"God On Trial"

Because I clearly as a masochist and haven't gotten my fill of sad, depressing movies, I put "God On Trial" on my Netflix. First of all, I will admit shamelessly that one of my favorite things about Masterpiece Theatre is that they always have someone introducing the feature presentation and this time it was Matthew Goode. Who I love. OK, shallowness out of the way, let's get onto the movie.

The story is about prisoners at Auschwitz putting God on trial, and the scenes in the camp was juxtaposed with modern visitors to the camp, including an older man who you assume is probably a survivor, which breaks up some of the intensity, but in a good way. The cast was incredible: Dominic Cooper was one of the angriest prisoners who had given up on God, Stephane Dillane and Eddie Marsan were wonderful, and Rupert Graves played a character whose father was selected, yet the trial continues to push them farther apart because of their history.

It's hard to really sum up what I think about the movie so I'm going to put in my favorite quotes and my own thoughts that I jotted down, and then a clip from the final verdict and let you think about it. 

Charge is murder and collaboration

Judges, rabbi as “living torah” “attorneys”, eventually decide on breach of contract, God broke the covenant between him and the Jews

Test of faith, we must pass our test like they passed their (Masada, Romans, Russia, pogrosm, etc.), must keep hearts pure and must pray

Why should we if God has betrayed us? So that we can be a good Jew.

Perhaps we are in breach of our covenant, not God. This is because of our sins.

Some make it personal (Rupert Graves and his father- arguing about keeping religion or marrying out of the faith.)

Debates about free will, purification of God's people, loving the surgeon but not the knife

Maybe God is suffering with us? We don’t need a God that suffers, we need one that brings the Angel of Death to our enemies.

One man asks for the trial to be concluded. Rabbi and judge don’t want to but insists “We are men, they cannot take that away from us.”

Trial interrupted by the beginning of the selections/gassing.

Survival of the people is no longer certain, therefore God is guilty.

Jews were the first to have one God- all the power surrounded by one being. Got the idea that God loves them more than anything else. They prosper, keep to themselves, isolate themselves. Someone comes along with an even better idea. The Christians say that God loves everybody, not just the Jews. It’s all about power and struggle. It’s about having better ideas.

Hitler had the idea that there is one God and that it is him.

They took everything from you- don’t let them take away your God. Let that be something they can’t take away from you.

The men that thought they had been selected had actually been saved. Those who thought they were saved were taken to the chamber. What else is there to do? Pray. Scenes of them praying as they are stripped and taken to the gas chambers.