The Quarrel
by Eli Cohen
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Arthur Grosser, Jay Aitchess, Merlee Shapiro, R.H. Thomson, Saul RubinekDirector: Eli Cohen
Cinematographer: John Berrie
Editor: Havelock Gradidge
Writer: Joseph Telushkin
Writer: David Brandes
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 85 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-04-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Fox Lorber
Movie Reviews of The Quarrel
Movie Review: The trials our faith are put through
Summary: 5 Stars
I watched this on VHS a few nights ago for a second time. On this occassion I seem to have been on the correct frequency because the film jolted me deeply. In fact I would volunteer that the quarrel of these two men is one that I profoundly identify with. I bring to this review the wonderfully challenging quote from the German philosopher, F. Nietzsche "Belief means not wanting to know what is true". One has to toss that around in the mind for a few minutes until the embers start to glow and we start to feel a rumbling of a predictable emotional reaction. For those who are the product of a belief system, which in my case was the Judaic, though equally valid for all major religious systems, the notion that belief must be put aside in order to allow the truth to make itself visible....is anametha insofar as the truth was "believed" by followers to have been revealed by a higher power, usually through a messenger like a prophet. So, if that was the case then it was not belief that was an impediment, but a willingness to believe what was revealed. But, is that the case? Can we be so sure that the "truth", whatever this might be, can ONLY be revealed by divine messages? Or, maybe Nietzsche had it correct, and that we must find the truth on our own, without recourse to falling back on a belief that our ancestors were properly instructed in what truth was?
Returning to the film, the premise is that two long seperated Jewish students from a small town in Eastern Europe, who had both thought each other the victims of the holocaust, bump into each other in Montreal long after the war. The one who had left the Yeshiva to follow Nietzsche's path only had his distaste for faith deepened, the other friend who was devout remained so. Both lost all of their families in the most tragic of ways and both were burnt by the heart break that this forced them to live through. However, the polarities of their attitudes and choices only made them appear further apart. But, this is just the premise of the drama and as we listen to them quarrel we see that the fringes of their relationship are filled with many grey areas that they both acknowledge. They are also incapable and unwilling to allow that mutually shared grey area to muddy their own convictions with any extra ambiguities. They both argue with equal heartfelt and intelligent passion that their own views are valid and correct.
There are some special moments in this drama that bring the two long lost friends to a realization that there will always be places within themselves where their common love and respect for each other, founded in their youth, will always live on. These areas are highlighted when the men begin to reveal some of their own secrets about what they experienced, choices made that now fill them with regret and pain. Both men recognize how very much alike they are at simple levels, how their wounds bleed the same color blood, how much they toil to find truth in their own ways.
Who then argues for the correct path to enlightenment? They both do and with equal conviction. Their argument is everyone's struggle to come to balance the pains of the spirit, the dissapointments and destructions imposed on our hearts and minds. It is well enough known that many people who began their lives before WW2 and survived concentration camps and ghettos lost all of their faith at wars close. It is also true that some who lived through the death camps, losing their families, often destroyed before their eyes, also came through with an even deeper belief in their creator and their place in the world. How do people manage to bring that sort of order to a life that survived such degradation and darkness? The drama points at that question and the turmoil of the quarrel offers just a few ideas to consider. Faith, it is said, is a personal matter between a person and their divine figure. There is probably no more correct approach, one over the other. If free will is believed to exist, then we can choose our own methods in which we seek our answers, in which we try to find what the truths are. I would offer that the far greater tragedy is that so few humans stop at some point and ask what the truth is; the greatest mass of humanity accepts what truth is by passive submission to what they have been taught. How can they examine those truths outside of beliefs grip?
The two main actors are Canada's finest and have been in several dramas together. I strongly recommend this for its provocative and well written dialogues. Superbly acted; this will linger in the mind for a long time.
Summary of The Quarrel
A chance reunion of two Holocost survivors - one a Hasidic Jew, the other a skeptical journalist who has turned his back on religion - leads to a searing probe of good and evil and an ultimate test of faith and redemption. Interactive Menus, Scene Access, Filmographies, weblinkSimilar DVD Movies
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