius (last seen in "Unhinged"), Alex Jennings (last seen in "The Wings of the Dove"), Harriet Walter (last seen in "Man Up"), Mark Gatiss (last seen in "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning"), John Sessions (last seen in "Belfast"), Nikki Amuka-Bird (last seen in "Rumours"), Pip Carter (last seen in "1917"), Jackie Clune, Will Attenborough (last seen in "Hunter Killer"), Max Befort, Daniel Cerqueira (last seen in "Fade to Black"), Laurel Lefkow (last seen in "Jay Kelly"), Elliot Levey (last seen in "The Lady in the Van"),
Helen Bradbury (last seen in "The Dresser" (2015)), Jacob Krichefski, Abigail Cruttenden (last seen in "The Theory of Everything"), Hilton McRae (last seen in "Macbeth" (2015)), Andrea Deck, Lachele Carl (last seen in "Wit"), Paul Hunter, Amanda Lawrence (last seen in "Matilda: The Musical"), Basil Eidenbenz, Edward Franklin, Ziggy Heath (last seen in "How to Build a Girl"), Sean Power (last seen in "Lost in London"), Tom Clarke Hill, Jeremy Paxman (last seen in "Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie"), Julie McCarthy, Bob Edwards, Amber Batty (last seen in "Philomena"), Nicolas Tennant, Ian Bartholomew (last seen in "Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre"), Laura Evelyn (last seen in "Last Christmas"), Darcey Brown, Kirsty Curry, Michael Epp (last seen in "The Brutalist"), Ellie Fox (last seen in "Jason Bourne"), Glym Grimstead (last seen in "Saltburn"), Anne Wittman (last seen in "The Mystery of D.B. Cooper")
RATING: 6 out of 10 components in an English breakfast
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