God on Trial (2008)

Wow! Such a good movie.

Nice effects though.

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

I would recommend you not read this post if you have yet to see "God On Trial". This movie is essentially a philosophical inquiry so any review of it is almost bound to be a "spoiler" of some sort. This movie sucks big time. Why? Because its writer was deeply dishonest. The question posed by the movie is the question of evil. If there is human suffering (and who could deny that) then is God responsible? The unthinking assumption in this movie is that "God" refers to the tribal god of the Jews. But this is not the greatest sin of the script writer. The movie (the script) moves back and forth between two ideas: God exists and has our best interests at heart, and God exists but does not seem to care about our welfare. The script pretends to examine this question fairly, considering both sides with equal interest. But here is where the script fails dismally: it assumes one common denominator to both "sides". God. When God's possible culpability in allowing millions of Jews to be eradicated is discussed - the obvious answer (that God does not exist) is not entertained. No, the debate, rather, is about whether God is good or not in light of all this suffering. About whether God's so-called Plan can encompass all this misery in a way that still allows a thinking being to hold simultaneously in their mind the idea that "God is good, blameless, and kind" and the idea that "God is all-powerful but somehow impotent in the face of human free will". The entire movie is basically an argument that it is OK to blame the victims (victims of divine non- intervention) because there might conceivably be a Plan our feeble minds cannot appreciate. But that is not the problem I have with the movie. Blaming the victims of an all-powerful supernatural being is one argument an intelligent person can make. An opinion to have. I support the notion that people need to be free to air their opinions, no matter how unconsidered or how much I personally disagree with them. After all, I can only disagree with opinions that are allowed to be expressed and to reach my ear.My real problem with the movie is that the script writer was deliberately dishonest with the audience. The writer had to have been relatively well educated, above averagely educated I would argue, in matters of Judaism and Christianity. Therefore he would have to have known what the Bible clearly says about the ten plagues that ended supposed Jewish enslavement in Egypt. Ignoring the latest scholarship that shows such enslavement never actually happened, the most salient of points about the Moses myth is that GOD "hardened" the heart of Pharaoh and ensured the continued enslavement of the Jewish people throughout the ten plagues, culminating in the slaughter of the first born Egyptians. Most comfortable Christians believe the Pharaoh "hardened" his own heart, that he and his people's young were somehow deserving of punishment, even in the form of the murder of children. Today it is a quite common moral lesson that one should not "harden" one's heart and be therefore uncharitable. Whoever does the "hardening" of heart is to blame, the perpetrator of moral evil. But God "hardened" Pharaoh's heart. God is the perpetrator of moral evil as judged by today's juries. And why did He do this? Merely to show the Jews (not any other human beings) how awesome He was. And after wandering aimlessly about the desert for decades, they still didn't get it. Even divinely inscribed stone tablets were destroyed because the Jews were not convinced of God's awesomeness. These stories have an obvious point: to show people (Jews and their local enemies in those necessarily parochial times) that God is awesome. Frightening. Powerful. These ideas require, at some point in their relating, someone to suffer and die. In fact, the more, the better. Hence the plagues which culminated in the arbitrary death (supernatural murder, in fact) of children, even those of Jews who for some reason had failed to mark their houses with the blood of sheep. (Did God not know whom to kill?) Hence the requirement that Jews, even after their supposed slavery in Egypt, after witnessing life-giving water being struck from a stone in the killing desert, after the parting of an entire ocean's water for their own sake, apparently still could not believe in God's power, or in God. These stories are myths and moral tales, and their purpose, by the very "facts" they relate, is obvious to any scholar of religion. But not, it seems, obvious to the script writer of this movie. Or rather, obvious, but then concealed. This script writer relates the entire story of the ten plagues while paying lip service to the popular idea that the Pharaoh "hardened" his heart, and that God did not in fact manufacture the end result. There is no way a script writer so well versed in Western religion would not know that God, in fact, did the "hardening". Power apparently equates somehow (for some people) to a valid argument for divine supremacy and the requirement for unconditional worship. Stupid, I know, today, but quite valid several thousands of years ago.So, in summary, I think the script writer of this movie was biased toward a "religion positive" position. He deliberately, in the course of his propaganda, avoided relating crucial theological facts that could be seen to harm people's belief in the god of the Western bible. He sold out, in other words, to a specific religion and tried to cover his guilt.The only good thing to come out of this movie as far as I am concerned is that I was motivated to write this unfavourable review. I do enjoy the irony of that. So, watch it but watch it.

Can the idiots who wrote the initial introduction to the movie, "God on Trial" actually spell the word--G.O.D. There is no dash between G and D it's spelled GOD. Do these bastards placed dashed in Muha-mad? What is it about these idiots that they fear even mentioning GOD and now that feared that turned to fear in spelling name GOD? This reminds of the Cold War when the educational system in America would literally have school districts CUT OUT THE MADE OF CHINA so kids would not recognize the communist nation. The end result was the more they did this the more China was recognized because of the questions from kids as to what was cut out. The same thing is taking place with misspelling it. It is the same scenario of the idiots of the Cold War.GOD, HOW I MARVEL AT YOUR GLORY AND WONDERS. Lord, there is no more wonder and puzzling than those you forgot to bestow a brain to, like the democrats and liberals. Please for give them for they know what they do, these must be the missing linking evolutionists are searching for. The reason they cannot find is because it is they, 'Ask now for whom the bells toll....they toll for thy.'Amen

I watched the TV drama not knowing anything about the story of the trial of God. I found the writing to be emotive, considered and intelligent. The acting was of the highest quality, and the setting was perfectly geared to make the viewer feel, as much as possible, the oppressive environment in which the men found themselves. The way the story unfolded and the polarising views to be found were impressively handled. There are a lot of references made to Jewish history, however, when taken as a whole the need to know and understand Jewish history is not essential to the telling of the story and the explanation of our beliefs. I thought the drama was excellent. I would like to see this drama shown to pupils in school, I believe it would be an excellent educational tool, not only about the holocaust but about religion in general and where we place God in our lives.

I decided to watch this TV Drama with some apprehension, worried that it would be unbearably depressing to watch, as the outcome is so predictable. We know most inmates were killed in Auschwitz and we know that the trial ended in a guilty verdict. All praise to the writers and performers of this drama therefore for constantly surprising us, those who are meant to argue for the defence often give the most surprising argument for the prosecution and vice versa. Hats of also to all the actors for never stealing each others limelight. Seldom have I seen as balanced a piece of acting, Eddie Marsan and Anthony Sher are there all the time, with very little impact until their chosen moment, whereas others like Stellan Skarsgard are visible all the time but only get to have major influence later on in the drama. The idea of having modern tourists interact with the inmates is used well and sparingly. I thoroughly recommend this drama for anyone willing to engage in thought experiments, it is not really yet another description of what happened in the Second World War in Auschwitz but a novel and complex discussion of evil, guilt and suffering that is most persuasive by not coming up with one right answer.