Skokie

Danny Kaye again showed his talents as a brilliant dramatic actor in this 1981 television movie.

He plays a Holocaust survivor who has settled in Skokie, Illinois after the war. Skokie has become a predominantly Jewish town and the serenity of the area is threatened with the Nazi garbage threatening to march through the town to cause the reopening of nightmarish wounds, fear and trepidation among the Jewish citizenry of the town.

As the spokesman, Kaye conveys those fears but is adamant that the garbage shall not march. His voice is etched with unbelievable feeling as he will do anything in his power to thwart the threatened march.

As the Nazi leader leading such a march, George Dzundza is quite effective as Nazi Frank Collin. Filled with hatred, and contempt for humanity, Dzundza also etched an unforgettable character. Of course, the picture belongs to Kaye and he received an Emmy nomination for best actor for it.

There is only so much that an afflicted people can take- 1st amendment rights or not.

I saw this film when I was 21, and came away feeling like the title of my review.

Yes, one felt intense sympathy for Danny Kaye's character. But one also admired the ACLU attorney's dogged determination to see to it that a basic civil right of this country wasn't impinged.

It will make you nostalgic for when things were that way, when we all knew, as much as we despised the ACLU for defending people like nazis, that we also knew they would look out for us under similar circumstances.

In 2019, we have hate speech bans everywhere you look, particularly on college campuses. We also have an ACLU which now concentrates strictly on the rights of those to the left of center. Are we better off? You decide.

I would love for this to be required viewing in every high school civics class. Wait, we don't have those any more, do we?

If you are a lawyer or a judge that is interested in a documentary movie that talks about a case and what happened, this you will like Skokie. There really isn't any great acting in it, in fact a lot of the dialogue of Kaye is cheesy and overly dramaiszed. Most roles are one dimensional and overplayed, but the director did convey the message of the trial and the consequences that followed.

If you need to do a report on the Skokie trial, and you want your research to be somewhat entertaining then this movie may serve you a very good purpose, other than that I wouldn't recommend it.

Jake Blues said it best... "I hate Illinois Nazis."

This film is based on actual events that occurred around 1977-1978 in the small village town of Skokie which is located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, neighboring the City of Chicago's northern border. It is a story about a group of National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie, 432 U. S. 43 (1977), arising out of what is sometimes referred to as the Skokie Affair, which was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court dealing with freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

The film concentrates more or less on the disgust of the majority of the towns residents who wanted no part of the likes of the National Socialist Party who threatened to lead a parade through the village of Skokie in their Neo Nazi uniforms wearing swastikas.

As like most people who have learned about the Holocaust I can appreciate how any reminder of that period of time in our history although never to be forgotten should not be glorified by any party or individual. This may be a film that circles the drain about free speech, but the only speech that was prevalent was angry and long winded and took away from the critical point between two groups of very different opinions.

Some very distinguished actors provided the film its credibility but I believe the film would have been better with fewer long winded speeches from only one side of the conversation.

I give the film a passable 5 out of 10 IMDb rating.