Never Forget (1991)

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Leonard Nimoy's acting is, as usual, superb and the story moves along at a decent pace--never edge of your seat excitement but not dragging anywhere either. The problem is that it takes a fairly complex court case and turns it into a good v evil morality play. This often happens when movies are made based on real events because rarely are the actual events compelling enough to hold an audience.The problem with the movie is that the viewer is left with the impression that Mel Mermelstein--a Holocaust survivor--took on a vast, well-financed, powerful network of neo-Nazi extremists who believe the Holocaust is a myth and was able to prove once and for all in a court of law that the Nazi Holocaust did indeed occur and thereby score a great victory for historical truth.In actuality, the case was not about whether or not the Holocaust occurred but whether or not Mel Mermelstein had a valid contract with the Institute for Historical Review. Mr. Mermelstein did get the judge in the case to take judicial notice of the fact that Jews were gassed at Auschwitz.This, however, was not a major coup for historical truth nor was it anything new. As far back as 1946, the Nuremberg Tribunal that tried the Nazi war criminals took judicial notice of the fact that Jews were murdered in gas chambers at Auschwitz--and that Jews were murdered in 'steam chambers' at Treblinka while at Belsen they were killed in a room with an electric floor.A fact is not proved to be true when a court takes judicial notice of it. Theoretically, a court should only take judicial notice of a fact because it has already been proved to be true. The fact that a judge in California took judicial notice of gas chambers at Auschwitz has meaning only to lawyers in a court room in California. It means nothing to a historian.In the movie, Mel Mermelstein proves that the Holocaust is true and the IHR is forced to pay him the $50,000 they offered to anybody who could prove a single Jew was gassed at Auschwitz and they are forced to apologize to Mr. Mermelstein for causing him anxiety and to acknowledge that Jews were indeed gassed at Auschwitz.Nothing could be further from the truth. The IHR in actuality settled out of court before trial because litigating the case would easily cost more than what Mr Mermelstein was asking in damages. The IHR did not have to acknowledge that there were gas chambers at Auschwitz and, although they wrote an apology to Mr. Mermelstein for causing him anxiety, they did not apologize for questioning the official holocaust story.There'a a big difference between a husband who tells his wife he is sorry that he came home drunk last night and the husband who tells his wife he's sorry that she was angry at him for coming home drunk last night. The IHR apology is along the lines of the latter. They said they were sorry that Mel Mermelstein got upset that the IHR asked for proof of gassings at Auschwitz. The IHR did not apologize for asking for proof of gassings at Auschwitz.The movie ends with the historical truth of the Auschwitz gas chambers triumphing over the evil of neo-Nazi holocaust deniers, all because one man had the courage to speak the truth. As far as genuine Holocaust scholarship is concerned however, Mel Mermelstein contributed nothing to our understanding. He did not submit any evidence that Jews were ever gassed at Auschwitz to either the IHR or to the courts. As far as the offer the IHR originally made in 1979--$50,000 to anyone who can prove that there were gas chambers at Auschwtiz--Mel Mermelstein was able to provide an affidavit of his own experiences at Auschwitz but nothing more. He submitted nothing that addressed the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz. He didn't even say that he saw the gas chambers with his own eyes!! To this day, Mel Mermelstein has not proved that there were gas chambers at Auschwtiz and nobody else has submitted any proof of gas chambers at Auschwitz in connection with the IHR contest either.The fact that anybody watching this movie would believe that they understand the basic facts of this case but instead would have no idea of what really happened is what makes the movie so awful in my mind. It would be a pretty good little flick if it was presented as a work of fiction. Presenting it as based loosely on the truth is misleading at best and is more accurately described as a demonstrable fraud.

For those that hate, there were never enough minorities tortured, hung, gassed or stuffed into ovens to satisfy their aversion. By means of their denial that the holocaust existed, or their statements that events were "over-exaggerated", they aim to further insult and injure the survivors and descendants of those who suffered Hitlers "final solution".There was a time after the war that we said "never again"! Never again would we allow genocide to occur anywhere on this planet. How soon we forget our pledge. Genocide and ethnic cleansing are still very much a reality, and just as it did in the early days of Hitlers Germany, it goes on mostly unfettered and continues today in places like Rwanda, and Malaysia. At the very least we need to send a message to those that hate and commit acts of wholesale murder.Hitler still exists. His legacy resides in men like president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who called for the destruction of Israel, and who goes virtually unopposed by the world community. It is no surprise that Ahmadinejad is a holocaust denier himself, and has even called for conferences in an attempt to question the events in Nazi Germany. He has called for Jews and Christians to be forced to distinguish themselves by wearing colored badges. Very reminiscent to Nazi Germany's requiring the Jews to wear the Star of David. Mostly Ahmadinejad is a man of words rather than actions at present time. However, there once was a time when Hitler was confined to spewing his hate in the beer halls of Bavaria. Do we ever learn? I have found that hate doesn't have to have logic or reason, it just has to exist. No matter where hate exists, no matter what race or religion it is aimed at, it must not go unopposed. These men and their ideas must be stopped. Today they come for your neighbor, but perhaps tomorrow they will come for you.

For a made for TV movie, it's not actually all that bad. Leonard Nimoy does a fine job and it's nice to see him step out of the Spock role every once in a while.Unfortunately it's takes a complex court case and turns into a simple good v evil morality play. It also unfairly portrays the villains as Nazis and anti-Semites, which they are not.Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the movie is the celebration of the judge's decision to take 'judicial notice' of pivotal facts in favor of Leonard Nimoy's character as a great victory when in fact this single action has suppressed historian's ability to factually investigate and understand one of the major catastrophes of the twentieth century--the Holocaust.

I know William Cox who is portrayed here by Dabney Coleman. After watching the video with him he told me that it was an accurate account of the events that took place. Mr. Cox suffered significant financial losses taking this case but felt a personal need to continue. The concept of using "Contract Law" to establish other legal precedents is now taught to first year law students as a result of this case. Perhaps someday the video will be more widely available.