Customer Reviews

Jud Suss (Jew Suess): The Deluxe Restored Version

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My husband requested this DVD: here's his response: I've read alot about this film and seen clips from it in documentaries. This edition is very good - restored version and informative supplements. Watching this film provokes divided reactions. You can admire it for its expensive production values, acting, photography, and editing. Director Veit Harlan's use of crowd scenes are also impressive here as in his other films. It's comparable to the handsome Hollywood historical biopics of the time such as Warner Brother's 'The Life of Emile Zola' and others with Paul Muni. The big difference is you will detest 'Jud Suss' for its obvious message (unlike the 'Zola' film) which was to inflame anti-semitism and quash sympathy for Jews at a time when Germany was preparing to destroy them. The film's production history and aftermath is worth exploring. After the war Ferdinand Marian who played the title character supposedly committed suicide due to guilt over his role and Werner Krauss who portrayed several stereotypical Jews was blacklisted. Harlan was acquitted twice for war crimes and went on to make more films. History is still divided about Harlan's role in creating the film. Was he forced to make it or was he a willing co-conspirator who made it too good? There's a new documentary about Harlan that might provide answers. We need to see 'Veit Harlan: In the Shadow of Jud Suss.' I'll wait for that DVD.

One of the most notorious anti Semitic movies ever made, filmed in Germany in 1940, under the close supervision of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. This was based on a real case and a further
novel by Jewish author Lion Feuchtwanger - obviously, the Nazis completely distorted the source material so that this film is completely anti-Semitic. The movie was a huge success at its time - millions of Germans watched it and SS boss Heinrich Himmler made viewing the movie mandatory for every member of his organization. Today the film is banned in Germany.

In 18th century Germany, the foolish duke of Wurttenberg decides to make the Jewish businessman Joseph Suss Oppenheimmer his financial adviser. Soon disaster will come to the dukedom, in the form of a higher cost of living (under advice from Suss, the duke sharply rises all sort of taxes). Suss also advices the duke to let the Jews enter Wurttenberg (from where they were banned from residing). Eventually, the members of Wurttenberg council, decides to rise against the duke and his adviser.

Ironically, in some ways the message of the movie looks different today than originally intended. To a modern audience, the Germans in the movie are so naïve, ignorant and narrow minded that they seem off
putting, while Suss appears to be, until he turns into a rapist and torturer toward the end, not such a bad guy, just a sharp, quick if a bit ethically loose businessman. Putting tolls in the roads of Wurttenberg doesn't look to be such a bad thing, while the politicians of the council opposing Suss seem uptight, arrogant and pompous. The character of Faber seems an unbearable, prejudiced young hothead, while his wife Dorothea, the Christian girl Suss strives for and that will be one of the causes of his downfall (played by Kristina Soderbaum, wife of director Veit Harlan) is so dumb and foolish, one feels she is not really worth the trouble. Even the portrayal of the rabbi of the community seems almost positive to a modern audience: he tells Suss to be very careful in his political dealings with the Germans, lest this backfire on the Jewish community.

Ferdinand Marian gives an amazing multifaceted performance as the cunning but magnetic Suss, without him the movie would be far less powerful than it is. Finally, I give this movie a high rating because I think is very well made - I certainly find its message hateful.

This movie is proof that art can be evil as hell.

"Jud Suss" is a Nazi propaganda film commissioned by Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels. It was released in September, 1940 to drum up public support for the extermination of the Jews, particularly in Poland, soon after the war began.

This movie is wonderfully acted, the cinematography is impressive, and the costume design is breathtaking. It is also a piece of propagandistic garbage reflecting the values of the fevered, anti-Semitic cultural swamp that was Nazi Germany. The villain in "Jud Suss" is a lecherous, greedy Jew (Suss) played by Ferdinand Marian. Suss befriends the Duke Of Wurttemberg, persuading the duke to grant him the right to collect road tolls, taxes, and various other subsidies. Suss then proceeds to plunder the state of Wurttemberg while raping innocent, doe-eyed Christian maidens and defrauding the good people of the city.

"Jud Suss" is a movie built on stereotypes and hatred of others. Be careful, though. You might find yourself enjoying this piece of trash.

ex ante:
i would be a phony, if i'd say, i can identify
with words like 'patriotism', 'honor', 'allegiance',
'proud', 'loyalness' or anything
else like this!
i am absolutely not anti-semitic,
i don't believe anybody is better
than another people, just 'cause
of religion, skincolor or policy affinity!

dear americans!

in germany is this movie in point of fact still prohibited!
it was captured on film in 1940 and 'til now, more than 70 years later, it is
still banned by the german censor!

that is desolate!
it should not be censored - it should be compulsory subject in
all senjor classes, in every obligatory secondary school!
if a student realizes the audio-visual policy of the nazis,
he/she will also know much more, how to expose
with the propaganda today!
no matter, who wants to purchase influence!

since i saw this film the first time, i am
much more "sharp-eyed"!
don't be afraid of the movie, have no fears of contacts -
but see it with the respect and the knowledge what it
has helped to do with 6 million
innocent people!

the plot of the movie is describable with
less words:

a greedy, devious, lustfully jew influences a simple-minded
duke to fleece the german people...but at the end the
just punishment claims him!

this movie is so dangerous, because the brainwash
is often so subtile, so subliminal, that you have
to face every single scene like a 'criminal investigator'!

for example:
dorothea, the girl oppenheimer want's to have, asks him
where in the world he lived in his life before, and
where he deeply felt at home.
in paris, rome, madrid or berlin -
he answers: 'everywhere in the world!'
i'm 30 years old, and i didn't visit all these cities
'til now, and found it great, to know all places
and feel just good....
...and even in this moment i almostly didn't noticed
the antisemitism in this, for me harmless, situation!
the contemporary broadcasted thought of the nazis namely
was: a patriotic german has to have only one home, one
country, the place where his father and his father's
father lived and died!
a jew on the other hand is homeless, a jew decides
only opportunistic where he lives, which prince,lord
or master he serves!honor and fatherland's love
are strange for him! he is like a rat - everywhere
home, everywhere a curse, everywhere disgusting!
...and if this would not be enough, dares this 'rat'
it, to leer the young woman so horny as if he would
want to rape her in the next moment!

this all is in this scene of 30 seconds hidden!

veit harlan, the director, did his work very well -
and of course almost every scene is obviously so full
of hate and prejudges for people, let's say,
with a simple disposition! ;-)
he borrows every cliche you can imagine!
goebbels gave him every budget, he wanted to have!
nazi-germany's first class actors play, like there
were no tomorrow!
there are scenes with magnificent buildings, crowds of
supernumeraries (hundreds of jews from the ghetto near
the shooting were forced to play),
so much beautyfully historical costumes and scenery....

....for the limited purpose to stir up hatred
against jewish people!

if you face the real historical facts,
joseph suesskind oppenheimer did 'your way',
the 'american way' in the late middle ages of europe!
he went over the social classes and
became the mighty finance-advisor of a duke!
he was hanged by the protestants in 1738
because they where green with envy!
the real greedy where not the jews -
but rather their christian judges!

he was a 'self-made man' - not a criminal!
he became the victim of an judicial murder!

IHF restored the film, but the result disappointed me!
many scenes seem just digitalized - but not really restored!
they definitely cut at least one scene,
maybe their original material was to bad for a good result -
the final cut of 1940 is a bit longer!
they added interesting comments, pictures of the original
cinema posters and a good booklet!

buy the movie if you are interested in
propaganda or a fan of historical films,
but allow me to point out:
don't forget to activate your brain!
something cruel like the holocaust
we can never let happen again!

Danusha Goska, a intelligent journalist with
a deadly pen, unmasks the movie and so the
whole nazi-regime very ironically,
in her article called:
'loving jud suess' -
i added it for you to the comments
of my review!

(if you are only interested for jud suess,
stop reading here!)

__________________________________________________

i have drawn this line, because the following stands
not in a direct context with JUD SUESS, but i think
as a "post scriptum" are these thoughts relevant
for my personal view of history and the world
today!

before i write my added statement, it is very
important for me, that you will not think:
"ever so, the german guy showed regret -
but now he wants to point with his finger
at the facts showing, other nations also
have prejudices and also americans want
to earn much money with propaganda!"
i don't wanna be a wise guy!
i only wanna take your hand,
and travel in time!

i never in my life killed a single jew and
my father and grandfather also did
this not - it is rather so, my
grand-grandfather didn't went home
to russia after world war I, married
a wife with no brothers and became
so a farmer with much caddle and land...
...the better option for him, than going
back to the land of his birth, without
nutrition, money, a wife and even a big ranch!
the result of all this was, that at
the beginning of world war II his son-
my grandfather- and his other children where
pretty neigh, to make a nice
rail journey with no come back...!
so i am anything else than a proud aryan!

...but now back to may statement:

i grew up with the opinion, all americans
are my friends and on the other side there
are the cruel, nasty russians!

like most joung boys i enjoyed action-movies!
my favourite idol was sylvester stallone!
he was really tough, cool, without fear
and so muscular!
the year 1988 was gone and in '89 my best
friend visited me with a vhs tape and my
heart begun to pound, 'cause on the cassette
was the new, third part of "first blood" -
the new rambo-movie!
i saw the film one hundred times and found it
great!i'm born in 1981 - so i was 8 at my
first view!

now i am 30 years old, and of course
the "limited ultimate BD rambo edition" has a
place of 'honor' ;-) in my shelf....
...but now i see my hero with the "sharp-eyed view",
i told you!
with 8 years i was so naive, but now i am
so often contrary-minded with the message of
Sly's movies!
is he really so shallow, or found he just a
very simple system, to earn much money with
persons having a simple disposition?!?

it is so ironically, that rambo III became a punch in his face,
because at the end of the movie is in big letters written:
"dedicated to all the brave mudschaheddin
of afganistan..."

one year later the iron curtain dropped and the still brave
mudschaheddin found their leader in a man called usama bin laden -
the rest is sad history....!

my problem with stallone's movies is, that they where made in my
lifetime, and not over 70 years ago!

hate is as old as mankind!
i think, if we look in the history of films,
we don't have to talk about "birth of a nation" -
pure racism, but meanwhile now it is
almost 100 years old....

but "rules of engagement" was produced
in this millennium!

...remember the "sharp-eyed view" again and watch this movie!
maybe, the people in germany had similar fears and prejudges
about jews, like we have them in the united states and in germany
today about radical muslims?!?

when i watch 'rules of engagement', it's message insinuates oneself
into my heart - although my mind reluctants!
this film plays with my prejudges - whereas i don't want it!
i figure it out...but there is this frightened voice in my
heart and says "it's best to get unpleasant things over and done
with...and maybe we'd better kill them all, before
they grave the power all the world and kill us...?!?"
unbelievable, evil emotions....caused through fears
for the future!

you will shake your head in disbelief, why so many people
didn't figure out the intension of jud suess...
but on the other hand is the question, wich kind of emotions
shall be awakened by the blockbusters of modern hollywood?!?
you wouldn't expect, how many movies are partially financed
by the us army!

yours tobieras ;-P

please excuse potential mistakes
in my words, the tense
and the grammar/syntax!

I rather enjoyed this jolly little film, the ending had me in fits of laughter, talk about high camp!

The film was well made and succeeded in Germany as a propagada tool for the Nazi party but dangerous today? OH COME ON!
The film when viewed today is considerably less scary than an episode of Falcon Crest and about as mind-bending as a small gin and tonic. Jud Suss is however a rewarding experience if one is prepared to sit down and work out what is actually going on.

I guess like many folk I am getting a bit sick and tired about being told what I can watch, think or say in the comfort of my own home and therefore a big thank you to Amazon and the distributors for making an excellent print of this movie available. I would disagree with some of the reviews that suggest it is essential to watch the documentary 'Veit Harlan, The making of Jud Suss' which although interesting I found to be a tad tedious in detailing the soul searching of some of Harlan's grand-children.

Having visited Mathausen cocentration camp quite recently one cannot condone or deny what was done there and at other concentration camps dotted around central Europe. I would urge any adult to visit one of those camps if given the chance to do so and such a visit will have far more effect in preventing the resurgence of a new Nazi party than keeping Jud Suss 'in the closet' so to speak.(I personally find the practice of sending school children to such places as part of their school studies as is the case in Germany and Austria something bordering on child abuse)

Its time to move on, not forget or deny what happened but to allow those of us who were born well after the nazi period the chance to see and make up our own minds about cinema of the period. Sitting down and watching Jud Suss, Kolberg, Die Rothschilds, or any other form of so called Nazi propaganda isn't going to turn anyone into a Nazi but may just give us an insight into why such a film might have had such a powerful effect on viewers in Germany over seventy years ago.

At one point in this film, a character states, "no one is as smart as a Jew." Yes, that was said in this film, a movie that Hitler approved of. I was pretty shocked. That tells me that the Nazis not only despised the Jews, they felt intimidated by their intelligence as well. I also thought that this film, while mainly depicting Jews as evil, showed the Germans to be naive fools who allowed their city and everything in it to be easily taken over by a single Jew. Honestly, I'm surprised that the German society at the time was not insulted by this film. If I were German, I would feel insulted, but that was then, and this is now. Perhaps my perspective is different because times have changed. A whole country was brainwashed by a mad man, so I suppose people were walking around with blinders on.

In a way, although this film depicts those "evil Jews," I also thought it was a knock on German Christian society. To me, it was like reading between the lines of a book, if you look deeply enough.

I feel that this film is an important piece of historical work given the context of the Holocaust and the persecuation of the Jewish people. However, it should be studied not only as a piece of inflammatory hatred during the worst period in human history, but as a piece that allows us to get into the minds of the perpetrators.

For some inexplicable reason, Amazon has removed the rate-movie feature from the main product page. One must now write a review in order to rate a movie and generate recommendations. This is not a review, but merely a means to allow me to rate this movie and improve my recommendations. If you are as annoyed by this new "feature" as I am, please register your protest w/ Amazon help.

This movie is an excellent propaganda vehicle, there's nothing you can say about it. Show this film to a little kid, and that kid's gonna hate Jews forever. Guaranteed.

All dictatorships have their ideological vehicles. And usually they tend to be very well crafted and performed: "Triumph of the Will" from Nazi Germany, "Battleship Potemkin" from USSR, "The East Is Red" from China o "Yo Soy Cuba" from the island of Fidel... Even the US had their propaganda film in "The Birth Of A Nation".

After seeing this one, one wonders how many movies Hollywood has made depicting other ethnic groups as evil, lascivious, subhuman and death-deserving? I can remember a lot of movies with Amerindians, Africans, Hispanic, Japanese, Germans, Russians, Vietnamese and Arabs, all of them portrayed as so heinous, so cruel and so beastly, that people watching these films wish them all killed till the last one... And nobody calls them "propaganda", which obviously they are!

Sometimes, I don't see the difference between "Jud Suss" and "Rambo", "Black Hawk Down" or "Rules of Engagement".

By the way, the actor Ferdinand Marian didn't commit suicide. He died in an car accident in 1946, the same day he was merrily driving to Munich, to receive his denazification papers that would allow him to work as an actor again... Bad luck for him.

Although the film is the product of a despicable regime, the technical and acting quality is good. Veit Harlan delivers a convincing propaganda film.

Jud Süss from 1940 is notorius for its antisemitism. After 1945 it was banned in many countries. As far as I know it hasn't been run in Sweden ever since.
The problem with the movie to-day is its Janus-head. It is repulsive in its message. Simultaneously it is one of the really great works of art in the history of film.
One watches it with split emotions.