The Prodigal Son

One of the best movies I've ever seen is "The Prodigal Son" directed by Luis Trenker, from Germany, 1934. While the film itself is very special, the film experience was even more so. You see, it was part of a film series shown at Lincoln Center in 1994 entitled, Films of the Third Reich.

Naturally, I supposed that all of the movies would be dreadful propaganda films showing evil Jews conspiring to destroy the world, like the infamous "Der Ewige Jude" (The Eternal Jew) or "Jude Susse" (Suss, the Jew). Both of these are infamous for their portrayal of the what the Nazis called the Jewish Menace. And both of them are awful films from an artistic point of view. You might think that those two qualities always go together, but you'd be wrong. One of the greatest films of the silent era is D.W Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" 1915, yet its outlook and message are so racist and bigoted that one doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. By way of explanation, suffice to say that the movie's hero is the leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

Anyway, I was very interested in seeing these Nazi movies. My interest was thoroughly from a historical point of view, however. Never in my wildest imagination did I think I was going to see a masterpiece. But, lo and behold, Luis Trenker, whom not one American in 100,000 has ever heard of is one of the giants of cinema, bar none. After fifteen minutes or so, I turned to my wife and whispered, "Am I crazy, or is this one of the best movies I've ever seen?" She replied that it was.

I'm sure you're interested in hearing what it's about. The film is typical of a genre called "Heimatfilm" or films of the homeland. They celebrate German virtues of small town farm life, family, etc. In this film, a farm boy decides to leave Germany and travel to New York to make his fortune. He meets with all sorts of trouble and returns just in time for the winter festival.

The scenes of New York are actually filmed on location in our fair city. In fact, the shots are among the most detailed street scenes of New York city shot during the Depression and are amazing. Much of the film is in English. The final sequence shows a German peasant festival, and is also amazing.

Afterwards, I researched Trenker. Turns out he was not a Nazi, and was not sympathetic, particularly with the regime. However, he elected to stay in Germany and continued to make films. After the war, his career withered for various reasons that I don't recall. The lesson for me was powerful. Great art knows no borders and great artists live in every society. This one, alas, is doomed to obscurity because he happened to be born in a society that we rightly regard as the worst ever. It is simply not acceptable to show a Trenker movie on TV in the United States.

And yet, wasn't the Soviet Union also a totalitarian state, guilty of harrowing crimes? But, the artists of the USSR are celebrated in the US, and we don't hate them, we shake our heads in pity that their great talent was stifled due to their bad luck of having been born in an unfree society.

In film, of course, the greatest name in Soviet cinema is Sergei Eisenstein, and his great work, "Battleship Potemkin" is shown on Channel 13 every other Thursday.