Customer Reviews

God on Trial

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3 star:		(1)
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I watched "God on Trial" on Masterpiece on November 8, 2008. I found it to be an excellent film, well written and splendidly executed. The men of the film, prisoners at Auschwitz and daily facing death, put God on trial, questioning His commitment to the Jewish people. Why have the Jews suffered so if they are truly the Chosen People and the People of the Covenant? The discussion is deep, moving and at times shattering. I was touched by this film. As a Christian and a student of the Holocaust, I found this to be an excellent film and honest discussion. I highly recommend this film.

I just viewed this on PBS. It was excellent. It asks all of the most difficult questions that we all have about this most dark time of our history has human beings - especially those trying to understand G-d in such a time. And it doesn't end with neat answers and happily ever afters. It isn't afraid to ask things about G-d that are usually considered unspeakable. Neither is G-d diminished by the questions. For those that can handle it, it is a most worthwhile endeavor to be challenged by these questions, and to seek to come up with our own answers. The charge: Did G-d keep His covenant or did He break the contract He made. Excellent use of television.

Is an attrocity such as the holocaust compatible with a belief in a benevolent god? This question is argued passionately on both sides by the Jewish inmates of a concentration camp as they await their probable deaths at the hands of the nazis. Most of the talking points of the current atheist - theist dialectic are discussed in a wide-ranging, intelligent, and provocative debate. With fine performances, taut direction, and an incisive script, this is a first rate drama that builds to an emotionally charged conclusion.

"God on Trial" is an insightful production in the Masterpiece Contemporary series that focuses on a group of Auschwitz inmates who convene a rabbinical court that basically puts God on trial on the charge that God broke his covenant with the Chosen Ones, the sons of Abraham. There are some amazing performances here from some familiar names - Stellan Skarsgard plays a former law professor who presides over the court, Rupert Graves is Mordechai, a modern Jew who is shunned by his father [Jack Shepherd] for turning his back on the traditional Jewish ways, Dominic Cooper plays an angry young Jew who rails against God for forsaking His people, and many more memorable performances.

The arguments swing back and forth as the various individuals make their case - be it in favor of a benevolent God who imposes suffering for a greater good or against an indifferent, wrathful God. This production is first-class - the dialogue is driven by intellectual insights that compel the viewer to think about a lot of things that may cross one's mind but that one never really gives voice to - how does one reconcile a benevolent God with acts of such brutality as perpetrated during the Holocaust and since then [Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur etc], questions to do with Man's faith, the nature of God etc. I could not stop thinking about all these things long after the show ended.

The introduction to the actual court setting [in an inmates' barracks] is well done - a busload of tourists get off at Auschwitz during a tour, and as they are led from site to site, an older visitor mentions an anecdote about the time some inmates put God on trial. This then provides the setting for the flashback to the past. The ending is truly heartrending - the tourists stop to view the gas chamber and it is a somber moment - but as each tourist keeps a moment of silence, they are 'joined' by the actual inmates who were chosen for death by gassing. Their prayers to God in their final moments effectively conveys the power of faith, but it also emphasises the horror that was the Holocaust without relying on the gruesome depictions of Nazi brutality portrayed in other movies of the genre. A compelling production that is not to be missed.

I am ordering this dvd for my mom when it comes out because she wants to show it to her book study group at church (Trinity Lutheran). She taped nearly all of it (missed the beginning) and let me watch it. I was quite critical at first (there are so many holocaust movies, dvd's, etc. out there), but once I started watching it I couldn't stop. I am a young adult, but I have suffered severe trials, physically, mentally, and emotionally, most of which no one should have to endure at my age. I too have asked several of the same questions that are asked in this film, wondering if God has abandoned me, and why He lets people suffer so much, the biggest example being the holocaust during WWII. I have read several books and watched several movies about the holocaust, personal accounts of survival. Why? Because they inspire me to keep going, despite all of my own pain and suffering. This film will ask the questions most people don't like to ask or talk about. I have to question this life because I've seen too much to just accept ridiculous so-called answers. Why was there a holocaust? Why were so many slaughtered? Why do so many people suffer today in their own holocausts? After seeing this film you will never look at life the same again...

This outstanding PBS Masterpiece Theater film recreates what was possibly an actual event that took place at Auschwitz. Some of the prisoners, including a group of new arrivals still in shock, were discussing (not unlike the debate Job and his friends had) whether God had broken His covenant with them as His chosen people by allowing them to be exterminated by the Nazis. They decided the only way to decide was to put God on trial. A panel of three 'judges' was selected, one of whom actually taught criminal law in real life. . What follows is a passionate discussion of whether God has abandoned His people and, therefore, is guilty of the atrocities happening there. The discussion is well reasoned and intelligent. How can a loving God allow this evil, especially with those He is supposed to have such a special relationship with? You may find yourself asking the same questions. How is this possible? What kind of God would allow this? A father and son, one slated to die the next day, vigorously disagree. It's one thing to talk about evil in the abstract. It's quite another to talk about when you are facing the death sentence the next day. You may be surprised at which one defends God and why. The debate is vigorous and stimulating. You may be surprised at the 'verdict'. For many people, this is the ultimate question. How do we deal with evil and a loving God? The acting is terrific and realistic. Watch this and 'you be the judge'. A wonderful contribution to quality programming on television.

This film deals with the problem of evil in a particularly harrowing and intensive way--several condemned prisoners in a Nazi death camp, among them a rabbi, a few educated men, and one "stoolie" who cooperates with the Nazis in order to eat better and increase his chances of survival--come to the astonishing and disturbing decision that God should go on trial. After all, did not God create this world and all the people in it, including the "Chosen People" the Jews--the people most especially dear to him? Why does God permit such monsters as the Nazis to experience triumph and satisfaction, while the Chosen People are condemned to die in the mass extinctions whose horrors will echo through the ages.

The verdict of the prisoners comes after agonizing soul-searching--and the end of the film, though a foregone conclusion, somehow still leaves us clinging to hope.

This film definately was not what I thought it would be. I expected a sappy, sentimental production, and was surprised with an intelligent, thought provoking discussion among prisoners in the camps of Germany. Very well produced, very well acted, and made me sit back and think about the questions posed from a Jewish perspective. It made me marvel at the perseverence of a people who notoriously have suffered at the hands of others, and yet, still maintain a devotion to God rivaled by few. Makes you re-think your relationship with God, and makes you wonder, in the face of such adversity, if ones faith would be so strong, or if you would feel abandoned by your Creator.
I would recommend this to 13+, because of the graphic conversations between prisoners, but all in all, an excellent production.

I am a philosophy professor at an American university and whenever I teach an introductory philosophy course, I show my students this movie. I highly recommend it to those who are intrigued by the intersection of history, philosophy and religion.

The movie is set as a many-sided socratic dialog and it evaluates the problem of evil from the point of view of the Old-Testament. I enjoyed watching it at an intellectual level but it is also one of the most depressing movies I have ever seen. No graphic violence or gore, though. Just point blank argument vs counter argument, by which a roomful of Jewish concentration camp prisoners try to determine if God should be blamed for the whirlwind of horror, suffering and death surrounding them.

However, the movie is not at all just dry, abstract reasoning. It is emotionally provoking (to almost a traumatizing degree) and full of moving scenes and twists where the actors perform brilliantly and quite believably.

My only critical comment is that for some reason, the publishers of this DVD chose to market it as a "MASTERPIECE" and added a 4 minute footage to the beginning and the end of the original movie. In the extra footage, a young well groomed man with a smile as big as the Titanic lectures about how deep and masterful the whole movie is. This pompous packaging creates almost a comical contrast with the dark, realistic and modest outlook of the movie. I would recommend that the viewers skip the extra footage. When I watched the movie for the first time, I watched the extra footage unknowingly and I think it was detrimental to my overall viewing experience.

5 out of 5 stars

When the Chosen People are selected for extermination at Auschwitz, they turn to each other and the wisdom of the Torah for answers. How does a good God allow horrors to occur to the innocent? These questions have been asked and re-asked for millennia, but have a recent hearing in "God on Trial." This superbly-written and wonderfully-acted film throws Jews of all kinds - scholars, rabbis, glove-makers and workmen -- into the crucible of senseless evil. The men are the pious and the fallen away -- even some whose Jewishness was a unknown to them. Under threat of imminent death, they put God on trial. They run through every understanding of suffering. It is payment for sins, it is a sacrifice for a greater good, it is a purifying fire, it is pointless. Plus a few more. "God on Trial" is not a film to use as a release from a stressful week. Yet is a powerful dramatic investigation of man's relationship with a being whose ways are inscrutable, and whose means often seem brutal.