Truth be told I found some of the back round scoop on this film to be almost as interesting as the movie itself! 'Walk on Water' is based on a true story about a former Mossad (Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations in Israel) agent who returns home from an assignment to find his wife has hung herself and left a suicide note blaming him. During his next assignment he breaks down and decides to leave the agency, enrolls in an arts and literature program at University, meets a young man with whom he has an affair, eventually meets this mans' sister and falls in love with her and they set up a family together.
The film is a collaborative effort between screenwriter Gal Uchovskey and 43 year old director Eytan Fox who are long term committed gay partners of 18 years. Fox was born in NYC , moved to Israel when he was two and grew up in Jerusalem. His dad is a conservative rabbi and Hebrew University professor. Lior Ashkenazi who plays Eyal the Mossad assassin is considered to be "Israel's Brad Pitt." He is 38 years old, heterosexual and openly speaks out about his harrowing experiences in the Israeli army as well as the one gay relationship he did have.
As to the film itself- it took me some time to realize that not only was it addressing how the history of the Holocaust still influences many of their lives and the current day Israeli/Palestinian conflicts, but also some of the deeply rooted homophobic attitudes in the Israeli culture.
I certainly picked up on the sensual/sexual vibes that were dripping off of Eyal, Pia and Axel in almost every scene. All three of them had a powerful and commanding sexual and personal charisma that I questioned continuously throughout: Was this intentional? What was the point, etc.. It occurred to me that there was not one sexually explicit act shown, not a breast, not a kiss, and yet the film felt incredibly erotic.
The entire day where Axel and Eyal are at the Dead Sea all the way through to their evening campfire was delicious and I could feel Eyal's transformation happening.
Everything that took place from the moment Eyal arrived in Germany was EOS and as good as any well written page turner with endless, fast paced yet quietly provocative plot twists till its climax with Axel dealing the final blow to his own Nazi grandfather when he sees that Eyal no longer has it in him to do so. Here we have the about face of both Axel and Eyal's initially presented characters, Eyal the ruthless hit man and Axel the naive 'Nudnick' bleeding heart liberal (at least as seen through the eyes of Eyal). That shift began to make itself apparent in a pivotal moment as the two were coming out of the subway after the fight with the skinheads. Axel turns to Eyal and with a cold stare says, "It's too bad you didn't kill him. (Eyal looks back at him stunned, "What?") These people pollute the world. They turn everything into shit."
From most of the reviews I read feelings regarding the end of the movie with the marriage between Pia and Eyal were mainly negative with a lot of disappointed viewers who thought this was a major 'sell out' to assuage a U.S. audience with a 'Hollywood ending'. I hope some of you will share your thoughts on this in your comments. Thanks for watching!
May 10, 2008
Walk on Water--Discussion has begun!
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19 comments:
WELL, ANOTHER GOODIE. SEEMS I HAD SEEN IT BEFORE AND LOVED IT ,BUT DIDNT THINK OF WHAT I HAD TO SAY.
DISAGREE WITH CRITICS WHO DID NOT LIKE THE ENDING. THE THREE OF THEM HAD A BOND THAT WAS IMMEDIATE AND INTENSE. WHO ELSE COULD HE BE WITH,PLUS THE FACT THAT IT IS TRUE.HOW CAN YOU DISAGREE IWTH THAT.
DO YOU ALL REALIZE THAT THE DANCEHE TAUGHT THE GUESTS IS THE HORA,AN ISRAELY FOLK DANCE.LOVE IT
AND HIS VERY BLOND BABY. GREAT SYMBOLISM. WILL WRITE AGAIN WITH SOME THOUGHTS ON "SINS OF THE FATHERS"
BITSIE
Bitsie, I have to say I agree with you about the ending. I did not find it to be 'Hollywood' at all. Due to the circumstances that had occurred these three people's lives had become totally intertwined in a way that very few people in the world outside of themselves would ever be able to believe, never mind relate to, understand or have compassion for. It makes perfect sense to me that they would become family as outside of themselves none of them now had any!
As to it being true, from what I understand the film was based on a Mossad agent who's wife had killed herself but the whole particular story of this family was not.
It was a 'pageturner' and at times very disturbing but W.W.W. and informative on many levels. E.O.S. and L.L.I.
Watched Walk on Water several weeks ago. Enjoyed it thoroughly, and while I can understand the critics complaints of the happy/sappy ending tying up the plot elements a little too neatly, like the previous posters here I personally found the ending perfectly satisfying. Actually I'd assumed this was where the story was heading from early on in the film, and based on a true story or not, a man can get tired of killing, can change, and can experience the redemptive power of love and family. And in this case the man, Eyal's, vulnerability, especially in the wake of his wife's suicide, was convincinly chronicled throughout the course of the movie. Really, I'm a little unclear just what sort of ending these particular critics would have preferred. We want movies about characters who learn and change during the course of the story. In fact, without the growth experienced by both Eyal and Axel in Walk on Water, there wouldn't have been much of a story at all. I also noted a number of these same reviewers griping that Walk on Water raised more questions than it answered. Again they have me a bit confused. Are we really going to criticize a movie set against a backdrop of aging Nazis (and Nazi hunters), suidide bombers, racism and homophobia for failing to solve all of these problems? Personally I would much rather watch a film that raised serious questions in a way that forced me to think about them -- as Walk on Water does -- than one that presumed to provide pat "answsers" to theses sorts of perplexing social and political issues. Walk on Water may not be a "perfect" film, may be a bit uneven, but it is a movie nonetheless that contains scenes of great power and beauty in spite of the great ugliness surrounding its characters, a movie that definitely works the gray matter, and one I would give 2 thumbs up.
Ditto to all of you on the happy ending.....
Bitsie, I caught the Israeli dance too. Did the people at the party actually not know it was Israeli? The scene where Axel kills his grandfather BMM..LLI at the very least.
The best part for me was watching Eyal and Axel's relationship evolve and I totally agree with you Oldman that the growth and changes in these people were "convincingly chronicled'.
Get out the umbrella! It IS raining men, at least in these films! Lior beats out Pitt by a landslide...
I for one was happy to see that he (and the brother and sister) found peace of mind in the end....instead of letting bitterness eat away at the rest of their lives.
I am shocked by the number of time I have had to re-think this movie.
Like the Mossad agent, I started this movie thinking that old Nazis were no longer a problem in our world. They're old and dying, and so are those that helped them escape the hangman's noose back in '45 or '46. I felt so superior to those still hunting these dirtbags that I missed out on an important point: The Nazi grandfather had family and friends who till this day supported him, wanted him to come home and BELIEVED IN HIS CAUSE.
No, these were not just a bunch of rich Germans with some sordid characters in their past, these were nazis. Real ignorant ones too, if they didn't recognise the Hora when they saw it.
When the movie was over I wondered "how did the brother get away with killing his grandfather?" Then my roommate pointed out that the grandfather wasn't even supposed to be in the country. "What, they're going to report him to the police?" he asked.
I'm suprised that I missed so much. I was right on top of things as the three main characters got to know each other,with the tensions they had. I loved the scene in the German subway station ("He is SOO cool!" I said). But once that family showed up, they had me completely fooled. Boy have I got some thinking to do!
Does anyone remember whether the music that Axel played at the party had words? Was there a singer or just music?
Funny, I was just trying to remember that myself but can't. Very good question , Bitsie might have the answer..??
I could swear I heard Hebrew lyrics being sung but I am not sure if I just made that up in my head. I lent the film to someone and I'll see if they catch it...I can't agree with Oldman and Breather enough, this film continues to exercise my 'gray matter'. I'm really enjoying the feedback and every comment causes me to rethink and rehash another piece of the film and my initial reactions and responses.
Great site, Kick ass comments. Thanks!!!!
Every flick so far has been, as promised, Off The Beaten Path. The only one I would ever have seen on my own (and did a few years back ) was 'Looking for Richard'. I think 'Feed' was wild sick weird and GAH (Gross as Hell) and I'm still glad I saw it. Still looking for the 'Kontroll' soundtrack, has anyone come across it? Favorite conversation was 'After the Wedding', hats off to oldman, cherry and breather for some pretty talented writing.
Favorite movie, 'Pinky's Lament'. Oscar performance.
Slick idea with the abbreviations , I noticed someone has adopted one, hello MCOT! Let's see.., just call me ,hmmmm, how about LEM?
Lovely SPRING FLOWERS Lee Paris. The single rose against the black! After these and WINTER WONDERLAND I can hardly wait for FALL FOLIAGE.(EOS) SUMMER FRUITS in between perhaps?
Speaking of aesthetically pleasing images, my vote for the 'Raining Men' category goes to sapphire eyed Jacob in 'After The Wedding'. A full out HALLELUJAH.
And speaking of Hallelujah, I see that your favorites list includes "I'm Your Man'. Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' is close to other worldly. That might be a fun film for the blog.
Hi, LEM! :) You might try these links on your search for the Kontroll soundtrack:
http://www.amazon.de/Control-Ost-Neo/dp/B0007GJ02G
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070921132216AAWhxYH
So between your mention of Kontroll and breather's comment,
"I loved the scene in the German subway station ("He is SOO cool!" I said)."
I can't help but write that Eyal in this film reminded me of Bulcsu, and Jello in this film (one of the other Mossad(?) guys who had slicked back hair) totally reminded me of Gonzo from Kontroll. The subway station fight didn't remind me of Kontroll until I read breather's comment, so thank you for writing that, breather!
Come to think of it, littleduck, your mentioning Jakob from After the Wedding...the scene where Eyal first gets to his hotel room in Germany for some reason made me flashback to the scene where Jakob first got to his hotel room in Denmark. Something about aloneness and being a stranger in a strange land.
So breather, thank you also for writing
When the movie was over I wondered "how did the brother get away with killing his grandfather?"
because that's exactly what I wondered.
Then my roommate pointed out that the grandfather wasn't even supposed to be in the country. "What, they're going to report him to the police?" he asked.
Thanks to your roommate for pointing that out. That makes it sit a little better with me, for just that part of the logistics of everything....
I didn't mind the Hollywood ending, I'm happy that Eyal married Pia and found happiness through his kid and all. As filmluver said,
It makes perfect sense to me that they would become family as outside of themselves none of them now had any!
And nevertoosoon, I agree with you, too:
I for one was happy to see that he (and the brother and sister) found peace of mind in the end....instead of letting bitterness eat away at the rest of their lives.
My difficulties come from the sense that something was a little abrupt and scot-free about cutting to it so suddenly after the grandfather was killed.
afterthought and Lee, the song played during the Hora (thanks for naming the dance, bitsie!) at the party had words, and they didn't sound German to me, so I'm guessing they were Hebrew.
Uh, so, the scene where Eyal's at the party and they bring the grandfather into the room. So, okay, I'll relate a story where something like that randomly happened to me.
Some years ago, through a former job, I helped organize a conference where Robert McNamara was going to be the keynote speaker. I don't know too much about WWII history, but after I'd found out he was going to become the keynote speaker at this conference, I can't remember the order of events, but within the span of a week I'd found out that he was the man who was responsible for firebombings of Tokyo during WWI, and not only that, but I also learned that my grandmother abandoned her house during one of those firebombings and ran through the streets with her two kids at the time, my uncle who was a little boy and my mother who was less than a year old. So I told my mom that I might possibly be talking to McNamara personally through my job, and she told me to spit on him if I saw him. Turns out I never did meet him in person (he spoke via teleconference), but I did talk to him very briefly when I answered the phone once and he was on the other end. I remember feeling pretty numb, like, what the hell do you do when you're Japanese American and through some weird concatenation of events you happen to have Robert McNamara on the other end of the line. And I'll have to say, it felt like that scene where Eyal was there in the grandfather's room and he was looking down at him sleeping with the oxygen tubes on his face. And I guess in that moment, it was just another human being on the other end of the phone, and I just asked him to please hold while I went and got my boss whom he was calling for.
Was really strange; it's several years later and I'm not sure how I would handle a similar situation if it happened again. I'm the worst kind of bleeding heart liberal peacenik myself, and there I was in the middle of a lot of violent history to say nothing of emotions. My boss at that job was Jewish, and his own father had suffered horribly in the war. He was very sensitive to me concerning that particular project and very much helped me to think through things at the time, all the things that Walk on Water brought up. History, responsibility, war crimes, duty, vindication, vindictiveness, justice, avoidance, ignorance, complacency, healing, understanding, forgiveness, the passage of time. Guess it's a lot. As oldman says, no "pat 'answers' to these sorts of perplexing social and political issues."
I guess that also ties in with my reaction to the ending. Or maybe my reaction to Axel. I guess I wanted him to be a model bleeding heart liberal. And the two times where he didn't come through were when, as Lee pointed out, he turned and said to Eyal that he wished Eyal had killed the skinheads in the subway, and when he killed his grandfather and there was no remorse or fallout from it afterward. That just isn't right. It's not right morally, but also just not right from a gut feeling story sense, I don't think.... Like, okay, a storyteller friend once told me that the wolf in Red Riding Hood needs to get killed for the story to make sublimated psychological sense to a little kid, and that politically correct versions of the story where the wolf just gets sent away to a correctional facility don't work and give kids nightmares because they're afraid the wolf will break out of the correctional facility and come back to eat them in their sleep. Like they have an archetypal need to hear the wolf died. I buy that. But the way Walk on Water dealt (or rather totally didn't deal) with the way the grandfather died just didn't sit right, uh, archetypally with me. I would've rather God gotten to him first and not have to have Eyal or Axel get (any more) blood on any of their hands. That wasn't very nice to write into the script. Didn't feel like justice or restoring archetypal balance to the world; just felt vindictive to me. I realize the Nazis weren't very nice when they committed their crimes against humanity during the war, just as McNamara wasn't very nice to my family when he dropped firebombs on them. Even so, vindictiveness just doesn't seem like the answer to me.
Uh, so that's the rest of my two cents on the ending.
Thanks for another wonderful movie recommendation, Lee! Yet another movie I never would have seen on my own. Really enjoyed getting to see Israel and Berlin. LEM!
P.S. By the way, LEM, you're a fellow Pinkie fan, I see. :) :) :) Quite nice to have company.
Oops, typo: WWI = WWII in the above post.
Thanks for the Links Cherry, I'll check them out and let everyone know what I find. The story you shared about your family during the war and your own situation at work was amazing. I can see why you would have ambivalent feelings about the killing of the grandfather. I have thought it over and over in my mind and regardless of the morality involved my gut feeling is that if I were in Axel's position I would have done the same thing. Of course, as you point out, one can never know exactly what they will do in a situation of such intensity until it ACTUALLY happens.
concatenation.....what a great word!!!
Wonderful post, Cherry, and I really appreciated your personal story involving Robert McNamara. I really don't know what I would have done in similar circumstances. As you -- and Lem -- pointed out, none of us really know till we get there. I'm especially glad, however, that you ended with the statement, "vindictiveness just doesn't seem like the answer to me." The last thing I want to do is minimize the horror of the Tokyo fire bombings, still considered the most destructive conventional bombing raids in history, and responsible for at least 100,000 deaths, more even than the initial death tolls following the atomic blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nonetheless, despite your personal tragedy it can't be forgotten that McNamara -- nor the United States for that matter -- did not start the war with Japan. That happened at Pearl Harbor. It also should be remembered that Japan, itself, had been inflicting similar devastation on Chinese cities, especially Chongqing, in fire bombing raids for years prior to this. Actually you may already know Hirohito not only authorized fire bombing Chinese civilians, but also the widespread use of chemical weapons and even what is usually considered the first use of biological weapons against the Chinese as well. Actually it goes way beyond this.The historian Chalmers Johnson wrote that: "It may be pointless to try to establish which World War Two Axis aggressor, Germany or Japan, was the more brutal to the peoples it victimised. The Germans killed six million Jews and 20 million Russians [i.e. Soviet citizens]; the Japanese slaughtered as many as 30 million Filipinos, Malays, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Indonesians and Burmese, at least 23 million of them ethnic Chinese. Both nations looted the countries they conquered on a monumental scale, though Japan plundered more, over a longer period, than the Nazis. Both conquerors enslaved millions and exploited them as forced labourers — and, in the case of the Japanese, as [forced] prostitutes for front-line troops. If you were a Nazi prisoner of war from Britain, America, Australia, New Zealand or Canada (but not Russia) you faced a 4% chance of not surviving the war; [by comparison] the death rate for Allied POWs held by the Japanese was nearly 30%." In fact, despite the vast numbers of Chinese ethnic prisoners of war held by the Japanese, only 56 Chinese POWs were released at war's end. As horrifying as the fire bombing of Tokyo undoubtedly was, you still can't separate the 100,000 who died there from the estimated 430,000 killed by the Japanese in the infamous Nanking Massacre of 1937, the several hundred thousand more in the Changjiao massacre. or the 100,00 killed in the Manila massacre, in each case virtually all civilians. My purpose is certainly not to vilify the Japanese, nor to exonerate McNamara. I’m afraid it always comes down to Sherman’s famous quote: “War is hell.” He should have known. In his burning of the south he had certainly been there. Personally I don’t see anyone but the devil marching into hell unnecessarily, and whether the devil’s name is Hirohito or Hitler or Stalin – who murdered more than 20 million of his own people -- or George Bush matters little. As Americans we have to bear in mind that the civilian death count in Iraq, our botched attempt to secure a source of oil – and make bigger profits for our Presidents buddies in that industry – is now nearly as high as the death total from the Tokyo fire bombing of WWII. And when does it end? As long as we go on allowing vindictiveness to be our answer, never. I remember reading several years ago that in preparation for the 60th anniversary of the Tokyo firebombing the museum in Tokyo dedicated to that event was remodeled and revamped with one rather remarkable change: the timeline covered by the museum was expanded backward to include information on the Pearl Harbor attack,
Japanese pro-war propaganda of that era, and Japan’s role in starting the war. I’m not sure how well that decision sat with survivors and family members of those slain, but it certainly showed someone, at least, had learned that war is never justifiable, vindictiveness never the answer.
Cherry, I intended to include in my previous post a belated thank you for your very kind comments regarding my CDs. Only in reading over what I'd posted did I realize I'd once again forgotten. Sorry. As someone who has always played music, and always written tunes -- but never finished lyrics so I'd never have to actually sing my songs for anyone else -- I really have appreciated your words of encouragement. I did consider that starting to write songs only 5 years short of turning 60 might seem a little silly to some until a friend said to me, "How old will you be in 5 years if you don't write your songs?" Pretty F____n old! But at least I'm having fun.
LEM wrote:
I have thought it over and over in my mind and regardless of the morality involved my gut feeling is that if I were in Axel's position I would have done the same thing.
I would guess that the "over and over" you mentioned--and that oldman, breather and Lee mentioned as well--stems from some conception of conflict vs. paradox which I will try to outline in a later post.
As for doing the same thing if you were in Axel's position, let me make a plea to you. Many thanks to oldman's post, I pulled out my copy of The Fog of War, Errol Morris's documentary interviewing Robert McNamara. In the Special Features section of the DVD, there are ten lessons from McNamara which you can find here on Wikipedia, the eighth of which is:
8. War is a blunt instrument by which to settle disputes between or within nations, and economic sanctions are rarely effective. Therefore, we should build a system of jurisprudence based on the International Court — that the U.S. has refused to support — which would hold individuals responsible for crimes against humanity.
In light of this and my own personal feelings, the writers of the movie should be given credit for giving Eyal the initial impulse to turn Axel's grandfather over to the authorities and tried in a court of law. If you were ever in a similar position, I hope this would offer an alternative for your actions.
However, as you were kind enough to understand my ambivalent feelings about the killing of Axel's grandfather, I will also admit that I can understand your gut feelings about the matter. In the past few days, I've been thinking very much about Mandy Patinkin in The Princess Bride, saying, "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." These things in life. They really do arise in the gut...I can attest to that...but, and I'm relieved that oldman agrees, using this kind of gut feeling as guide for action--and we do, as individuals, families, communities, and nations--seems to propagate unfortunately only more of the same.
oldman, thank you kindly for the not inconsiderable history lesson you posted. It is in fact helpful to me to view that particular bombing in context, and also to view McNamara in context. I watched the part of Morris's interview with him about the firebombings of Tokyo, about his part in it. His response was something like that he was part of a larger mechanism that recommended the firebombings (to, I'm guessing, the man in charge, Curtis LeMay). I understand McNamara was a young and brilliant man at the time in a position to protect his country and minimize American losses. He's quoted on this webpage:
McNamara's comment on the bombing was this: LeMay said that "If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals." "And I think he's right," says McNamara. "He, and I'd say I, were behaving as war criminals." . . . "LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side has lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?"
I'm certainly sorry that both he and my family were caught up in the same momentum of war.
As to the sheer scale of numbers you quoted, McNamara's fourth lesson from the same source is:
4. Moral principles are often ambiguous guides to foreign policy and defense policy, but surely we can agree that we should establish as a major goal of U.S. foreign policy and, indeed, of foreign policy across the globe: the avoidance in this century of the carnage — 160 million dead — caused by conflict in the 20th century.
You also asked, "When does it end?" I've read recently an answer to that. Unfortunately my boyfriend is reminding me that it's time to get ready for the day, so I will make an attempt to formulate a response in a later post. For now, you have my thanks again for your thoughtful posts and your thoughtful songs. Many hopes that this finds everyone on the blog (including dearest Lee) doing well today.
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